<p>Here is what my kids did. They had excellent results.</p>
<ol>
<li> Consolidate ECs. Let’s say you have several things that fall under a category, like "Music’. Put “Music” in the EC description, and say “See additional information” in the space for the description.</li>
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<p>In the “additional information” section of the Common App, put a header that says “Extra Curricular - Music”. Underneath it put bullets about your activities and accomplishments. Example:</p>
<ul>
<li>9th-12th - High school orchestra, violin. Section leader 11th & 12th.</li>
<li>11th - Blue ribbon Solo & Ensemble violin.</li>
<li>11th & 12th - Taught violin lessons to middle school students, approximately 6 hours/week.</li>
<li>11th - Attended Interlochen Fine Arts Academy for four week orchestra program.</li>
<li>9th - 12th - Member of high school Concert Choir.</li>
<li>11th - Awarded “Top Musician” from High School Music department.</li>
</ul>
<p>Keep them brief, but don’t cut out things that help build your narrative as committed to your most important ECs.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Both my kids still had more than 10 after doing that (busy kids, small school where kids are encouraged to participate in a lot of stuff). They ended up cutting out activities that they had only done for 1-2 years at the beginning of high school and then dropped, that didn’t fit into their broader narrative they were trying to communicate to the admissions offices, AND where they or their teams did not win any awards. if it didn’t meet all of those criteria, it stayed on the list.</p></li>
<li><p>Still over 10 after that (1 kid was). She put a section in “additional information” that said, “Additional Extra Curricular Activities” and listed out the last couple in a format similar to the music example above, except I think she added a bit more info about hours per week, etc. that is asked on the form. </p></li>
<li><p>Think hard about the order to put the activities in. You want to support your narrative with the order. One of my kids actually ended up creating a second version of her Common App in order to emphasize different ECs for one of her colleges (STEM college, she moved her STEM-related stuff further up the list than for the other colleges. She got in, too.).</p></li>
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