Preparing A College Application Activity SheetSome tips to make yours stand out!
A college application activity sheet is your opportunity to shine. During our tenure with college applications, I have seen hundreds of activity sheets. A piece of advice..use this tool to its greatest value.. let the admissions counselors learn something about you that they will not see on the rest of your application. Spotlight aspects of yourself that may differentiate you from your fellow applicants, but always remember to keep it real!
Avoid a laundry list of one time events. Focus on activities that show a depth of commitment. Always list your activities in order of their strength in your overall resume. Usually an extended commitment in one area, will involve multiple activities. List the years of participation in your activities. Repeated participation in an activity shows your dedication to it. Employment is important. Holding a job speaks to your responsibility and reliability. Working to earn your own money shows tenacity, determination and ability to work with people. If you have never held a summer job, but did something else that would enhance your college application activity, make sure that is listed. For example, you volunteered, you traveled, you participated in summer school or you attended a summer program at a college or university. In talking with guidance and admission counselors over the years, having work experience is a positive. So make sure to add that lifeguarding or Mother's helper job onto your resume. A sports focused resume should include any service projects you may have performed as a student athlete. Many teams sponsor food and clothing drives, summer camps, kid's clinics and charity fundraisers. These are important aspects of your high school athletic experience and should be highlighted. Make sure you list any individual or team accomplishments in addition to just enumerating your years of participation. I cannot stress this enough .. do not use the valuable space on your college application activity sheet to list your advanced classes, GPA, SAT scores etc. .. that will be detailed in your transcript. Again, use this tool to let the admissions counselor get to see you as the wonderful person you most surely are! College Application Activity Sheet ExampleSome college applications will provide a format. The Common Application gives you an area to list 6 or 7 activities. Use that to list your top activities. They also allow you to submit your entire activity sheet as an attachment. There are various programs to use in constructing your activity sheet such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Once it is completed, you should convert it to a PDF document, as that is the most universally accepted attachment download. Follow the instructions on the application and if there is no specification, send it as a PDF document.If you can design your own make sure your name, application ID # or Social Security Number is on the sheet along with your High school contact information. Set up categories on the right side such as Awards/Achievements, Activities, Community Service, Employment. Tailor these to your own resume. List these in order of the strength of your own resume. These should be wide columns so that you can note pertinent information about the specific activity. (ie: Varsity Field Hockey, Goalie). Create a column for years of participation. Some schools want hours per week listed, so you can add a column for that. Then concisely enumerate your activities under each category. Like a job application, play to your strengths.. If you worked at homeless shelter once in four years for 2 hours, that does not need to go on. However, if you have a strong history of community service helping groups in need, then it should go on your application sheet. Remember avoid long lists of one time events .. focus on activities that show depth of commitment. If there is a specific accomplishment on your activity sheet that you want to highlight.. ask one of the teachers, supervisors or advisors in that activity to write your letter of recommendation. They will then be able to further underscore your achievement in that area. Here is a sample of a college application activity sheet
Once polished, share it with your guidance counselor or another adult whose opinion is valued. Edit as needed and you are done! A well presented activity sheet can be given to whomever you ask to write your letter of recommendation. If you are having an interview with the admissions office, bring it along and have it ready to give to the counselor. It can also be a part of any scholarship applications; so take the time to fine tune it and make it the best representation of yourself.
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