Ok to only fill in 4 of 10 activity slots on the Common App?

Applying to College Common and Coalition Application
1

Helping my kid #2 with his common app today. Kid #1 easily filled 9 slots of the 10 (she was a horse of many colors) but Kid #2 and I can literally not come up with more than 4…but the reason there are only 4 is that they take up 100% of his time:


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Debate team. State champ/3 years. Nationally ranked. On travel team.
School newspaper. Section editor (it’s a daily online and print monthly)
tennis team. 1st singles player.
paid job. 3 summers

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And…now there are 6 blank spots…I threw out “young democrats club?” and he said, “mom, i went to 1 meeting.” and I ran blank after that.

Opinions?

2

Yep, completely okay! Quality > quantity.

3

Same, quality over quantity.

4

Probably appreciated by AdComms. I think it’s better to not dilute your true interests/activities with a list of “bit” parts.

5

Another vote for quality over quantity. I think I filled out 5.

6

Many thanks for this advice, folks! (and I agree @WhataProcess that the admins will likely be happy!)

7

Colleges don’t want to see fluff. If it gives you peace of mind I attended a Swarthmore info session and the dean of admissions told us they are always skeptical when they see someone fill out the whole 10 boxes.