How to Write a Common App Activities List That Works

The section you spend the least time on, and shouldn't

It's easy to treat the activities list like paperwork: fill in the boxes, then move to the essay. The list still needs careful writing.

It isn't a form. It's ten small pieces of writing, each one under a word count tighter than anything else in the application, and it's often one of the first things a reader looks at. Forty minutes isn't enough to get ten entries right. A few hours might not be either, but it's a real start, and it's a lot more than most students give it.

Here's the part that actually helps: fixing this section doesn't take another three-month rewrite. It's ten entries, most of them one sentence long. A single focused evening, run through every entry with the questions below, gets you most of the way there!

The limits are tighter than you think, so write like it

Common App publishes the exact limits, and they're smaller than people expect: 50 characters for your position or leadership title, 100 for the organization's name, and 150 characters for the activity description itself, honors and accomplishments included. A hundred fifty characters is shorter than the sentence you just read.

That constraint changes how you write, not just how much fits. Drop the articles and the pronouns. Nobody's grading your grammar in this field, and every "a," "the," or "I" costs you a word you don't have. Lead with the verb instead of a noun phrase: "Organized," not "Was responsible for organizing." And if the organization field already does the naming, don't repeat it in the description. If your position says "Captain" and your organization says "Debate Team," the word "debate" doesn't need to appear again in your 150 characters. Spend them on what you actually did.

• Cut articles and pronouns first, "a," "the," "I," "my."
• Start with a verb: coached, built, tutored, ran.
• If the title or org name already says it, don't say it again in the description.

Describe an impact, not a role

A role tells the reader what you were. An impact tells them what happened because you were there. Most first drafts default to the role, because it's easier to write and it's already sitting in your head as a job description: title, duties, done.

Constructed before: "Member of student government, attended weekly meetings, helped plan events." Constructed after: "Pitched and ran a recycling program now used across campus." The first is a job description. The second is a sentence about a specific thing that exists because you made it happen, and it does more work in fewer characters.

Ordering isn't random, so think about it

You choose the order these entries appear in, and that choice is part of the writing, not an afterthought once the fields are full. Most guidance agrees on the basic principle: lead with what matters most to you, not what happened first chronologically or what sounds most official on paper.

Here's what I'd add to that: lead with whatever entry makes a reader want to know more about you specifically, not whichever title looks best in isolation. A president title with a vague description does less work in the first slot than a smaller role described sharply. First doesn't have to mean most impressive. It means most worth reading closely. If you're stuck choosing between two strong entries for that top spot, ask which one a stranger would ask a follow-up question about. That's usually your answer.

Ordinary activities are usually the most revealing ones

I think the "sounds impressive" instinct is the single most damaging thing that happens in this section. A vague, grand-sounding title tells a reader nothing they can actually picture. A specific, small, true entry does. That's the same principle behind a strong essay, just with a lot less room to hide it in.

Nudge example, created for this guide: one entry uses 11 words for a club presidency; another uses 40 to describe picking up younger siblings, feeding them, and helping with homework. Annotation: the second gives the reader a clearer picture of daily responsibility. Don't leave paid work or unpaid caretaking off the list just because it lacks a club title.

When 150 characters really isn't enough

Occasionally one activity carries real weight and 150 characters can't hold it: a research project with a result worth explaining, a business you started, a role that needs one more sentence of context to make sense. Common App's own guidance points you toward a specific outlet for exactly this. The Additional Information question in the Writing section, separate from your personal statement, exists partly to give an activity like that the room the list can't.

Don't reach for it on every entry, though. If you find yourself wanting extra space more than once, that's usually a sign you're trying to make every activity carry equal weight, and a reader can tell when nothing has been prioritized. Save the extra room for the one entry where a sentence is genuinely doing more good there than anywhere else in the application.

Should this activity also be in your essay?

So if you've already written about an activity in your personal statement, should it also show up in the activities list? Yes, usually. The list does a different job. It reports the facts a reader needs regardless of what your essay covers: how long, how often, what the title was. Your essay covers the interior part, why it mattered, what changed.

When the same activity appears in both places, keep the activities entry to role, time, and logistics. Let the essay hold the meaning and reflection so the two don't read like the same paragraph twice.