<p>Hi everyone!
So on the part of the app that asks you to list your activities outside of school, it says:</p>
<p>How do you spend your time outside of regularly scheduled classes? Briefly describe your activities in and out of school - hobbies, interests, sports, clubs, projects, etc. - in order of importance to you. List any relevant leadership positions you held or honors you won while participating and indicate high school year(s) of participation.</p>
<p>It lists "hobbies" and "interests" as acceptable entries, but is this really an okay thing to put? How structured should my hobbies and interests be to include here? I mean, could I enter "Reading" as an activity?
The fact that it asks you to list relevant leadership positions or honors makes me think that it's really asking for structured, official activities, as opposed to hobbies and stuff.</p>
<p>Yes, this is not a throwaway question. The question asks how “you spend your time outside of regularly scheduled classes … [ranked] in order of importance to you.” So to answer it you should list your activities structured or not IN ORDER OF IMPORTANCE TO YOU.</p>
<p>If what you really love doing is building model ships in large bottles and spend all your hours away from class doing that, then put it down. If you sing in the church choir, put it down. If you run a small business, arrange flowers, play World of Warcraft or have a earnest love of greco-roman wrestling, then do list it. </p>
<p>Now MIT being MIT, they like evidence where it is possible. If I were to list that outside of my classes I was working towards being named as a Catholic Saint, then they would be likely to want to see evidence of at least a few miracles. Similarly, if you have won a prize for your excellent ship-in-a-bottle construction, that would demonstrate to MIT your genuine talent here. Clearly some activities are more impressive than others (that Pulitzer prize for poetry does look good), but they are all taken in context.</p>