I haven’t been very busy lately, so I decided to make an account and start working on my common app.
I noticed that I only have two extracurriculars. I already knew that but I didn’t know that there were ten spots. Are you supposed to have ten? Mine are both full year and one is 10 hours/week and one is 20 hours/week. I don’t know where I’d even have room for 8 more activities in my schedule.
There’s also a section for awards with five spots. I don’t have any. What should I do? There’s no way that between now and the fall I’ll end up getting any kind of academic award.
What should I do about those? Will they hurt me? How can I make my application better?
There is no minimum amount of activities that you can put on the common app. Two meaningful extracurriculars that you are involved in are just fine. They put ten as a maximum.
Were you ever on the honor roll at school? Those were the only awards that I put down on mine. If not, it’s totally fine to not have them. I know plenty of people who don’t.
ECs don’t have to be school activities. So be sure you are thinking of everything. You could still do something this summer or next fall (volunteer, for example).
Awards can include being on the honor role, for example.
Only the top couple hundred schools care much about these categories.
You don’t need to fill up the entire section, but more than 2 would be best. Anything you do outside of school would work: volunteering, hobbies, internships, etc. As for awards, any honor rolls/student of the month from your school, ap awards, etc. would work too.
Do you work a job during the school year or summers? Include that as well.
I’ve been on the honor roll so I guess I can add that. A job is one of the two ecs that I already have.
Don’t fixate about the number of open slots for EC’s and awards. Too many students engage in many fragmented EC’s mainly to appear more attractive to admissions officers. But admissions officers can usually see through their superficial efforts and understand that many club officer roles are sinecures. So focus on the EC’s you have and reflect upon how they have impacted you and how you might use the lessons you gained from them in your future. Concentration, coherence and sustained participation can be more powerful than scattered and fragmented participation in multiple EC’s
Thanks! I have another question. My other ec is a sport. I was on the jv team freshman year and varsity sophomore-senior year. Do I list that separately or together?
Just list the one sport and note how you progressed from JV to Varsity over time.