<p>What is an example of a laundry list of activities? I know it means having a long list of extracurriculars. But I have 10 on my common app, and I think each are important to me. What type of activites should I omit? I have sports, volunteering, model un, glee club, environmental club, PAML, etc...</p>
<p>IMO the most impressive ECs are the ones that show commitment/longevity and leadership.</p>
<p>When you have 10 and they are ALL important, you have a laundry list.</p>
<p>How many of these will you continue to do when you get to college? No, really, be honest. Or, put another way, if your grades started to suffer, which one or two or three would you drop? Or if you could only do one, which one would it be?</p>
<p>I would agree with MrMom62 if all ten are year-round. But again, it depends on the student. Use your drop-down menus carefully on the Common App. Don’t “overstate” your hours. So you can be a committed varsity soccer player for 3-4 months a year, and a varsity track athlete for 3 months a year; and volunteer summer only or let’s say it is year-round but only certain weekends when you don’t have other commitments (that is something I would put in the “additional information” since the drop-down only lets you choose specific set timeframes. In summary – if you show you are essentially in ten year-round activities each with a certain amount of hours per week… it simply can not be…If certain “clubs” meet once a week and you are only a member (no leadership or depth of responsibility over the years at all), you may want to consider lumping them together as “Other - Community Service” and then bullet-point list them in the “Additional Information.” This way your other key “extracurriculars” will be more highlighted.</p>
<p>Hmm, I think it depends on what you are into. Musicians, performers… it’s pretty easy to fill up those activity slots as they may be involved with several different companies or special projects each deserving of their own attention. That said, sometimes it’s good to lump things together. I like the above example of putting school clubs where you don’t have leadership.</p>
<p>I have 3 separate community services. One is for my school (CSC) and I do 3 specific volunteering under that club and of course I clumped them all together under CSC. But then I have the volunteering I do for my church. So, I figured I would do that separately. And then, this summer I volunteered for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for 4 weeks which is like the biggest children’s hospital in the nation so that is pretty huge, so I decided to put that in a separate category (1st on my list using the drop button). Is it okay to keep them separate?</p>
<p>mountlover96: My answer to you would be based on what else is in your list of 10, how are you “packaging” yourself and what you love to do. If you are packaging yourself as a community service person hoping for a career in humanitarianism, then yes – using 3 of your 10 items for community service might work. I would list your school thing as one (lumping all together), the summer one separate (but again, if it was every day for 6 hours a day, that is ideal; but if it is one month for 2 days a week for only a couple of hours – I would lump that with other community service). Example: my own daughter’s list of ten does NOT include newspaper club that she has been in for 4 straight years (she is just a writing contributor), or the community service club (again, where she is a member only). She has other items that more “define her” and are more interesting – and the laundry list of clubs also can just make the reader think “then how does the kid do all these things” and is the student exaggerating.</p>
<p>@Momof2back2back The summer one was a teen program with like a 20% acceptance rate. It was for 4 weeks, 3 days a week for about 5 hours. I want to go into the medical field and work with children specifically, so even though the program wasn’t for a long time, I want it to stand out because it’s such an honor to get into the program and it reflects on what I would want to do in the future (there’s a reason why I have it first on my list).</p>
<p>I disagree with leaving activities off or lumping too much, especially ones that are important to you or that you have done for 4 years or any significant length of time. Laundry list key to me is showing only shallow involvement with a scattering of things–not how many things, some people just do a lot. If you have activities that you show commitment to, 10 is not too many and I wouldn’t stress too much over it–go ahead and list it separately if you want mountlover96. Just omit the things that you did freshman year only, or that you don’t have commitment to, or that aren’t as important TO YOU. I wouldn’t put less than 10 if you have 10.</p>