<p>So I've recently been considering my out-of and in school activities and their role in the college admissions process. I think my activities are relatively strong. I started most in freshman and sophomore year before even considering how they'd help me out when applying to college. I have a few questions.</p>
<p>I have a lot of activities (I will be able to fill up all 10 on the common app), and most I do for many hours a week and many weeks a year. Should I list them all? Yes, I do a lot, and I don't want to look as though
a. I'm overworked
or
b. I'm stretching the truth
How do I avoid this?</p>
<p>Next...
I play an instrument which, between different musical groups, lessons, practice, I play about 12 hours a week. Do I call the activity "flute and piccolo", and then put the different groups I'm in? The only problem is this: two of the groups are during the schools year, two are year round, playing in the musical pit is a 2 month commitment each year, the honor band is month commitment each year, lessons and practice year round. How do I calculate the number of hours per week if it's not consistent throughout? Should I even list EVERY group I'm involved in? Do I mention that I've played the instrument since before high school?</p>
<p>and Lastly...
For community service hours, I really haven't kept track. I've volunteered at two places. The first is someplace that I just love to help out at and have been helping out since before high school. I never really "sign in" or get signatures. Do I need verification?
The second is my volunteerism @ the hospital. I'm wondering: should I even INCLUDE this? It seems as though everyone does this. I started volunteering because I wanted to shadow an oncologist and work in the oncology department. For me, this has been an amazing experience, one that has driven me towards POSSIBLY pursuing medicine. I just don't want to look like every other candidate. (Though, I do realize, given the number of apps that each school gets, it's highly likely my activities will resemble those of other candidates...)</p>
<p>There's probably a bunch of typos in here. I'm sorry! If you can help me with any part of this, I'd be so grateful! </p>
<p>Regarding the music question – this is a good candidate to list something like Flute/Music Groups as the EC, then say “see additional information” in the comments. Then in additional information, you put something like:</p>
<p>Flute/Music Group EC Information:
- Concert Choir (10, 11, 12) - 8 hours/week. Awarded Concermistress Honorary Award junior year.
- Jazz Band (12) - 4 hours/week.
- Flute/Piccolo Quartet - 4 hours/week (year around, since 7th grade). Quartet plays for weddings and events, awarded the Best Community Small Ensemble Award 2013.
- Pit Orchestra - 12 hours/week for 2 months per year. Also play oboe for pit orchestra.
- Give private flute lessons (11, 12) - 4 hours/week
- Attended Flute Players Fine Arts Camp (11, 12) - 3 weeks for 2 summers</p>
<p>All just an example, of course. But you get the picture, it is a good way to give some detail on a complex EC. Stick to bullet points and brief wording, factual info only (NOT an essay). My D2 did this with good success on her Quiz Bowl related activities – too many awards and variations to fit in the tiny EC space on the Common App. You could put a bullet in regarding how long you have played… but honestly, it is probably obvious from your proficiency that you have done it for a long time. :)</p>
<p>Yes, list almost all of all your activities. My kids did… and D2 got into U of Chicago, Swarthmore, and Harvey Mudd last year. As long as you show depth in a couple of them (like your flute playing), they don’t care if you list a whole lot of others. They did leave off stuff they only did briefly (one of my kids did debate 9/10, but didn’t like it and dropped it – she had so many activities she did leave it off as it wasn’t a long term thing, she had lots of other activities, and had dropped it).</p>
<p>Yes, show pretty much all your volunteer activities. They won’t ask for verification, but try to give a realistic estimate. I do think my kids left off very small things (eg, 8 hours of volunteering on one day at a place and never did it again).</p>
<p>@intparent You rock! Thank you for your answer to every single one of my very long list of questions! And congrats to your daughter :)-- that’s amazing! Where’d she choose to go?</p>
<p>Thanks so much for that sample! I will do just that. Should I feature awards I’ve received in those comments as well (as you’ve done above), or is there a specific place for awards? </p>
<p>I have a few more questions about listing out other activities, would you mind if I messaged you? You know what you’re talking about, and I really want to start working on this application so that I can be done with the tedious work (listing out activities, preferences, academic record, etc.) soon. I know it’s early, but I’m going to have a lot of stuff to do over the summer, so I want to get it done ASAP!</p>
<p>Thanks for asking, she is a very, very happy Mudder this year!</p>
<p>Regarding the awards, I don’t think it matters a lot. My thinking is that as long as admissions sees them, they don’t care what section they are in. I kind of like listing them logically with the EC if you are going to list stuff in additional information anyway. I think my kids put more standalone academic award type stuff in the award section. And it feels sort of funny to put “group awards” (like the imaginary “best quartet” award above) in the award section, so that is another reason they put some of them with the ECs. But that is just how they did it… I don’t think there is a “wrong” way as long as all the information in the application.</p>
<p>Good for you to start that list early, it is kind of a headache to build and an easy thing to get out of the way. Just don’t forget to update it as you accomplish and do things through the summer and fall.</p>
<p>You certainly can message me, but it is also okay to just keep posting out here if you want to in case others have the same questions, or other posters have a different opinion you might want to hear on how to handle your questions. Just keep using the @ with my posting name so I realize you posted a question and I will look. :)</p>
<p>Oh wow! That’s such a great school. I really like all the claremont schools. I actually visited over my spring break and fell in love with Scripps (though, I liked Pomona too. I just can’t get my heart set on a school whose admissions mirror those of ivy league institutions hahahahah)</p>
<p>Yeah I can just put it here, not a big deal :).</p>
<p>Okay, so one of my activities is being “Event Chair” for my community’s Relay for Life Event (24 hour event to raise funds for the American Cancer Society, spread awareness of cancer and cancer prevention, etc,). Basically, I lead a committee of 20 schools mates in planning my community’s event. It’s a huge feat. We have about 500 participants each year split into 47 teams, and raise about $60,000. </p>
<p>I take on A LOT in this organization, included planning and leading every meeting, meeting with every sub committee, getting permits from the city to actually hold the event in a public park (also, sound permits…), meeting with our staff partner at the American Cancer society. Overall, this is a HUGE undertaking. How do I show this? Do I just list out all the things I do an am responsible for? One other question: should I explain that “Event Chair” means that I am the leader of the event-planning committee, or is that implied? </p>
<p>I feel like half of the battle in activities is presenting them in a way that is both easy to understand and gets a lot of information across. It’s what I’m having problems with…</p>
<p>@intparent </p>
<p>Ah… another candidate for “Additional Information”. Put Relay for Life Event Chair in the description, “see additional information” in the description, then bullets in the Additional Information section. Stuff like:</p>
<ul>
<li>Chair for City X Relay for Life event (11, 12) - 24 hour event to raise funds for American Cancer Society and raise cancer prevention awareness.</li>
<li>Led committee of 20 students, resulted in 500 participants on 47 teams, raised $60,000 in 2013</li>
<li>Responsible for leading meetings, attending subcommittee meetings, acquiring city and sound permits, acting as liaison with American Cancer Society, scripting announcements, coordinating volunteers on event day, and blah blah.</li>
<li>Overall time commitment ~250 hours per year.</li>
<li>Participated on X subcommittee and as race flagger (made that up!) in 9th and 10th grade.</li>
</ul>
<p>@intparent lol everything is going to be in Additional Information 
Oh the struggle. You don’t think i’ll look like I do TOO many things that aren’t SUPER impressive (still strong, but not WOW)? <em>sigh</em></p>
<p>I think the two you have asked about so far are impressive (but you had me at “pit orchestra”, I was super musical in high school and loved pit the best). And Scripps is great – my D hangs out at the coffee shop all the time and loves the Scripps vibe.</p>
<p>Just to give you an idea, my D2 had the following things in her additional information (I just looked at it):</p>
<p>Under heading “Education” she listed a Udacity course that didn’t fit in anyplace on the common app because isn’t for credit.</p>
<p>Under Heading “Academics - Current Year Courses” she put in a couple of courses that wouldn’t fit into the place where they listed their high school courses. Her school is on a quarter system and they have a lot of smaller credit art class options she was taking, and there weren’t enough spaces for all her for credit classes. So she just explained that and listed the extra classes. This was important, you want your Common App to match your actual transcript.</p>
<p>Under heading “Activities – Extracurricular Activities & Work Experience (on application, providing additional information)” she listed (like we have talked about above) Quiz Bowl, Robotics, details on her bluebird trail monitoring (she had done it for a ton of years and hatched hundreds of bluebirds), and details on one of her volunteer activities she did for a whole summer with a lot of responsibilities.</p>
<p>Under heading “Additional activities that did not fit on Common App Activities section” she listed a few things she couldn’t fit in on the regular EC section at all (not enough spaces). A couple of school clubs she did all four years and a summer program. She bulleted the same info that is in the form portion for ECs under each item.</p>
<p>hahaha I love music 
I also play piano, but don’t do nearly as many things. I’ve won Conservatory awards and scholarship competitions and might submit a supplement. Would you suggest it?</p>
<p>What kind of udacity course? I took an intro to CompSci course on that site a month ago actually, so I’ll also list it in additional info!</p>
<p>bluebird monitoring? Wait this is actually pretty darn cool! Props to her on that one :)</p>
<p>Just to protect my identity, can I message you? haha sorry, I’m just super paranoid that someone from my school will find this and figure out who I am (my username is doing no favors hahahahah)</p>
<p>@intparent</p>
<p>My kids didn’t do any supplements, but they weren’t talented enough to… It probably depends on whether/how you intend to continue music in college. You might want to list the piano stuff under the general musical category – either retitle as Music Activities, or if it is mostly flute just add a couple items at the bottom:</p>
<ul>
<li>Piano - Won X award, x award, and x scholarship.</li>
</ul>
<p>Her Udacity course was Statistics.</p>
<p>Our neighborhood is a much nicer place with so many bluebirds flying around these days!</p>