I’m struggling what to put here and the order. College advisor had me list them like this (applying to business schools) :
Track (HS team, 4 yrs)
Basketball (HS team, 4 yrs)
Club basketball team
Deca president
Debate speech club
special needs basketball Jr coach (been doing on and off since 7th grade)
NHS pres, Spanish HS vp, English HS secretary
Summer Camp counselor (2 years)
Summer college programs (2 weeks on campus course directly through college)
Environmental club
I’m not sure I should list 3 sports first and separately (club is 7 month commitment and captain all 4 years of HS). I felt like the special needs activity should have been 1st. Some activities we left off are:
School ambassador / mentor (I attend a private school and I was a freshman mentor my junior year, also host potential students on ‘day in the life’ visits)
Biotech club (School club sponsored by Ivy league college, but it’s a new club that started my junior year) )
Tutor (peer Tutor at school)
Veterans affairs club (member)
Church volunteer (light volunteering at local church)
Thoughts on order and if I should swap any from the overflow? Thanks!
You should put the Activities in the order of their importance to YOU.
I would leave off the activities that are relatively thin in leadership/importance/time commitment/longevity.
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I agree the order should be whatever is most important to you, and you should put the special needs coaching wherever you like.
Otherwise, I don’t think it is a problem leading off with multiple sports, because the multi-sport athlete thing is very common and immediately explains to AOs what you have been doing with a lot of your time.
My other two cents is the volunteering around school thing is maybe sometimes a little underrated. I wonder if you could consolidate some things and get that in as a single activity slot.
I wouldn’t hesitate to put special needs coaching first if it was meaningful to you. AOs will see hundreds of apps with track and basketball listed first, and that’s great if those were truly the most meaningful ECs for those kids. But they won’t see so many special needs basketball coaches, so don’t hide that in the pile. My D22 had various school activities (choir/band/academic competitions), but her first listed activity was Preschool Choir Director at a church - and she did very well in admissions.
Unless the “summer college programs” were competitive or invitation-only, I might also drop that for the school ambassador.
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