Welcome to Part 2 of A Guide Through the College Application Process. Here, we will be covering all the aspects of filling out your actual application. This includes tips about the Common App, Activities Section, Honors Section, and writing essays. These should be completed between August and January, which is when most applications are due.
Filling Out the Common App
(or any other application platform)
What is the Common Application?
The Common Application, usually called “Common App”, is the central platform you will be using to submit most of your applications. There are other similar application portals, such as the Coalition Application, but Common App is much more common. There are some schools (such as MIT, Georgetown, and all University of California schools) that do not use either platform and instead have their own application portals. Filling Out the Common App (or any other application platform) is a long process, so we’ve broken down the steps you need to take.
Make An Account As Early As Possible
While you generally cannot start submitting applications until August 1st, you are allowed to open a Common Application account as early as you would like and start filling out basic information. This gives you time to explore the website and figure out what information you need. There’s a lot of preliminary information to fill out, including your demographics, information about your family, past education, and standardized testing. Filling out these sections doesn't take brainpower, so do it early to get it over with!
The Activities Section
Choosing Activities:
The Common App allows you to list up to 10 activities, with 50 characters to name the activity/your role in it and 150 characters to describe the activity.
If possible, fill out ALL 10 slots. You might not think you do that many activities, but you probably do more than you realize. Additionally, colleges acknowledge activities such as taking care of your siblings, so don’t be afraid to include those as activities!
Make sure to list activities you are currently participating in or have only stopped participating in within the last 6 months. The only expectation for this rule is summer camps/jobs because it is understood that these are activities you are generally unable to continue beyond the summer.
Naming the Activities:
For any activity you list, you want to list the title you hold within the activity (even if you don’t have a formal leadership position!) followed by the name of that activity. 50 characters is not a lot of space to title your activity, so use your characters wisely.
Example: Let’s say you started a baking club at your school, and you hold the position of president. Your activity title would be “President and Founder, Baking Club”
Describing the Activities:
Since you only have 150 characters to describe your activities, you do not have to write in full sentences. Instead, it is perfectly acceptable to list several sentence fragments that start with verbs (i.e. “organized fundraisers”).
Be sure to use a variety of different verbs, otherwise, your activities list can get bland!
Use numbers to describe your activities whenever possible. It is a concrete way of showing your success doing an activity (i.e. “Raised $2000 for homeless shelter”).
Estimating Hours for the Activities:
Colleges do not expect you to know the exact number of hours per week you spend on an activity. When thinking about hours spent on the activity, make sure to include the times you spent both in and out of the activity’s setting.
Example: If you’re the President of Baking Club, you might only spend two hours a week in the club meetings, but as president, you might be spending three hours each week preparing. So for hours spent per week, make sure to list five hours and not two!
Continuing Participation:
For each activity, you will be asked to answer a yes or no for the statement “I intend to participate in a similar activity in college.” Always choose “yes.” It is yet another way to show colleges that you are passionate and enjoy the activities you do.
Ordering Your Activities:
The order of your activities matter, so you want to list the most important activity you do first because that is what the admissions officer will look at first. Here is how we recommend you list your activities. Give each of your activities a point value based on the following guide (source: Sara Harberson). Whichever activity receives the highest point value should be the first activity you list, and whichever activity receives the lowest point value should be the last activity you list. There are four criteria to based your point value on. Assign each of the following criteria a point value and add them all together to get the total. (We suggest you complete this on a spreadsheet.)
Criteria #1, number of years you have participated in the activity:
4 points if the activity has been done all four years of high school
3 points for three years
2 points for two years
1 point for one year
Criteria #2, hours per week (during the season):
4 points if you do the activity 20+ hours per week
3 points for 15 hours per week
2 points for 10 hours per week
1 point for 5 hours or less per week
Criteria #3, leadership:
4 points if the student holds the highest leadership title within the activity: President, Captain, Editor-in-Chief, Drum Major, Shift Manager, etc.
3 points for the "second in command" role: Vice President, Managing Editor, Assistant Drum Major, Asst. Manager, etc.
2 points for other leadership roles: Secretary, Treasurer, etc.
1 point for membership: Club Member, Team Member, Employee, etc.
Criteria #4, measurable impact:
4 points if the student competes on the national level, received national exposure, or a national award
3 points for state level
2 points for regional level (i.e. county science fair, district championships for sports, etc.)
1 point for participation within the high school
Breaking Tiebreakers: If two activities have the same point value, list the one that’s more important to you higher.
General Tips:
If you have several activities that are similar in nature (i.e. you are on both your high school’s swimming team and water polo team), place them next to each other on your activities list, even if they are not next to each other on your point list. By doing this, it’s easier to see how your interests have carried through into various activities.
Think about what your favorite activity from the list is, and why you feel that way. Ideally, it should be in the top 3 activities, to draw the admissions officer’s attention to your interests
The Honors Section
Under the “Education” section on the Common App, there is space to list up to five honors you have received. Just like the Activities Section, try your best to fill out all 5 slots. An honor is defined as “academic achievements beginning with the ninth grade.” Because of this section’s broad definition, many things can fall under this category. Here are a few examples:
Awards/Titles from academic competitions (Academic Decathalon, Science Olympiad, etc.)
AP Scholar Awards (you can still list this award without submitting your AP scores!)
National Merit Scholar
State Scholars
National Honor Societies (Note: Do not list this in the honors section if you already listed in it your activities section, having it both sections can get redundant.)
Similar to the Activities Section, the order of the Honors section matters. For this section, you want to list the awards most unique to you first. For the examples listed above, awards from academic competitions, which not every applicant could claim, would go higher than AP Scholar awards, which is a fairly common honor to receive.
Writing Essays
This is a key part of the college process. This is one of the only opportunities for you to show your creativity and personality in the application, so it is important to dedicate time and patience to this section.
Personal Statement: This is the main essay that you will be sending most colleges through the Common Application. The 2020-2021 prompts are listed here. It is never too early to start writing! When writing, remember that:
No one is perfect. Be genuine and don’t paint yourself as someone without problems.
Colleges care less about what you write and more about how you write it. Even if you think that your life is uninteresting, you have something unique to offer even if they seem insignificant to you!
Your resume will show all of the activities you have done, so do not simply write a summary of your activities in the essay. If there is a certain activity that is a vital part of who you are, make sure the essay talks specifically about what that activity means to you as opposed to what you have accomplished through the activity.
Supplemental Essays: These are additional essays that schools may require you to write beyond the personal statement to help admissions teams get to know you even better. Here are some examples of common supplemental essay prompts that you may encounter and how to tackle them. We chose to highlight these prompts because they appear most commonly, however, this list is not exhaustive.
Why ____ college or university? If a college has this supplemental essay, they want to know what exactly draws you to their school. These essays require lengthy research about the school beyond their admissions page. To gain inspiration for these essays, visit campus (if possible) and ask students and alumni about their experiences at that school. This will provide insight that you would otherwise not be able to access through the school’s website.
Why ____ major? For these essays, colleges want to know why you are applying to their school with your chosen major. Think about how you gained interest in this major and what you have done to nurture and develop this interest.
What is your favorite activity? If a college has this supplemental essay, they want to understand why you do a certain activity and what it tells them about you. They could care less about what the actual activity is; the importance lies in what this activity reveals about you as a person.
Short Answer “Quirky” Questions: These are relatively simple prompts, usually between 100-300 characters, that aim to get to know a little more about your personality.
Some examples of questions are “What is your favorite snack?”, “If you could teach a class on any topic, what would it be?”, and “What inspires you?”.
For these questions, you want to go beyond just the simple couple-word answer. Explain why you answered in that way, or connect your answer to an anecdote, the extra characters are there for a reason!
Example: Instead of answering “What is your favorite snack?” with “French Fries”, you might instead say “McDonald’s french fries, it’s a Friday tradition to get them with my family.”
General Essay Writing Tips:
If you’re struggling to get started:
Read the essay prompts.
Talk about what to write about with others.
Keep a notebook or space on your phone to capture ideas whenever you have them.
Start with easy essay prompts and work your way to the harder ones.
Remove all distractions (including your phone)
When writing:
Get the content out first, organize it later.
Use specific details: avoid generalizations and cliches.
Show your humility and resilience through your writing.
Ask others to edit your essays.
Proofread and read the essay out loud.
Writing essays is one of the biggest parts of the college application process, and the points we listed just scratch the surface. If you would like a more comprehensive guide through writing college essays, consider watching this video series by Whitney Young teacher Ms. Pasulka, who was an immensely helpful resource to both of us during our essay-writing process.
We hope this guide provides you with more insight into what to know while applying to college. This may seem like a daunting process, but remember that you are capable of thriving and we at Application Overload are here to make sure you have the resources to do so. Do not hesitate to email us with questions or concerns: applicationoverloadblog@gmail.com.
Click here for the third part of this three-part series: A Guide Through the College Application Process (Part 3 of 3): What to To Do After You Have Applied.
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