<p>My Son is applying to colleges this year and has some problems concerning what to put in what section of the common app. He is having specific trouble with the activity and honors section. I understand that the honors section is specifically meant for academic honors. There he will put a state placement in a science competition. He has NHS and some school awards as well (Best freshmen, best math student, etc). What about community service awards/honors? He has gotten the PVSA award and he doesn't know where to put that award as well as other awards that are specifically geared towards community service and volunteering. Also he got into a Texas honors summer program for high schoolers and attended for the summer. He also got a internship at a firm. Would those be honors or activities? They were all summer activities so I would be thinking that he would be "wasting" a spot or two on the activities (10 allowed) if he wanted to put them there. He also worked as a director at a few summer camps so I don't know where that would go either. </p>
<p>What about like leadership on youth councils? Would those be under activities?? thanks for feedback. I am just really disappointed (as is my son) that they took out the resume uploader because if tht was still there everything would be well organized for colleges to see rather than to find a way to make his activities fit into what common app organizes. Also what goes under the additional information section?? Sorry for sounding so helpless. Both me and my son are not exactly familiar too much with common app and how to best put things there to showcase good things to colleges</p>
<p>Great post as I am also stumped on activities section for my kid. He is a year round athlete and am not looking forward to figuring out the hours involved for each sport. For cross country, do you include both the in season running time and summer runs- which are a huge commitment of time? Resume would have been so much easier to figure out and to organize activities. He also has a number of “smaller” school activities that he has participated in that I may just have him lump together to show that he was involved with school. Are there good tutorials out there about how to approach the activities section on Common Application? I just find the Common App very frustrating.</p>
<p>Note that there is a limit of 5 for honor. So use the space wisely. You may use the additional information section if necessary.
For activities, you have up to 10. Make sure you prioritize them and list the most important ones on top.</p>
<p>My son had the same issues. This is how he decided to approach it:
NHS – School Honor
Science awards – Put under either ‘school honor’ or ‘activities’ depending on which category has more slots open for you.
Community service award – Put under ‘activities’ and state any honors he received.
Internship – Put under ‘work experience’
Summer activities – Put under ‘activities’. If slots are used up, then put them under ‘additional information’.
I hope this helps.</p>