While most high-achieving students end up with a strong range of out-of-school activities, the Common App’s activities section has a character limit that can make it difficult to best showcase these. Therefore, it's imperative that applicants take this section of their application as a chance to tell admissions officers more about their character, qualities, and interests. So, here are 6 tips that will transform your activity list!

1. Context is key: Particularly for international applicants, it's often a good idea to remember that the activities you engaged in and their context in your local community may be foreign to an admissions officer. At the end of the day, they are sitting in a different country. While they might have some familiarity with your written activity, it's up to you to make it clear to them the importance of your work and achievements. Providing context is also important to domestic students as well. For example, an admissions officer may not be familiar with a niche abbreviation that’s unique to your school. Once again, this leaves it up to you to include enough context so that they do.
2. Quantify as much as possible: Admissions officers spend a very short amount of time in their initial review of individual applications. Considering this, it's important to give them figures and information to actually show them the significance of an extracurricular or leadership activity. This point also goes hand in hand with the 1st, as it is one of the best ways to describe and give context to your achievements and profile.
3. Choose and project ECLs that showcase your leadership and other positive traits: People often make the mistake of writing down the first 10 activities that come to their mind and try to perfect their descriptions thereafter. You don’t want to choose a shallow list of ECLs that lacks depth and attainment just because they were the first ones that came to your mind. Instead, try to ensure that you have chosen the most relevant activities that best showcase your desired qualities and character. For instance, one non-negotiable quality for all top schools is capacity for and competence in leadership. As universities search for students who will become future alumni, they want pioneers, innovators, and leaders to elevate their communities and prestige. Show them that you can provide that.
4. Clarity is your friend: The activity description comes with a limit of 150 characters. This leaves you with very little space to elaborate on your achievements and makes it even more important to be concise and to the point. You want the fast-reading admissions officer to understand in the best way possible what it is you have done and why it's significant to you and your community. Choose your words and form your sentences accordingly. It often helps to use active action verbs to achieve this such as “led” or “founded”. Also, make sure to proofread your work carefully. Typos and inconsistencies in grammar could be seen as carelessness and that is something to avoid.
5. Don’t shy away from listing unconventional activities: Universities are looking to admit a varied class full of engaging personalities and interests. If you have a niche or unknown interest and talent, make sure to add it to your list. It's often these “quirky” qualities that could set you apart from other candidates and make you a more desirable applicant.
6. Don’t forget to include your capstone project: Most students who are admitted to top international universities have made at least one large-scale project that they have led personally. Don’t forget to find something that you feel strongly about, and take action towards solving a potential problem that is related to it. Such capstone projects are one of the best ways to showcase a proactive and aware applicant who is deeply passionate about changing their own community for the better.