Activities section - how to word Position & Org Name for home bike repair business?

Applying to College Common and Coalition Application
1

DS is working on the activities section for the Common App. He’s struggling to fit this ‘activity’ into the required sections.

He fixes people’s bikes. Advertises on Facebook & Nextdoor. Drives to pick up their bike, brings them home, provides an estimate of the work, fixes the bike(buying parts if necessary), and drives the bike back to the customer. He does this with his younger brother - no help from us or anyone else.

Sometimes he does the work for free(for friends & family). Sometimes he gets paid. He also fixes & donates bikes that people just want to get rid of. He goes around looking for bikes that people have put out for the trash, picks them up, fixes them, and donates to a local organization.

So does he select the activity type: ‘Work(paid)’, or ‘Community Service/Volunteer’?

And what should he put for the Position/Leadership title and Organization? He’s at a loss. It’s not an official business. He was thinking ‘Bike Repair’ for the Position, and ‘home-based’ for the organization. But I don’t know. Is it ok to even list this ‘job’ that isn’t an official job in the activities section?

Ugh this is harder than I thought it would be. I’m beginning to see why people pay consultants to help out - I’m feeling pretty useless when it comes to helping him figure this out!

TIA for any advice!!

2

It appears to me that he has 2 separate activities. He has a business repairing bikes for clients. But in his spare time he also refurbishes bikes and donates them. Unless his space is limited I would list them separately.

3

Thank you! That does make sense!

4

“He fixes people’s bikes.”

We have consistently heard that the best extracurricular activities are the activities that you want to do, and the activities that you will do well. This was the approach that did get me into a couple of highly ranked universities in the US.

To me this sounds like a really cool activity. It is unique. It is productive. It helps other people. It involves intelligence to identify and fix the problem, and the ability to work with other people – mostly the customers. It also shows a lot of creativity and initiative to come up with this activity / job in the first place and to follow through with it.

It is hard to predict how universities are going to interpret extracurricular activities. However, I like this one a lot.

5

Thanks so much - very nice of you to say!