<p>The Common Application says in just about every section that if something doesn't fit to list it in the Additional Information section. Is this really what the AI section is for-- spillover? I've been reading through the CC forums and links about this, and opinions seem to vary widely. One admissions advice website had a sample where the student filled the section with an additional writing piece addressed to the admissions committee, one poster said they were going to write additional paragraphs/expand on two of their extracurriculars.</p>
<p>These are my specific problems:
I ran out of space in the place to list AP exams for the ones I plan to take. There's just one that wouldn't fit - AP Macroeconomics- but I listed it under my classes. It's pretty much a given that if I'm taking the class, I'm taking the exam, but should I spell it out in the AI section?
Then, I have way more than seven extracurriculars and am struggling to choose which to list in the EC section. Should I list more in the AI section?
Here are the ECs I have to choose from:</p>
<p>Organization/Club 1: Model United Nations</p>
<hr>
<p>Name: Model United Nations</p>
<hr>
<p>Years Participated: 9th - Officer
10th - Officer
11th - Officer: Co-President
12th - Officer: Co-President</p>
<hr>
<p>Hours per Week: 5</p>
<hr>
<p>Weeks per Year: 40</p>
<hr>
<p>Level: School</p>
<hr>
<p>Involvement, Activities and Contributions: Participated in & planned for competitions. Organized weekly meetings. Instructed members in debate and parliamentary procedure. Found the club a new teacher sponsor.</p>
<p>Organization/Club 2: Foreign Language Honor Society (Spanish, German, French, etc.)</p>
<hr>
<p>Name: French Honor Society</p>
<hr>
<p>Years Participated: 10th - Member
11th - Officer: Other
12th - Officer: Co-President</p>
<hr>
<p>Hours per Week: 2</p>
<hr>
<p>Weeks per Year: 40</p>
<hr>
<p>Level: School</p>
<hr>
<p>Involvement, Activities and Contributions: Planned and participated in community service activities and French cultural activities. Sold crepes at school events to raise money for charity.</p>
<p>Organization/Club 3: National Honor Society</p>
<hr>
<p>Name: National Honor Society</p>
<hr>
<p>Years Participated: 11th - Member
12th - Member</p>
<hr>
<p>Hours per Week: 1</p>
<hr>
<p>Weeks per Year: 40</p>
<hr>
<p>Level: School</p>
<hr>
<p>Involvement, Activities and Contributions: Participated in community service and tutoring. Suggested use of online resources to find individualized volunteer opportunities.</p>
<p>Organization/Club 4: Foreign Language Club (Spanish, German, French, etc.)</p>
<hr>
<p>Name: Spanish Club</p>
<hr>
<p>Years Participated: 12th - Member</p>
<hr>
<p>Hours per Week: 1</p>
<hr>
<p>Weeks per Year: 20</p>
<hr>
<p>Level: School</p>
<hr>
<p>Involvement, Activities and Contributions: Tutored ESL students in academic subjects. Watched Spanish films. Cooked Spanish food and went to a Spanish restaurant.</p>
<p>Organization/Club 5: Physics Club</p>
<hr>
<p>Name: Physics Club</p>
<hr>
<p>Years Participated: 11th - Member</p>
<hr>
<p>Hours per Week: 1</p>
<hr>
<p>Weeks per Year: 40</p>
<hr>
<p>Level: School</p>
<hr>
<p>Involvement, Activities and Contributions: Collaborated with peers on projects. Tutored peers in physics. Did physics labs and problems.</p>
<p>Organization, Club or Medium 1: Creative Writing</p>
<hr>
<p>Name: Writing Club</p>
<hr>
<p>Years and Positions Participated In: 9th - Participant
10th - Participant
11th - Officer: Other
12th - Officer: Other</p>
<hr>
<p>Hours per Week: 2</p>
<hr>
<p>Weeks per Year: 40</p>
<hr>
<p>Level: School</p>
<hr>
<p>Involvement, activities and contributions including instruments played, publications and type of art/media: Was the Prime Minister of Prompts for Writing Club. Prepared and presented creative prompts at weekly meetings.</p>
<p>Organization, Club or Medium 2: Other / Not Listed</p>
<hr>
<p>Name: Piano</p>
<hr>
<p>Years and Positions Participated In: 9th - Participant
10th - Participant
11th - Participant
12th - Participant</p>
<hr>
<p>Hours per Week: 3</p>
<hr>
<p>Weeks per Year: 50</p>
<hr>
<p>Level: Individual</p>
<hr>
<p>Involvement, activities and contributions including instruments played, publications and type of art/media: Independently studying, playing, and practicing piano.</p>
<p>Organization, Club or Medium 3: Art Club</p>
<hr>
<p>Name: Art Club</p>
<hr>
<p>Years and Positions Participated In: 12th - Co-founder</p>
<hr>
<p>Hours per Week: 2</p>
<hr>
<p>Weeks per Year: 30</p>
<hr>
<p>Level: School</p>
<hr>
<p>Involvement, activities and contributions including instruments played, publications and type of art/media: Co-founder, Vice President. Created our mission: to promote participation in art for non-artists in the community. Now realizing that vision.</p>
<p>Sport 1: Horseback Riding/Equestrian</p>
<hr>
<p>Years and Levels Participated In: 9th N/A O
10th N/A O
11th N/A O
12th N/A O</p>
<hr>
<p>Hours per Week: 8</p>
<hr>
<p>Weeks per Year: 52</p>
<hr>
<p>Level: Individual</p>
<hr>
<p>Involvement, Activities and Contributions: Rode English hunter/jumper during the school year. Rode Western trail rides and rodeo during the summer. Care for horses.</p>
<p>Sport 2: Other / Not Listed</p>
<hr>
<p>Years and Levels Participated In: 12th Other / Not Listed N/A</p>
<hr>
<p>Hours per Week: 2</p>
<hr>
<p>Weeks per Year: 40</p>
<hr>
<p>Level: Individual</p>
<hr>
<p>Involvement, Activities and Contributions: Learning more advanced figure skating.</p>
<p>Sport 3: Soccer</p>
<hr>
<p>Years and Levels Participated In: 11th Team Member (IM) (C)</p>
<hr>
<p>Hours per Week: 2.5</p>
<hr>
<p>Weeks per Year: 16</p>
<hr>
<p>Level: Local/Community/Club</p>
<hr>
<p>Involvement, Activities and Contributions: Played for local community recreational soccer team. Also started an intramural soccer team at the school level.</p>
<p>Organization/Service Activity 1: Public Library</p>
<hr>
<p>Name: Library Teen Volunteer/Teen Advisory Board</p>
<hr>
<p>Years and Positions Participated In: 11th - Volunteer
12th - Other / Not Listed</p>
<hr>
<p>Hours per Week: 5</p>
<hr>
<p>Weeks per Year: 20</p>
<hr>
<p>Level: Local/Community/Club</p>
<hr>
<p>Involvement, Activities and Contributions: As summer reading volunteer, distributed information and suggested books. As founding member of TAB, planned activities for teen library patrons and defined mission.</p>
<p>Organization/Service Activity 2: Habitat for Humanity</p>
<hr>
<p>Name: Youth United of Metro Denver</p>
<hr>
<p>Years and Positions Participated In: 11th - Participant
12th - Officer: Other</p>
<hr>
<p>Hours per Week: 6</p>
<hr>
<p>Weeks per Year: 18</p>
<hr>
<p>Level: Regional</p>
<hr>
<p>Involvement, Activities and Contributions: Participated in summer program. Planned & participated in vegetable garden build project. Planned advocacy event. Planned school year fundraisers.</p>
<p>Organization/Service Activity 3: Other / Not Listed</p>
<hr>
<p>Name: Volunteer Graphic Design</p>
<hr>
<p>Years and Positions Participated In: 10th - Participant
11th - Participant
12th - Participant</p>
<hr>
<p>Hours per Week: 4</p>
<hr>
<p>Weeks per Year: 10</p>
<hr>
<p>Level: Individual</p>
<hr>
<p>Involvement, Activities and Contributions: Through volunteermatch.com, created graphic materials (brochures, invitations, flyers, calendars...) for various organizations.</p>
<p>Organization/Service Activity 4: Other / Not Listed</p>
<hr>
<p>Name: Apprentice Wrangler and Counselor</p>
<hr>
<p>Years and Positions Participated In: 9th - Other / Not Listed
10th - Other / Not Listed
11th - Other / Not Listed
12th - Other / Not Listed</p>
<hr>
<p>Hours per Week: 60</p>
<hr>
<p>Weeks per Year: 6</p>
<hr>
<p>Level: Local/Community/Club</p>
<hr>
<p>Involvement, Activities and Contributions: Cared for a herd of about 20 horses. Supervised kids on trail rides. Performed as rodeo clown. As counselor, helped care for four 8 year old girls.</p>
<p>Employer 1: French Teacher</p>
<hr>
<p>Years and Positions Participated In: 11th - Teacher
12th - Teacher</p>
<hr>
<p>Hours per Week: 2</p>
<hr>
<p>Weeks per Year: 40</p>
<hr>
<p>Summer Job: No</p>
<hr>
<p>Job Duties, Responsibilities, Contributions: Planned lessons and taught elementary French.</p>
<p>Employer 2: Technology Assistant for family business</p>
<hr>
<p>Years and Positions Participated In: 9th - Assistant
10th - Assistant
11th - Assistant
12th - Assistant</p>
<hr>
<p>Hours per Week: 3</p>
<hr>
<p>Weeks per Year: 50</p>
<hr>
<p>Summer Job: No</p>
<hr>
<p>Job Duties, Responsibilities, Contributions: Resolved any issues with computers and technology. Fixed communication issues, instructed office workers in use of online applications. Digitized records.</p>
<p>Employer 3: Babysitter</p>
<hr>
<p>Years and Positions Participated In: 9th - Child Care Provider
10th - Child Care Provider</p>
<hr>
<p>Hours per Week: 3</p>
<hr>
<p>Weeks per Year: 30</p>
<hr>
<p>Summer Job: No</p>
<hr>
<p>Job Duties, Responsibilities, Contributions: Cared for 2 children, 4 and 7 years old. Played games, did crafts, comforted them when they missed their parents.</p>
<p>I've mostly narrowed it down to:</p>
<p>Horseback riding: </p>
<p>I've done it for 8 years, it's a major commitment. My worry with it is that I have not gotten awards for this because I have not owned my own horse and I have not been able to take other peoples' horses I've ridden to horse shows. So even though I'm a very good rider, I have no blue ribbons to show for this. How do I communicate this in my app, should it go in AI?</p>
<p>Model United Nations</p>
<p>Reading:</p>
<p>This one is iffy, I think. I've read 946 books since 2004 (when I started writing them down) and it's a "passion" of mine, I guess, but I don't feel like it would quite belong on the EC list. Would this go in AI? If it did would it just me "I've read 946 books" or "I've read 946 books + explanation"?</p>
<p>Apprentice Wrangler:</p>
<p>This one's hard to classify too. For four years I've worked as an Apprentice Wrangler in the summer. I get up early every day to take care of a herd of 20 or so horses: feeding, grooming, medicating/caring for sick/injured horses, saddling... Assign horses to riders for trail rides, ride the difficult horses that campers (I do this at a summer camp) can't ride, instruct campers on rides. I run the rodeo as a rodeo clown.
Is this an EC? I don't get paid, really, except in room and board, so it's not quite a job. But it's also not raising money for starving kids in Africa/not quite volunteering. Where does this fall? Could I leave it out in EC and put it in AI?</p>
<p>French Honor Society:</p>
<p>I've been involved for 3 years and an officer/co-pres for 2. It's not a ginormous time commitment, but it is there. Languages are one of my passions. It's definitely an EC, but with only 7 slots, I'm not sure if I can/should list it, or if I should "overflow" my EC into AI.</p>
<p>Writing Club:</p>
<p>I've been involved 4 years, officer for 2. It's fun and important to me. But should it stay in EC or go or overflow?</p>
<p>Piano:</p>
<p>I've played since I was 4 years old. I still practice regularly, but I haven't won any awards or anything. I play for myself. I love playing- I'll never stop, but same thing with space.</p>
<p>Library Volunteer/Teen Advisory Board:</p>
<p>I've only done this the past 2 years. I volunteered at the library a lot over the summer and then got invited to join/re-found (there used to be a TAB, then it died, now it's being revived) the Teen Advisory Board. We're planning lots of exciting events like a Read-a-thon to raise money for literacy. It's an extension of my love of reading, I think-- paying back the library for so many borrowed books. But space, space.</p>
<p>Volunteer Graphic Design:</p>
<p>I only got my driver's license this year, and my mom hated driving. There was a limited number of rides I could get to places per week, and no public transport near my house, so I used my transportation allowance to get to and from riding - it's a long drive to my barn. This meant I couldn't get a ride to, say, a Habitat for Humanity build site. So I used volunteermatch.com and did virtual volunteering. I did graphic design of invitations, info sheets, brochures, calendars, t-shirts, flyers, etc. for a bunch of different charities. I've done this on and off for 3 years - how much I do depends on what comes up on the site. To list or not to list?</p>
<p>The others that are important but slightly less so:</p>
<p>National Honor Society member -2 yrs</p>
<p>Spanish Club- just joined this year when I started taking Spanish. </p>
<p>Physics Club - most probably not going on app</p>
<p>Art Club - I didn't take Art until this year, even though I really enjoy it. I was disheartened after harsh criticism from my middle school art teacher and had a full schedule. But this year I finally took art again, and co-founded Art Club with a friend so that people in my situation - liking art but maybe without time for it, etc. could still participate in it. The club has a lot of potential, but I've only been involved this year.</p>
<p>Ice Skating - Started taking ice skating lessons this year because I wanted to be able to twirl and jump. I enjoy them, I'm glad I took the chance and tried it, but I'm not going to be an Olympic skater without some deus ex machina.</p>
<p>Soccer - Didn't play when I was little because the girls on the team picked on me. Last year, decided to try it again and joined my friend's recreational soccer team. Played a few games, then severely sprained my ankle and was out most of the season. Persistently, I started an intramural team at my school. We were terrible- all amateurs, but it was fun. Still, this year the coach for the team I was on last year is different and I don't have time for the IM team, so I haven't done it again.</p>
<p>Habitat for Humanity Youth United- Did Youth United Leadership Program this summer, then became involved with Habitat. Now I am involved at the regional level. It's important to me, but less so than some of my other activities. I might be a member of the "Core Committee" but I won't know before my early action deadline.</p>
<p>I hope I have not bored you, kind CC reader. I simply have no one else who will listen to all the minutiae of my application worries. So the real questions I have are
1) advice on which ECs to list
2) should I list additional ECs on the AI section of the common app?
3) should I list additional explanation of ECs on the AI section of the common app?</p>
<p>Caveats:
My interests are really broad/split into diverging areas:</p>
<p>1)Interactive multimedia design/software development/web design/graphic design/educational multimedia</p>
<p>2)Languages/International Studies/International Law/International Development</p>
<p>3)Urban planning/environmental psychology/sustainability/architecture</p>
<p>So it's hard for me to define one central identity. I love to read. I love to horseback ride. I like languages and international relations. I'm also really interested in the idea of technology and education and learning games. But #3 interests also intrigue me. I haven't settled. But colleges seem to want a defined identity in about 2 or 3 things.</p>