<p>There are several parts of the Common App that are extremely unclear, could anyone help me out and explain these please?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>In the "activities" section, it only lets you select activities from a drop-down menu. My most important activity is training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (outside of school). How exactly do I say this if 'Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu' isn't on that drop down menu?</p></li>
<li><p>In the "writing" section, it asks you to elaborate on one of your activities. What exactly do they mean by that? That's a ridiculously broad and open question.</p></li>
<li><p>In the "academics" section, it asks you to list your classes taken in 3 trimesters. My school has a trimester system, but we take the same classes all year round and are just graded on a trimester basis. What exactly do I fill out?</p></li>
<li><p>(this isn't about the common app) Are the supplementary apps available on the common app website the official ones we need for each school? To clarify, if a school I'm applying to has a supplementary app, is filling out the supplementary app page (under that school) on the common app website enough? Or do I need to go to the schools website and do something additional?</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><p>At the bottom of the drop down list, there is an option “other club/activity” if that helps.</p></li>
<li><p>In 150 words/750 characters you should elaborate about your activity such as how it changed you for instance (that’s what I did) or what you learned from it.</p></li>
<li><p>On the first column in the Current Year Courses, it says “Full Year/
First Semester/ First Trimester.” If you’re taking the same courses all year round, than you could just list the activities in the first column.</p></li>
<li><p>I suppose you could check out the school’s website for which you are applying to if they another supplement, but the Common App supplement is the only one that the school requires.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Hmm… thanks for the response. I’m clear on all but the first question. So even if I select “other” there’s no way for me to specifically state what that activity is? So to colleges, I’m doing “other” for 12 hours a week? I just figured there had to be some way of specifying what you do in your ECs.</p>
<p>^I just wrote it under “Position held, letters earned, etc.”
For example, if I was the president of NHS, I would select “Academic Club” and then under “Position held, letters earned, etc.” I would put “National Honor Society - President.”</p>
<p>So in your case, select “Other” from the drop down menu and then specify that it was Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in either the “Positions held, letters earned, etc.” section or the “Details” section below that.
Sorry if those labels aren’t correct, I’m not actually looking at the app right now…</p>