Fitting Commonapp activities/honors in character count

[Mango20]

A few questions:

1. Does anyone have any advice on fitting activites/honors within the character limit in Commonapp?

2. Is it okay if I put something as both an activity and honor and then say (Honor #) in the activity description to save space in the honor character count? That way, when AOs see it, they’ll know that Honor # corresponds to that activity? Is this a bad idea?

3. What should the Position/Leadership Description tab of the activities section look like? Is that where you just state in a few words what your position was or do you also describe what you did? If you describe what you did then how is that different from the main description?

4. For honors, do we need to describe the organizations that we received awards from or can we assume that colleges will know what these are or are they not relevant?

[NiceUnparticularMan]

On your first question, good word choice can really help. Better verbs, adjectives, and so on can paint a much more vivid picture within the same character limit.

Similarly, as appropriate, using one powerful and memorable example could be better than trying to laundry list stuff.

In general, I think kids often think these sections have to be in a stiff, formal, “resume” style that ends up very bland. I think this is a missed opportunity to really make yourself stand out with strong, vivid, memorable descriptions.

[j_t_03]

@Mango20

Does anyone have any advice on fitting activites/honors within the character limit in Commonapp?

Use semi-colons, be concise and specific.

@Mango20

Is it okay if I put something as both an activity and honor and then say (Honor #) in the activity description to save space in the honor character count? That way, when AOs see it, they’ll know that Honor # corresponds to that activity? Is this a bad idea?

Don’t list the same thing as an activity and an honor. Pick one category and go with it. If your honors section is light, shift it there.

@Mango20

What should the Position/Leadership Description tab of the activities section look like?

It’s simply your position/title. It’s OK if you didn’t hold that title during the entire period of involvement - they know that.

@Mango20

For honors, do we need to describe the organizations that we received awards from

You have to make a judgement call as to what is well-known vs. not. Lean towards not overly-describing the organization, better to write more about what you did/achieved.