Outline
- What is the common app?
- How to use a common app?
- What is the activity list in the common app?
- How can you plan the activities list in the common app?
The Common App is a widely used application under which several college applications are offered to prospective students and is popularly referred to as the Common Application. Faculty evaluation is the simplification of the various application components when they are assembled into the current Common App. However, one must recognize the Activities List as part of the Common App, which gives an applicant a chance to describe extracurricular activities, leadership experience, and accomplishments. Choosing and formatting your Activities List could influence how college admission offices view your personality and involvement in extra-curricular activities.
What is the Common App?
The Common App, abbreviated as the Common Application, is an advanced web-based system instituted to ease the college application process. It enables the students to use a joint application for applying with over 900 institutions that subscribe to the common application. It was designed to cut down the complicated and lengthy process of making multiple institutions’ applications, which, in the long run, puts less strain on both the applicant and the schools.
Key Features of the Common App:
Standardized Application Format: The Common App has a template for filling out forms containing primary sections like students’ backgrounds, academic records, activities, essays, and references. Such alignment makes it easier to review all applications, and more importantly, all the information presented therein is presented in a format comparable to that of one applicant to the other.
Personal Information: This section holds simple information regarding the applicant, like their name, telephone number, e-mail address, and some demographic data. It also has questions about citizenship, residency status, and family history that can give some background information about the applicant.
Academic History: This involves producing information on the applicant’s high school education, including subjects taken, performance, and test scores. This section may provide space for honors, awards, and any other exceptional academic accomplishments or other courses worked and completed.
Essays: Apart from the personal statement, the Common Application includes a set of essay questions that will help the applicant demonstrate their approach to the writing task and share the essential information about themself, their values, and goals. Some of these essays are a section of the application where the applicant reveals themself and their suitability for the university/college.
Activities List: Students are supposed to highlight exercises, work experience, volunteering, and any other significant experience in this section. It enables the applicant to be in a position to demonstrate curriculum participation in activities to show leadership skills, dedication, and accomplishment.
Recommendations: In the Common App, there is a section where the applicant can submit letters of recommendation from teachers, counselors, or any other person who would give an insight into the applicant’s character and performance. These letters enrich the application and independently confirm the applicant’s assets.
Advantages of Using the Common App:
Efficiency: When several applications are compressed into one application, the Common App can thus make working simpler for students who wish to apply to several colleges. It also saves time when retyping standard details about the different schools, and on a submission system, it makes the process more efficient.
Accessibility: The platform is Web-based, thus allowing the students to work on their applications from anywhere and at any time. It can be helpful if the student has other responsibilities they need to balance or when applying to schools in different areas.
Consistency: Since the Common App possesses the most minor variability in terms of the type of information asked for by different schools, it forces all applicants to give the same information in a similar format. This consistency also assists the admission officers in comparing the applicants fairly, and there is less strain in the process.
Convenience for Colleges: To colleges and universities, the Common App serves as the system for receiving and processing all applications. This system eases the burden of administration and aids in evaluating and approving requests by the authority.
How to Use the Common App?
Using the Common App involves several key steps:
- Create an Account: Create a free account on the Common App website. This will allow you to complete your application, save progress, and track your submissions.
- Complete the Profile Section: Provide basic information about yourself, including personal details, contact information, and family background. This section sets the foundation for your application.
- Enter Academic History: Input details about your high school education, including courses, grades, and academic achievements. Be sure to include any honors or advanced coursework.
- Write Personal Essays: The Common App includes a personal essay or statement section. These essays are your opportunity to showcase your writing skills, personal experiences, and reasons for applying to college.
- Fill Out the Activities List: This section is where you detail your extracurricular activities, leadership roles, and other relevant experiences.
- Submit Recommendations: Request letters of recommendation from teachers, counselors, or other individuals who can speak to your qualifications and character.
- Review and Submit: Review all sections for accuracy and completeness before submitting your application. Ensure that all required documents are included and that your application meets each college’s requirements.
What is the Activities List in the Common App?
Activities are on the CA list, defined as one of the conspicuous parts of the college application used to highlight the applicants’ nonacademic activities. This section offers the admission officer a clear street view of a student’s extra-curricular activities, leadership experience, and other work experiences. Here’s a detailed breakdown of each element included in the Activities List:
Activity Name
- Definition: The Activity Name is the identification you will give to the extracurricular or work-related activity you list. It could range from such designations as “President of the Debate Club” to “Volunteer at Local Animal Shelter.”
- Purpose: It assists the admissions officers in promptly defining and sorting the activity. A credibly coined name would help people recognize that you are involved and what activity you participate in.
Position/Leadership
- Definition: This provides a clear account of your involvement in a specific activity, such as your post within a given activity. For instance, if you were working under the title of ‘Team Captain’ or ‘Co-Founder,’ this part should represent it accordingly.
- Purpose: It accentuates your leadership roles or significant roles that signify that you are a leader and can take and effectively manage responsibilities. This can be important, especially when convincing a college that you can deliver your intended contributions to the community.
Description
- Definition: Information on what the activity is about is given under the Description. Ideally, This should be a short but clear summary of the position/activity and significant accomplishments.
- Purpose: It enables the admissions officers to appreciate your engagement’s size, nature, and reach. In the detail of its description, you can depict your skills, passions, and the general importance of the activity towards your personality.
Participation Dates
- Definition: This refers to the period one participated in that activity from date to date.
- Purpose: Offering these dates enables one to put a context of commitment and consistency bearing the periodic engagement in the activity. It proves the time of active participation and can be helpful for commitment and consistent participation.
Hours Per Week/Weeks Per Year
- Definition: This section describes the number of hours/weeks or even years one spends on the activity. For instance, you might record something like “5 hours per week” or “ 20 weeks per year” as the frequency.
- Purpose: Out of quantifying benefits and risks, quantifying your involvement gives an overall idea of how much you are involved in something. This information assists the admissions officers in determining the level of engagement and time well utilized.
Importance of the Activities List
The Activities List is not just a list of your hobbies and pastimes; it is a section of your application where the admissions committee can discover various features of your personality and potential. Here’s why it’s important:
- Demonstrates Interests and Passions: It shows what interests you and what you do apart from attending your classes. This can assist the colleges in keeping up-to-date with your interests or confrontation with their programs or themes.
- Showcases Skills and Achievements: Descriptive words, such as the roles played, can show leadership, teamwork, problem-solving ability, and dedication. These are standards that colleges look for in a candidate to admit into their learning institutes.
- Illustrates Commitment and Balance: When declaring how much time and effort has been devoted to the actions, the multiple commitments might be balanced, and a high level of commitment can be sustained over time.
- Provides Context: It complements your academic performance by demonstrating how you are an active member of your society and participate in extracurricular activities. These paradigms can further improve the overall application profile of your business organization.
How Can You Plan the Activities List in the Common App?
Planning your Activities List effectively involves several steps to ensure it accurately reflects your experiences and achievements:
- Identify Key Activities:
- Reflect on Your Involvements: All the hobbies, clubs, committees, jobs or projects, personal activities, responsibilities, etc., that you have undertaken or taken part in during your high school. Including extracurricular activities like clubs, sports, volunteer work, part-time occupations, etc, is essential.
- Prioritize Your Activities: Determine whether most activities are essential and valuable. Select those that depict your leadership skills, commitment, and passion for the noble course.
- Organize Your List:
- Categorize Activities: This may be done by grouping activities that would be presented to enhance the ease of presentation. Leadership positions, service clubs, athletics, fine arts, and job skills are sections.
- Choose the Most Relevant Experiences: Due to these sections’ constraints, choose the activities that reflect your abilities and accomplishments best. Balancing activities to make the profile attractive to potential employers is better.
- Craft Detailed Descriptions:
- Be Specific: Ensure the descriptions given for each activity are simple, concise, and easy to understand. Emphasize your position, duties, and, if possible, the most important accomplishments.
- Use Action Verbs: Begin any description with strong action verbs to ensure that your involvement comes out clearly. For instance, “Led,” “Organized,” “Developed,” or “Volunteered.”
- Quantify Your Involvement:
- Include Metrics: Where possible, always relate your participation with numbers to give more details about your effort. For instance, specify the number of hours per week that you work or the number of employees you supervise.
- Showcase Impact:
- Highlight Achievements: This is where you should emphasize all awards, recognitions, or crucial outcomes referring to your activities. This assists in showing the difference that was made.
- Review and Revise:
- Seek Feedback: Ask teachers and mentors to review your Activities List and, if possible, your family members to double-check that all the information is correct.
- Proofread: Make sure that the descriptions are correct, that there are no mistakes, and that the formatting used in the descriptions is the same.
Rostrum Education is the key to success in achieving Academic Excellence. Our mentors will assist you throughout the application process, from writing the successful Common App Essay to perfecting the Activities List. Rostrum Education has embraced the different applicants as different individuals, so we offer our services to the applicant. With talented advisors, you can take Common App Help for each step, use proper wording, and have clarity in each section while making your accomplishments and good stories stand out. We guide you in planning your Activities List to select, describe, and measure your devotion and leadership to critical activities. A few of our services include individualized feedback and a guide to each application part, such as writing the statement, choosing referees, doing mock interviews, and others. We also provide input to each section of your entire application, complete with recommendations to strengthen your profile about your goals and overcome your deficiencies compared to other applicants. That is why when you choose Rostrum Education, you are choosing a whole farm of knowledge and materials that will help to improve the quality and boost the probability of success of your application. Contact us today to schedule a consultation that will start you on the college application process and make your dream of being in college a reality. Let us help you get the best of your abilities and succeed in your academic endeavors—choose Rostrum Education!
