How important is the activities supplement on the Vanderbilt common app that reads “Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences. (150-400 words)”? What should be included here? Is it best to emphasis on the activity or try to talk about yourself? Would 2 months of volunteer work at my local hospital be a good topic? How should I elaborate on that?
Talk about like what you learned, your experiences, how that influenced your career choices, etc. Also Vanderbilt loves community service (I think all of their full tuition scholarships have some kind of tie with service) so be sure to connect that somehow if you do write about your service.
That’s great to write about. Maybe you can talk about how it helped you grow personally and see different perspectives. You can also mention how you plan on continuing that passion at Vanderbilt (I’m assuming you are). The med center has many volunteer programs (project sunshine), so if you talk about something specific like that, you can make your essay stand out from the generic ones they see many times. It’ll also show you’ve researched Vandy well. Schools love to see personal and well researched essays that tell a specific rather than a clichéd story.
I view your application sort of like a hand of cards. Each card you lay down on the table for your read by a committee member should be clear, concise and unique. Test scores, recommendations, essays, subtest scores, honors, jobs etc. Play a card here that is not already expanded on in another part of your application. If your debate coach wrote a lot about your work on the debate team, use a paid job or a totally different life experience on this question to “Elaborate”. You in an artistic venue, you in a paid job, you in a volunteer role…