Do Colleges know about FRC and VEX and AMC?

Do Colleges know about FRC and VEX and AMC? Or do I need to explain what they are in the additional info section?

Yes. That said, on the first mention, I would use the formal name.

The common app activities list doesn’t provide enough space for me to say First Robotics Competiton. What would you recommend for that?

It did when I keyed it in.

@skieurope Sorry, what I meant is that I have a bunch of other things to talk about in the activities section i.e. awards, roles, etc, but saying First Robotics Competition essentially takes up 30 characters.

It’s really not going to make or break the application, but editing is a skill - you don’t have to list your life story in the box. But if push comes to shove, I would opt to list the additional awards in the add’l information section than a glossary of terms.

I’ll assume that you are writing quickly, and that you would write with accuracy in the application, but I just want to point out that in writing the full name, it’s correctly written as FIRST Robotics Competition.