<p>Hi CC!</p>
<p>I'm considering adding a short activities resume to my Common App. I really feel as though the slots provided put a huge limit on what I can say about a few of my activities.</p>
<p>While some, like Honors Societies are pretty self-explanatory, I'm also part of a church youth group that does a number of activities yearly (hosts Haunted House, plans service for the congregation, organizes dinner for the yearly Church Auction, etc.)</p>
<p>My church also has a rather long name, so the related committee I am a part of couldn't even fit in the title box on the Common App.</p>
<p>Would it do me any harm to add such info in concise resume format? I'd mainly be adding this and possibly expanding on a few noteworthy leadership activities in a few other extracurriculars. </p>
<p>Again though, the main purpose is to expand on my church group activities as I really feel this is the most important activity on the list.</p>
<p>Opinions? Advice? Sorry for the long message!</p>
<p>“My church also has a rather long name, so the related committee I am a part of couldn’t even fit in the title box on the Common App.”</p>
<p>Can you try to abbreviate some of the words? </p>
<p>“Would it do me any harm to add such info in concise resume format? I’d mainly be adding this and possibly expanding on a few noteworthy leadership activities in a few other extracurriculars.”</p>
<p>Depending on how many EC’s you have, I don’t think it will harm you in anyway if you can manage to squeeze them in. However, I would think quality over quantity would be better. Provide the ones that are the most significant to you, the ones that can demonstrate your talent and leadership skills. Keep in mind that you can elaborate on your activities or experiences in another part of the application, usually in the essay section.</p>
<p>Thanks! I did end up abbreviating for the title.</p>
<p>I agree, I’m not trying to add any activities that aren’t already listed, simply give a little more depth by listing a few exemplary activities within my youth group.</p>
<p>I described the significance to me in the short answer for the essay, but am approaching a completely different topic for my longer essay.</p>
<p>Sometimes, you have to decide whether certain sorts of activities are worth going into detail for- or whether just expanding on some minor things will itself create an impression about your judgment. </p>
<p>Sometimes, church is tricky- because it is primarily a family commitment. You want to pick the best of the activities (and you can use a phrase like, “for example” or “among the most significant” or whatever.) I’d suggest a very brief paragraph. Think about whether things like haunted house will be important to adcoms. Did you have a significant role? Was it for a significant purpose, possibly charitable?</p>
<p>Oh, certainly. I was even planning of just doing a concise bullet list, nothing lengthy or detailed, just enough to get across the magnitude of my commitment. </p>
<p>I should have elaborated, but yes, the Haunted House is put together for the younger children in the Religious Education program within our congregation, and our yearly youth service works in part with our Social Justice Project, where we learn about, raise awareness for, and do other activities to help a designated cause for that year.</p>
<p>The final decision depend on the colleges you’re applying to and the sort of students they want. In general, you have to assess which aspects of the “magnitude” of your commitment make you a compelling candidate for that college. Make the decision that feels best to you.</p>
<p>It’s important to have quality over quantity, but I don’t think the common app gives enough room for elaborating on activities. Sure you have 1 for short essay and maybe 1 for long if you want to talk about them, but it’s hard to talk much about other things when you have only a sentence to describe it. </p>
<p>What if I have an activity that needs to be talked about more to be appreciated or even understood at all, and I can’t talk about it in any of the 2 essays? How can I talk about the fact that I organized the chess team at my school, we won awards in our conference and at state, and helped to organize a program teaching kids chess at the local middle school? Just that sentence alone wouldn’t fit in the activities section- and certainly admissions would understand more about my commitment to chess.</p>
<p>I totally feel you, Seahawks. This is why I’m thinking of just adding some details in a separate activities resume. Not relisting all of my activities, but just elaborating on the most important ones. That fits as quality vs quantity in my book, but I’m looking for other opinions as well.</p>
<p>^ Sea: if you can’t do chess justice in the EC short question, a nice tight, enthusiastic para in Addl Info sounds fine to me. You’re saying you saw a need, took action, took the club to a high competitive level and then brought it to younger kids. Could show vision, skill, leadership, commitment- and that awful word, passion.</p>