<p>I am having trouble fitting all of my EC's into the 10 slots available. I also am finding it hard to fully describe the activity in the amount of characters available. Any Suggestions? Should I post my EC's here?</p>
<p>No, you shouldn’t post your ECs here. The chances that you actively participated in more than 10 ECs to any meaningful degree are slim at best, probably bordering on straight up lying. Stick the the most meaningful ones. I’d say even having 10 on there looks ridiculous, but that’s just me. </p>
<p>@mistanervous why in the world would i be “straight up lying” on a forum on the internet lol. I would think you would try to use all of the available space to show you are a well rounded candidate. I do have some things that are related but i would like to put as separate activities, such as in music. I play the Bass clarinet in a symphonic band, as well as playing the Tenor Sax. in a jazz band and playing piano since 2nd grade. I don’t think trying to cram these into one activity would be a good idea or am I wrong?</p>
<p>It’s a common problem, but the application readers get bored with you after awhile, so keep it down. Quality, not quantity.</p>
<p>Consolidate those into the ones most important to you. @mistanervous does have a point that you probably should not put something that is not an important part of who you are and what you did in high school For example, although “Key Club for 2 years” or “Track athlete for one year” shows different sides of yourself, if they are not at the same level as your other ECs, drop them. Colleges are necessarily looking for a well rounded candidate but a well rounded class. So if you have specific talents or are heavily participated in one thing, I would choose that over showing your “well-roundedness.”</p>
<p>As a side note, you could also include some info in the “extra info” portion of the Common App, but heed the advice mentioned above. If you can cut it without it having major impacts on your application, do so because having too many ECs makes you look like you are spreading yourself too thin to have meaningful involvement in them.</p>
<p>Sincerely,
A person who had wayy too many ECs on his application when he applied
So I consolidated the ones most important to myself</p>
<p>Which brings me to a larger universal question…which perhaps that help this OP…is it better to have, say, 6 stellar EC’s and deliberately leave 4 spaces open…or if you have 10 legit items, should they all be included? </p>
<p>@shawnspencer Thanks for the first hand advice. I will have to shorten my list some how i guess. Do you have any suggestions as to how to fit the description of the activity in the available space? The limit on characters is getting me. </p>
<p>@SouthernHope The answer to that would help me greatly! 
</p>
<p>I used mostly abbreviated descriptions and didn’t use complete sentences. If I won any major awards, sometimes I would mention it in the EC, but if I was short on space, and I thought the description was more important than the award, I would list it in the awards section.</p>
<p>My cousin, who recently graduated from Harvard, said she did not use up all the spaces on her EC list. She said that she only listed the ones that were most important to her and helped connect “her story.” I on the other hand, was involved in quite a few things in high school, that all were part of who I was as a person, so I went with the full 10 but no more. The reason for this is because I had a few activities that occurred only for one summer or was only something you could participate in senior year, but we did phenomenal in those things (went to nationals, won awards, got a LOR, ect) So even though I would normally cut them, I stuck them on because we did very well in the things I was part of</p>
<p>@shawnspencer so for example, this was the first year i participated in our school math team; however, i was selected as one of the 10 people in our school to participate at conference finals, where we did well, but didn’t win any specific award. Is that worth a spot? I’m guessing its not especially as i am not going into math</p>
<p>Here is what my kids did. They had excellent results.</p>
<ol>
<li> Consolidate ECs. Let’s say you have several things that fall under a category, like "Music’. Put “Music” in the EC description, and say “See additional information” in the space for the description.</li>
</ol>
<p>In the “additional information” section of the Common App, put a header that says “Extra Curricular - Music”. Underneath it put bullets about your activities and accomplishments. Example:</p>
<ul>
<li>9th-12th - High school orchestra, violin. Section leader 11th & 12th.</li>
<li>11th - Blue ribbon Solo & Ensemble violin.</li>
<li>11th & 12th - Taught violin lessons to middle school students, approximately 6 hours/week.</li>
<li>11th - Attended Interlochen Fine Arts Academy for four week orchestra program.</li>
<li>9th - 12th - Member of high school Concert Choir.</li>
<li>11th - Awarded “Top Musician” from High School Music department.</li>
</ul>
<p>Keep them brief, but don’t cut out things that help build your narrative as committed to your most important ECs.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Both my kids still had more than 10 after doing that (busy kids, small school where kids are encouraged to participate in a lot of stuff). They ended up cutting out activities that they had only done for 1-2 years at the beginning of high school and then dropped, that didn’t fit into their broader narrative they were trying to communicate to the admissions offices, AND where they or their teams did not win any awards. if it didn’t meet all of those criteria, it stayed on the list.</p></li>
<li><p>Still over 10 after that (1 kid was). She put a section in “additional information” that said, “Additional Extra Curricular Activities” and listed out the last couple in a format similar to the music example above, except I think she added a bit more info about hours per week, etc. that is asked on the form. </p></li>
<li><p>Think hard about the order to put the activities in. You want to support your narrative with the order. One of my kids actually ended up creating a second version of her Common App in order to emphasize different ECs for one of her colleges (STEM college, she moved her STEM-related stuff further up the list than for the other colleges. She got in, too.).</p></li>
</ol>
<p>@intparent that sounds like a really good method. I’ll go try that right now in fact. Thanks!</p>
<p>@metz987 Sorry I came off as overly cynical and rude, that was rather inappropriate of me. I just think that the cases in which there are actually 10+ pertinent extra curricular activities is rare and kids are usually just resume padding. If you legitimately think that all 10+ of those would be necessary and relevant then you should use the method outlined above. I just think it’s rarely necessary and app readers will feel like you’re just listing off a laundry list of things, none of which matter much to you since your free time is being split by so many things. That’s just me.</p>
<p>My D used short descriptions and I believe that she added her resume (which described her activities/leadership roles, internships, travel, and work experience in a bit more detail).in the “other” section </p>
<p>intparent offers great advice in post #9. Remember, people reading your file are burning and churning. Present the info in a logical way that present you in the best light – not just to list items.</p>