<p>Can I write about my volunteering?</p>
<p>Yes you can, but it would be kinda trite. Think of the hundreds of thousands of applicants and how many of them will be writing about volunteering. Your short answer isn’t supposed to make adcoms say, “Not another volunteering response!”</p>
<p>of course you can…volunteering would be a good topic if you bring up something special for the college. A bunch of students will write about volunteering, you need to show your uniqueness during the writing. What specific aspect or condition really motivates you to make it the most essential activities on Common App.</p>
<p>Yeah, I know a lot of people probably write about volunteering, but I feel like that could apply to a lot of clubs, sports, activities, etc. I’ll just try to write about it in a different way. I feel like this activity is what I’ll be able to write about most clearly.</p>
<p>The short essay is your chance to write about the extracurricular activity that you care about most, unless you are writing about that experience elsewhere in your application. If volunteering is what you spend the most time doing, write about volunteering. Don’t try to second guess the adcoms though – write from your heart about what is most important to you. (BTW: Adcoms look at your list of extracurricular activities closely, so if you list 4 clubs ahead of volunteering, and spend more time at other activities than volunteering, they will take notice, and think you are writing about volunteering because it “looks good” on your app.)</p>