Ten slots, 150 characters each
The activities section is the most space-constrained part of the application and the one most people fill badly. At 150 characters, every article and pronoun is costing you a fact.
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What the section asks for
You get up to ten activities. Each one takes an activity type, a position or role title, the organization name, a description capped at 150 characters, plus the years involved and hours per week.
Ten is a ceiling, not a goal. Six genuine commitments read better than ten padded ones — a list stretched to fill every slot tells admissions officers you had nothing else to say.
Writing at 150 characters
That is roughly twenty words. Complete sentences are a luxury you cannot afford, and the fix is to write like a telegram: verb first, outcome early, numbers wherever they exist.
Wastes the space
«I was responsible for helping to organize a tutoring program at my school where I helped students who needed help with mathematics.»
Twenty-two words to say one thing, with no result and no scale.
Uses the space
«Founded peer tutoring program; recruited 12 tutors, served 40 students across 3 schools; average grade up one band.»
Same character count, four concrete facts and a measurable outcome.
- Cut the pronouns. The reader knows the subject is you. «I was» and «I helped» are pure cost.
- Lead with the verb. Founded, led, built, taught, raised, organized, coached.
- Numbers travel well. They cross language and school-system boundaries in a way adjectives do not.
- Semicolons are your friend. They pack more facts per character than full stops and conjunctions.
- Skip the abbreviations no one outside your school knows. A reader in Boston has no idea what your internal club acronym means.
The honors section
Separate from activities, with five slots for academic distinctions — olympiads, national exams, ranked competitions, scholarships, academic prizes. Each entry is short, and you indicate the level of recognition: school, regional, national or international.
Leave it empty rather than padding it. Participation certificates and attendance awards actively weaken the section, because they show the reader what you considered worth listing.
What counts as an activity
Broader than most applicants assume. Paid work counts. Caring for younger siblings counts. A family business counts. So does a serious independent project with nothing institutional attached to it.
This matters especially outside the United States, where school-run extracurricular programmes are often thinner. If you worked twenty hours a week in a family shop, that is a real commitment with real hours — list it, and do not discount it because it did not come with a club title.
Activities questions
How many activities can you list on the Common App?
Up to ten, each with a description capped at 150 characters, plus years involved and hours per week. Ten is a maximum rather than a target — six real commitments read better than ten padded ones.
How long is the Common App activity description?
150 characters, which is roughly twenty words. Drop pronouns and articles, lead with a verb, and use numbers and semicolons to pack in facts. Complete sentences waste space you do not have.
What order should activities go in?
Most significant first. The list is read from the top and is not required to be chronological, so put the commitment you care most about — and spent the most on — in the first slot.
What goes in the Common App honors section?
Up to five academic distinctions: olympiads, national exams, ranked competitions, scholarships and academic prizes, each marked with its level of recognition. Leave slots empty rather than filling them with participation certificates.
Does a part-time job count as an activity?
Yes. Paid work, family business responsibilities and caring for siblings all count and are viewed as serious commitments, particularly when the hours are substantial. Do not leave them out because they lack a club title.
Start by finding out how many points you need.
The demo account is free and includes a 10-question diagnostic in the real exam format. An advisor sets it up the same day.
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