Common App Activities List: Field by Field

It's tempting to treat the activities list as one box: the 150-character description. You spend an evening polishing those sentences, then rush through everything around them — the activity type, the grade levels, the hours — as if those were paperwork.

They aren't. Each activity entry is a small record, and a reader takes in the whole record together: what kind of thing it is, which years you did it, how much of your week it took, and what role you had. Before a reader has weighed a single adjective, those fields have already said whether this was a real commitment.

We've already covered which activities make your list and what order they go in, plus the basic rule of verbs and numbers over adjectives. This post covers what that one didn't: the other fields, jobs and family responsibilities, and fitting real impact into 150 characters. If you're applying early, your deadline may be days away, so check each college's date and use this as your final pass.

What Changed This Cycle

Common App's 2026–27 updates rename this section Activities and experiences, with instructions revised to better capture commitments beyond high school, and they make the position/leadership field optional.

The character limits didn't move. You can list up to 10 activities, and each gets 50 characters for your position, 100 for the organization name, and 150 for the description. Since last cycle, the section has also included a separate checklist-style question about responsibilities and circumstances. More on that below.

The Fields Everyone Rushes

Activity type

It's a dropdown. Pick the closest honest match: if a job paid you, file it as work, not service. If nothing fits, Common App's own guidance is to choose "Other Club/Activity" and clarify in the position and description fields. Don't game the label; a reader notices "community service" sitting above a paid job.

Grade levels

Check only the years you actually participated. Four checked boxes say "sustained commitment" before a reader has seen a word of the description. One box next to a club you joined this fall is fine too, as long as the description doesn't pretend otherwise.

Two rules from Common App's support center: summer activities count toward the grade you were entering, so a job the summer between 9th and 10th grade goes under 10th. And if you fill this out before senior year starts, you can check 12th grade for an activity you plan to do that year.

Hours per week and weeks per year

Common App says that if you can't remember exactly, a best guess is fine. Make it an honest guess, not a generous one: a typical week while the activity is running, not your busiest week, and only the weeks it actually runs.

Then run one sanity check: add up your hours per week for everything that happens during the school year. If that total, plus school and sleep, doesn't fit inside a real week, something is inflated.

The flip side matters just as much. If you really do work 20 hours a week during the school year, or you're home every afternoon with younger siblings, put the real number down. That number is context, and it changes how a reader sees the rest of your file.

The other questions on the screen

Read every question on the entry. Beyond the text boxes and the hours, the entry may ask a few quick follow-up questions, and the exact questions can shift between cycles. Answer them plainly; a reader is checking that they fit the rest of the entry, not grading a yes/no.

Position/leadership, now optional

If you didn't have a title, leave it blank rather than inventing one. But if you had a real role, treat this as 50 more characters of description. "Shift lead, weekend closing crew" tells a reader something. "Member" tells them nothing, and now that the field is optional, a blank is a perfectly honest answer.

Organization name

For anything formal, use the name an outsider would recognize and spell out acronyms; your school's club nickname means nothing outside your school. For informal things, name what it actually is: "Self-employed: neighborhood bike repair" or "Family household."

Jobs, Family Responsibilities, and Things Nobody Gave You a Title For

Common App's own guide to this section asks: "Did you have family responsibilities, a job, internship, or volunteer work? What about hobbies or sports?" These belong on your list as much as any club.

Family responsibilities. Common App's support center says these are "different from chores in that you are meeting an important need for your family as opposed to simply lending a hand." Its examples include supervising a younger sibling, regularly assisting a grandparent, routinely handling cooking, cleaning, and errands, and working to provide family income. It also says that knowing about these responsibilities helps admission officers put your academic and extracurricular record in context.

So use both tools. Answer the responsibilities and circumstances checklist, and if the responsibility takes real hours every week, give it an activity slot too. The checklist tells a reader it exists; the entry shows what it involves: what you do, how often, and what it makes possible. No apology, no adjectives.

Jobs. A paid job shows that adults trusted you with money, customers, or other people's time. Describe the trust, not the duties anyone in the role would have: what you were allowed to handle alone, who you trained, what changed after you'd been there a while. If your wages go toward household expenses, say so plainly. That isn't a sob story. It's a fact about your week.

Self-started and informal activities. The risk is that a reader can't tell how real it is, so the description has to prove it: output, audience, frequency, money raised, people served. "Built a website" could mean anything. "Built the online order form my aunt's bakery uses for 30+ orders a week" can only mean one thing.

Fitting Real Impact Into 150 Characters

Common App's own guidance admits the space is tight and that you may need to "abbreviate words and simplify your grammar." Here's how, without turning it into code:

1. Start with a verb. Drop the "I" and most articles.
2. Cut anything another field already says. Common App's own sample edit takes the time out of a description "because that information is reported elsewhere in the section."
3. Use numerals and symbols. "3" not "three," "&" not "and," semicolons between clauses.
4. Include one scope marker: how many people, how often, how much.
5. End on a result, not a duty. What exists now that didn't before you showed up?
6. Keep it readable. Abbreviate common words ("wk," "yr"), but never invent shorthand a stranger can't decode.

Before and After: Five Rewrites

These are made-up illustrations, not real students, but the patterns are common ones.

A paid job

• Before: "Worked as a cashier at a local grocery store. I am a very responsible and hardworking employee who always helps customers."
• After: "Run register & self-checkout on weekend shifts; trained 3 new cashiers; one of 2 students trusted to close and count out drawers."

The before describes a personality. The after describes trust, which says more about you than any adjective could.

A family responsibility

• Before: "I help take care of my younger brothers after school because my parents work late. It taught me responsibility and patience."
• After: "Pick up brothers (7 & 10) from school daily; cook dinner 4 nights/wk; run homework time so parents can work evening shifts."

Put "Caregiver for two younger brothers" in the position field, add honest hours, and this entry explains your afternoons without a word of self-description.

A self-started project

• Before: "I started my own bike repair business because I have always been passionate about bikes and helping my community."
• After: "Taught myself repair from online manuals; fixed 60+ neighbors' bikes for cost of parts; refurbished & donated 12 bikes to a shelter."

"Passionate" is a claim. Sixty bikes is evidence.

Volunteer work

• Before: "Volunteered at the food pantry helping people in need. This experience taught me the importance of giving back to others."
• After: "Stock shelves & run Saturday intake; redesigned sign-in that cut family wait from ~40 to ~15 min; recruited 6 classmates for a 2nd shift."

What you learned belongs in an essay, if anywhere. The list is for what you did and what changed.

A sport, with the repetition cut

• Before: "Varsity Soccer Team Captain at my high school for 4 years, 10 hours a week. Hardworking and dedicated team leader."
• After: "Run off-season conditioning for 20 teammates; organize back line on game days; built film-review routine coach now uses team-wide."

Put "Captain, starting center back" in the position field. Title, school, years, and hours all have their own fields, so the after spends every character on things no other field can say.

Common Activities List Mistakes

• Repeating other fields in the description. If "Captain" is in the position field, it doesn't belong in the description too.
• Feelings instead of facts. "Passionate," "dedicated," "learned so much." Cut them all.
• Leaving off work and family because they don't feel impressive. They're often the entries that change how a reader sees the whole file.
• Splitting one commitment into several entries to look busier. Two entries from the same organization with overlapping descriptions read as padding.
• Numbers that don't match the rest of the application. If your essay says three years and your list checks two, someone will notice.

How the List Works With Your Essay and Supplements

The activities list is your evidence: breadth, time, and results, compressed. The personal essay is depth: one story, one way of thinking, often about something that isn't on the list at all. Supplements answer each college's own questions. When the three repeat each other, a reader learns the same fact three times and nothing else.

• If your essay is about an activity, let the list carry the facts. The entry holds the hours, the role, and the result, so the essay can spend every word on what it meant and how you think.
• When a supplement asks about an extracurricular, pick one with a story 150 characters couldn't hold.
• Use Additional Information sparingly. Common App notes you can use it to elaborate on an activity. Save it for context the fields can't hold, like a work schedule that explains a semester, and keep it to a few sentences.
• Read the whole application in one sitting, the way a reader would. Every piece should add something new.

A Final Pass Before You Submit

1. Strike anything in a description that another field already says.
2. Add up your school-year hours and confirm they fit in a real week.
3. Check grade levels, with summers under the rising grade.
4. Make sure every description starts with a verb and ends with a result.
5. Cross-check names, years, and numbers against your essay and supplements.

If you'd like an expert second read before you submit, our hourly Application Review includes a line-by-line review of your activities list, alongside your essays and supplements.