Grouping ECs?

Applying to College Common and Coalition Application
1

So on the Common App, is it better to group your extracurriculars by categories, or to just list them all out individually if you have the space?

The reason I ask is because I feel as though if I do group them, then colleges can clearly see my focus, and I will have around 4 r 5 EC slots filled.
On the other hand, I feel that if I do list them out individually, then I will be able to get detailed info on each of them, especially because of the character limit. But then I would have 9 or 10 EC slots filled. And maybe I’d lose that focus, and in turn colleges won’t see a pattern?

So what do you guys think?

Thanks in advance!

2

Anyone?

3

Absolutely group them.
Think about the perspective of an admissions officer, who has to read a bunch of applications in a short period of time.

4

What’s an example? Well you can still group them without having to write them under one description. For instance, you can include ones that relate to one another next to eachother. When I did my applications I wrote about yearbook, newspaper as separate ECs. They are different activities and I wouldn’t want to mix up the positions and descriptions. If you are given that many spots, I would just categorize them by proximity but list them as separate ECs because you are only given a certain amount of characters and you may find yourself running short on words

5

@shawnspencer But if I did that, I would not be listing them by importance to me. Is that still ok?

6

Here’s my list:

  1. Founder of learning platform, and partnered with school district teachers to adopt it in afterschool programs (My most important EC)
  2. Have personal Tutoring Business and volunteer as tutor/mentor for an organization to help poor students
  3. Founder and President of a solely student-run organization that partners with regional/state organizations to collect/distribute items needed for the poor
  4. President of Science Club and Medical Internship: Coauthoring a review with a private clinic (Out of country and unpaid)
  5. President of Debate Club and Internship with Law Firm: Wrote an investment report now used by lawyers to attract foreign outsourcing clients (Also out of country and unpaid)
  6. Club Soccer
  7. Varsity Soccer (All Years)
  8. Baby-sitting brother (May not list)

So, would you group these or what order would you put them in?

7

Also, the internships were/are during the summer.

8

I would leave out the babysitting brother and perhaps combine the two soccer ECs but the other ones seem different enough that I think it would be to your benefit if you explained them more

9

I would lean towards not including the activity above. Even if its completely true, many would regard it with a high degree of skepticism (sounds like BS). If its really true, this might be your most impressive accomplishment - find some way to really highlight in your app besides the limited space available for ECs.

10

@CHD2013 It is true, but it is not extremely important to me because it was only 3 weeks over the summer, so I am not sure where to expand on it.

My main EC is the learning platform, which I spend about 4/5 hours on a day, and I will write about that in my essays. Would the fact that I have partnered with a school district to adopt the platform in afterschool programs, and have received local newspaper mentions about it, still not make it as impressive as the internship?

11

Based on your comment above, I would suggest not including the investment report on your app. It could do more harm than good.

12

@CHD2013 Ok, thank you very much.

13

Babysitting your brother isn’t an EC, but you still show a lot of leadership with your other EC’s.

14

@house45 Really? I thought I read somewhere that family responsibility, especially when you come from a low-income background, is encouraged to be listed? Maybe not.

15

I think you could include babysitting as an EC. But ONLY if this requires a significant time investment and you come from a low-income household (if you are middle-class or even low-middle class it will look like your trying to pad your EC list).

16

Agree with @CCuser528 about the babysitting. Also, make sure you put the ECs in order of most important to you. And remember, you don’t need to fill all 10 slots just because there is space for them.