<p>@lee </p>
<p>I’m wondering the same thing</p>
<p>@Lee311 and Swim18: Same here. Music is an enormous part of my life. While I don’t plan to major in it in college, I do want to underscore the importance it had in my high school experience. I’m a trumpet player in wind ensemble, jazz band, marching band, pep band, two orchestras, and a jazz combo. I’ve played at solo and ensemble, and played in all-district band, and all-state jazz and concert bands. I have no idea how to list all of this.</p>
<p>I agree with those who suggest grouping e.c.'s, if there’s a common thread. In flamewire’s example, for instance, all of those activities could be listed under trumpet/music. Listing all the ways you’ve participated and combining the hours you spent will, IMO, look more impressive than listing them separately. However, if one of those orchestras or bands was a significantly bigger commitment than the others, you might consider listing that separately.</p>
<p>My kid, for example, has random community service activities he has done for the past three years. None have been incredibly time consuming, by they are all centered around one particular focus/group of people, and put together say something about him and his interests. So that’s one e.c. OTOH, his biggest e.c. (a sport) involves participation in varsity and club teams, competitive summer camps, races at which his team has won medals, etc. Again, though, all one e.c. However, he has also been in close contact with coaches who know the specifics. If music is your big e.c., I imagine you’d supplement with a soundtrack/cd/whatever musicians do. </p>
<p>The point is not the laundry list of accomplishments; it’s to give the schools a quick look at who you are. Maybe that’s a person who likes to get involved in lots of different activities. Maybe it’s someone who has explored one passion in great depth, but also fit in other interests where he/she could. There’s no cookie cutter answer here. Put the list together in the way that seems best to you, then take a step back from it and see if it you think it gives a good snapshot of you as a high school student.</p>
<p>If some activities can be grouped together (particularly those with little participation hours), it may be better to put them under one item. But the key thing is to prioritize them. Find out which activity is most important to you, most impressive, or show most passion of you to put on top of the list. The adcom would lose focus as he/she browse down the list. The first few ones would make the most impact disregarding how many you have on the list. I told my D to list out the item she did consistently over the last 3 years with significant participation on top of the list.</p>
<p>So does this mean I should group the two separate ‘volunteering at a hospital’ activities I have listed into one?</p>
<p>Do you mean volunteering at hospital A for x hours and hospital B for y hours? I think it will look better if you just list volunteering at hospital for x+y hours.</p>
<p>Yeah, that is what I meant. Alright, then that’s what I’ll do. Thanks!</p>
<p>Also, would it be acceptable to leave the last activity space on the “Activities” tab blank, but list my other activities in the “Additional Information” section? I don’t really want to move one activity from that section to fill ‘Activity 10’ because I feel like it’s not as great/impressive as the rest (as in, I didn’t do it for more than one year and wasn’t really passionate about it, but did win an award for it at the district level so I don’t want to leave it off completely).</p>
<p>I am wondering if I should combine some activities too. One of my major extracurriculars is with an organization that does music performances at senior centers. Before we perform, we practice in the organization’s building. I get paid for directing the choir rehearsals, but I also volunteer (perform) at the performances. Right now I have them separated because work (paid) and community service are different “activity type” categories. should I combine them and just put the “paid for leading rehearsals” part in additional information?</p>