In general should we stray away from writing about the enormous impact our extra-curriculars have had on our lives, or is that too clichéd and already quite obvious from our activities list?
Thanks x
It can be cliched and redundant, but I’m sure that there are situations where it would be fine to write about, because it reveals something new about you as a person, or relates to other things that aren’t on your application. It really depends on what you write about and how you do it, but I’d say that it is harder to write a stand-out essay on an extracurricular.
Ah sort of what I suspected… It’s frustrating how so many of our experiences are deemed clichéd, but it’s good to know. Thank you very much for your help 
I second that it’s cliche, if done the wrong way. I always say that you can write about anything you want, but what’s most important is how you write about it. You always want to discuss a very specific event rather than trying to talk about your whole time in the club/sport/whatever as a whole. Add details that are personal to you, that make it so that no one else could write the same thing. It’ll make your essay much more interesting.
Also, colleges like to read stories about how you discovered your passion, so if you have an interesting story about that, it will help!
I wrote my common app essay about an activity that was important to me in high school. I’d say just pick something that you can easily and passionately write about. No essay will be 100% unique or mind blowing, just focus on writing an essay you can be proud of.