<p>@HSClass2013: Obviously most of these activities aren’t prestigious, but they’re not supposed to be! Simply listing activities like cooking or reading Agatha Christie give insight to the applicant’s personality and makes them appear more interesting than a list of GPAs and SAT scores. The activities alone aren’t meant to help an applicant achieve admission, it’s the collection of these hobbies that lets the admission officers know that the applicants have passions and are unique.</p>
<p>What about something like starcraft 2? I know it’s a video game, but it’s more like virtual chess requiring split second decisions than a normal game. </p>
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<p>Could you actually put down a hidden EC on the common app? Like, could I put down that I’m obsessed with the financial sector and financial corruption and collapses (Reading The Big Short, I want to read a book about Enron, and I want to read Flash Boys, also the House of the Medici and JP Morgan)?</p>
Clash of clans - Clan founder and leader, 200 donations per week.
Does any of this pertain to Ivy League / Top Tier schools? -or should we stick to generic clubs / sports on the Common App?
How is I am 5 years substance free?
Recovered from peer pressured use from middle school after i transferred into a new high school 
I know it’s been mentioned that “hidden” ECs should be put in a resume, but could they be put in additional info? I really don’t want to go to the trouble of making a resume.
I workout every day for 1.5-2 hours. Does this really count as a valid EC? @Sally_Rubenstone
@GhostKoi -This ESPECIALLY pertains to Ivy League universities and other so-called “elite” colleges where admission officials are undoubtedly bored silly by seeing the same EC’s on application after application.
@MasterPleb … first of all, congratulations on reaching the five-year mark. Overcoming substance abuse certainly has a place on applications for those who choose to share this battle. But it isn’t itself an “activity.” However, there are probably related endeavors (e.g., attending meetings or support groups) that certainly could be listed in the “Activity” section of an application or on a resume. However, if you do this, you should definitely use the “Additional Information” section to explain … or a separate essay or letter.
@brookelr - “Hidden Extracurriculars” can be included right on the standard “Activities” list on the Common App (and on most other applications). However, if they can’t be succinctly summed up and explained, then you should definitely use the Additional Information section to elaborate. There is no need to create a separate resume, although many students prefer to do so.
@jjlundy-Working out daily is certainly a worthwhile use of your time and would qualify as a “valid” EC. It won’t turn heads in admission offices these days because so many students play a sport or pursue fitness activities independently as you do. But it’s still something that you can–and probably should–include.
@Sally_Rubenstone Thank you for this thread. My dd tries to watch 1 movie per week that has been dubbed in French. She has been teaching herself French for yrs and this has become something she does for fun. She started off with movies she was familiar with in English and with fairly simple vocabularies (like Disney movies), but now she is watching movies she has never seen before like Chocolat and The Lake House. (She understands more of some movies than others! If she isn’t sure, she will watch them in English afterward to see if she actually caught the subtle nuances.) Sounds like she should include this as an EC!
@Mom2aphysicsgeek -Yep … definitely something colleges should know about, as well as a wise and wonderful way to learn a new language. And I remember when I was your daughter’s age watching the then-brand-new A Man and a Woman, squinting to avoid the English subtitles in order to test my skill in French.
I loved that film back then but wonder if it would stand the test of time. I should really watch it again … though now the subtitles will be an imperative!
University of Texas at Austin’s honor’s engineering application has students list (in short answer form) 10 things that the school can’t tell about them from the essays, activities and other materials submitted. I loved that idea, and these are the types of things that could go on.
My son, who got in, included things like being a self taught player of melodica, ukulele and accordion; running a collaborative art blog with over 2000 regular followers; writing over 500 articles (for pay) online articles for ehow.com under a fake name since he was 12 for spending money.
I think he spent more time on that list than he did on his application essays.
@Texasmomof3-I love that idea, too, and always used it … well a form of it … when I did private counseling. I would ask advisees to list 10 things that they wanted admission officials to know about them and that might set them apart from other candidates. Then we would see how many of the 10 would come across in a standard application and how many wouldn’t. The next steps would be to discuss how to include the non-obvious information.
I started DJ’ing for my 8th grade graduation party and it quickly became a side job throughout hs, but I dj especially for elementary school parties and kids bday parties; I also like to produce music as a hobby and have a small amount of followers on my fb page (+350) and soundcloud. I don’t know if my compositions have any quality though. Besides that, I have strong stats and leadership roles in community engaged activities, internship in lab, etc. I’ve been debating if I should include my dj job in the activities session, additional info or on the EC short essay for my stanford app. Or if I should mention it at all, since I don’t want admission officers to get the wrong idea that Im a party type of person, not serious about learning.
Definitely mention it, @Amacord! Sounds fun and I think it adds an interesting dimension to your app. Good luck!
My older son got an award for Gamer Magazine for his work on a mod to Civilization 4. Who knew that he wasn’t just wasting time playing video games!
Younger son’s interesting out of school activity was making origami earrings and selling them at a local gallery. He wrote about it for his main Common App essay.
Another thing he did that went into his “favorite EC” essay, was something he’d started doing because he needed to volunteer for a civic organization for Government. He ended up helping the neighborhood association archive and index their old papers from the 1960s. He wrote about how it made him feel like a real historian as he realized the limitations of primary sources in telling the whole story.
Younger did a lot better than expected in terms of getting into some reachy for him colleges. I think these two ECs really helped him.
@Amacord -I agree with @GnocchiB that your DJ’ing is certainly something to include on your applications. It will help set you apart from other candidates and will have no negative implications at all. You said in your post that you weren’t sure where to include it (EC list, Additional Info, Activities essay) and the answer is, “Any of these are fine.” Assuming that you have space, it should definitely be on your Activities List as a paying job. But if you feel that this section doesn’t allow you to appropriately elaborate on what you’ve accomplished, use the Additional Info section to do this or write a mini-essay about it for Stanford and any other college that requires an Activity essay.