My ‘24 didn’t use this section. My ‘25 just moved schools senior year to an International school. She already has 10 EC spots filled. CC thinks she should put a one sentence additional information add about her activity at new school to show she’s gotten involved there.
Some say don’t use this section for EC purposes, any issue with this? She could combine a couple in main list if this is frowned upon. Also new school activity wouldn’t be all that compelling description wise as it’s only been a couple months so another reason it’s ideal as a one sentence add versus activities section.
I’m not sure I would be concerned about it being frowned on, but I would more think it might get overlooked, including for the stated purpose, if you don’t put it on the activities list. I personally would not worry about the depth of the description, because among other things the activities list is just supposed to be giving the college a sense of how you are using your time. And so if the idea is to give colleges information about how she is using her time at her new school, that to me is something that naturally belongs on the activities list.
I think it is worth including the student’s involvement in the new school. Combining choir as an activity that spans both high schools is an elegant solution.
As an aside, kudos to your student – switching high schools senior year can be tough and it is great she is already involved in the new HS. Best of luck moving forward.
I think the colleges know how much students are physically capable of doing within a 24 hour day.
I also agree that it’s quality over quantity, but you do you.
My three had, more or less, three major activities. Their sports, their part-time jobs, and their volunteer activities were the focus and addressed by their counselor’s letters.
Edited to add, I agree that combining both activities within her ECs is a highlight. Especially because some people tend to forget that music is a really important EC.
The conventional wisdom is not to use this space for extra EC’s, awards, etc. For what it’s worth, my daughter (and all her friends from the ultra selective summer program that all ended up at HYPSM) used the space for just that. She had a bullet list of important awards, EC’S and brief summaries of her hs research projects.
They weren’t irrelevant EC’s/awards - but she had more than 10/5. Things like winning a county hackathon, varsity sports she did in 9th/10th, etc.
It’s possible/probable none of these things moved the needle for her, but it definitely didn’t hurt. It was also helpful to know that her summer program and private counselor agreed with this strategy because it goes against the advice online.
So if you think it adds color and potentially important information, I wouldn’t hesitate to add it in additional info. Note: it was like bullet points. Very concise.
Thanks all, just combined them. She’s only applying to likelies, this isn’t an application gunning for T20 schools, been there done that, and glad to not be doing it again!
Hers all speak to her narrative, not all big time commitments, but have a purpose on the application, nothing is filler and it does add color especially when applying to schools that either don’t have supplementals or only a couple. Less space to show yourself.
I understand and appreciate the feedback, but we’re content on the activity list now.