How to Write the Common App Activities List (2026-2027)

The Common App activities list — renamed “Activities and Experiences” for 2026-2027 — gives you up to 10 entries to record extracurriculars, jobs, family responsibilities, and independent projects. Each entry has a now-optional position title (50 characters), an organization name (100 characters), a description (150 characters), and hours-per-week and weeks-per-year fields. Strong descriptions start with an action verb, name concrete results and numbers, and use shorthand instead of sentences. List your most significant commitment first, fill only the slots you've genuinely earned (ten is a ceiling, not a target), and report hours honestly: a typical in-season week, with the weeks field showing how long the season runs.

The Common App activities list is one of the most important parts of your application. You get up to 10 slots to show an admissions officer who you are outside the classroom: what you've built, led, or committed to over four years. Most students treat it as a form to fill in. Those who do it well treat it as a chance to be understood by admissions officers.

This guide covers everything: what counts as an activity, how to order your list, how to write descriptions that actually land in 150 characters, how to handle hours and weeks honestly, and what the honors section is really for. It's the same approach I use with every student I work with one-on-one.

What Is the Common App Activities List?

The Common App activities list is a structured section of the Common Application where you record your extracurricular activities, jobs, family responsibilities, and independent projects. For 2026-2027, it's been renamed “Activities and Experiences,” which is worth knowing because the name change signals something real: the Common App is explicitly inviting you to include things that don't fit the traditional club-and-sport model.

You get up to 10 entries. Each one has five fields:

• Activity type (a dropdown menu)

• Position or leadership title (50 characters)

• Organization name (100 characters)

• Description of what you did (150 characters)

• Grade levels, timing, hours per week, and weeks per year

The position and leadership field is now optional for 2026-2027. For years, students invented titles like “Member” or “Participant” for entries that didn't have a real role. You no longer have to. If you spent 15 hours a week helping run your family's restaurant, you can describe what you did without manufacturing a job title.

One thing worth understanding about the character limits: the position field (50 characters) and the organization name field (100 characters) are separate from your description. That means information you put in those two fields doesn't eat into your 150-character description. Use them. A student who writes “Editor in Chief” in the position field and “The Roosevelt Review, Lincoln High School” in the organization field has already told the reader two important things before the description even starts.

Why the Activities List Matters More Than Students Think

Most students pour everything into the personal statement and treat the activities list as an afterthought. That's a mistake.

Admissions officers at selective schools often read the activities list before they read your essay, because it gives them a quick picture of how you actually spend your time. An essay can say anything. The activities list is harder to fake. It shows your interests and your commitment.

I've done Zoom calls with students who have impressive records but lists that make them look ordinary, because they described everything in the vaguest possible terms. “Participated in debate” tells a reader almost nothing. “Reached elimination rounds at 6 national tournaments; coached 4 novice debaters to first state placement” tells them something real.

The list doesn't need to be impressive in a résumé sense. It needs to be honest and specific. Specific work and true details speak for themselves. Adjectives don't.

What Counts as an Activity

Students often think the activities list is for clubs and sports. It's not. It's for any sustained way you use your time outside of required coursework, and admissions officers define that generously.

Traditional extracurriculars are the obvious ones: varsity athletics, orchestra, student government, debate, robotics. But the list has room for a lot more than that.

Paid work belongs here. A summer job at a grocery store, a weekend shift at a restaurant, tutoring for pay: these are real commitments that show something true about you and your life. Don't leave them off because they feel ordinary. An admissions officer reading your file wants to understand your life.

Family responsibilities belong here too. If you've been translating for your parents, caring for a younger sibling after school, or helping manage a family business, that is a genuine commitment of your time and energy. The optional leadership field makes it easier to include these without inventing a title.

Independent work belongs here. A coding project you built from scratch, a novel you've been writing, a YouTube channel you run, a small business you started: if it's taken up real time and produced real results, it goes on the list.

When you're deciding whether something belongs, ask one question: does this tell a reader something true about how I actually live my weeks? If yes, include it. If it was a one-time thing that didn't amount to much, skip it.

How to Order Your Activities

The Common App lets you arrange your activities in any order, and that order is a decision. Admissions officers assume the entry at the top is the one that matters most to you. Don't put your most significant commitment in slot four because you started it late or because it doesn't sound impressive.

My rule: the first entry should be your strongest commitment in terms of time and depth. Not the most prestigious-sounding one. Not the one with the best title. The one where you put in the most real work over the longest period of time.

From there, I generally put something related to the first entry second if I can, then the student's second biggest commitment third, and make judgment calls about the rest.

A few things to keep in mind when you're deciding on order:

Depth beats prestige. A four-year commitment where you built something usually outranks a prestigious summer program you attended for six weeks. The summer program might be worth listing, but it probably doesn't belong at the top.

Time matters, but it's not everything. Hours per week tell part of the story, but so does what you actually did with those hours. Use judgment.

When two entries feel equally significant, put the one with the clearer, more concrete result first. It sets the tone for how the reader moves through everything below it.

How Many Activities Should You List?

Ten is a ceiling, not a target. Seven strong entries read better than ten thin ones.

This is the part students find hardest to accept, because the empty slots feel like wasted space. They're not. A slot filled with an activity you did twice senior year, or a club where you showed up but didn't do anything, tells the reader something you probably don't want them to know: that you padded the list.

I've worked with students who had eight genuinely strong entries and felt pressure to add two more. The reader's attention is not unlimited. Every weak entry you add dilutes the entries that are actually good.

The question to ask for every entry you're unsure about: if an admissions officer reads this and then looks up at me, what do I want them to be thinking? If the honest answer is “nothing in particular,” cut it.

Fill the slots you've earned. Leave the rest empty.

How to Write a Strong Description in 150 Characters

This is where most lists either win or lose, and the good news is that the rules are simple.

Start with a verb. Open every description with an action word that shows what you did. Not “responsible for” or “helped with.” A verb. Founded, built, led, coached, raised, designed, taught, organized, wrote, negotiated, grew. The verb does two things at once: it saves characters, and it tells the reader immediately that something happened.

Show results, not roles. Your title tells a reader what you were called. Your description should tell them what changed because you were there. Whenever you can, attach a number or a concrete outcome: members recruited, dollars raised, audience size, a competition placement, a product shipped, a person helped. “Increased club membership from 12 to 47 over two years” is more useful than “worked to grow club membership.” If nothing is quantifiable, name the concrete thing you produced.

Write shorthand, not sentences. 150 characters is not enough room for a complete sentence. Drop articles (“the,” “a”) where meaning survives. Use semicolons to stack accomplishments. Abbreviate where it stays clear. The goal is density. Every character should carry information.

Use the other fields. Remember that your position title and organization name have their own character limits. Information you put there doesn't come out of your 150-character description. If your title was “Varsity Captain” and the organization was your school's soccer team, you've already told the reader both of those things before the description starts. Use your description for what you actually did, not for repeating what's already in the other fields.

Here's what the difference looks like in practice:

Weak: Served as captain of the varsity soccer team and helped lead practices and motivate teammates.

Strong: Led 22-player roster; ran 3 weekly practices; team reached state semifinals for the first time in 11 years.

Same student. Same activity. The second one says what actually happened.

Before and After: Four Activity Description Rewrites

Here are four rewrites across different activity types. Each one starts with a weak version that represents what most students submit, and ends with a stronger version that follows the rules above.

A club leadership role

Weak: President of the Environmental Club. Organized meetings and events and worked to raise awareness about environmental issues on campus.

Strong: Founded school composting program; recruited 40 volunteers, diverted est. 2 tons of waste; secured $1,500 district grant.

A paid job

Weak: Worked part-time at a local bakery during junior and senior year. Helped with customer service and food preparation.

Strong: Opened store 5 mornings/week before school; trained 3 new hires; managed weekend register independently for 18 months.

A family responsibility

Weak: Helped care for younger siblings after school and assisted parents with various household tasks.

Strong: Provided daily after-school care for two siblings (ages 6, 9); translated medical and school documents for parents weekly.

An independent project

Weak: Created a personal finance app as a coding project. Used Python and worked on it during my free time.

Strong: Built personal finance app in Python; 340+ downloads; added budgeting feature after user feedback in v2 release.

In each case, the stronger version leads with a verb, names real numbers, and tells you what actually happened. None of them use a complete sentence. All of them fit in 150 characters.

Hours Per Week and Weeks Per Year

Every entry on the activities list asks you to report hours per week and weeks per year. Students consistently underestimate how much these numbers matter and how carefully admissions officers read them.

Hours per week. Most activities don't happen at a steady pace. Debate heats up before tournaments. Theater takes over your life during tech week and goes quiet between productions. For activities like these, the right number is what a typical week looks like when the activity is in full swing, not your single most intense week ever, and not an average spread across the whole year including the quiet stretches. If your sport runs 15 hours a week during the season, report 15. Then use the weeks field to show how long that season actually runs.

Weeks per year. This is where the two fields work together. A school-year club that meets during the academic year: use 36. Don't use 52 unless you genuinely do the activity every single week of the year, including summers, holidays, and breaks. Reporting 52 weeks for a school-year activity creates a quiet red flag with an experienced reader. It doesn't add up, and admissions officers notice.

Summer activities. For the grade levels field, list the grade you were going into at the time. A program you did the summer before senior year goes under grade 12, not grade 11.

When you're genuinely unsure. It's fine to estimate. The Common App says so explicitly. But estimate honestly, not generously.

The Honors and Awards Section

The honors and awards section sits just below the activities list on the Common App. It asks: “Do you wish to report any honors related to your academic achievements?” Despite the word “academic,” it's generally fine to include significant awards and honors from any area of your life, not just the classroom.

You get up to five entries, with 100 characters each.

A few principles for writing strong entries:

Specify what the award means. “Beacon Award” tells a reader nothing. “Beacon Award: given to 1 student/yr for service to school community” tells them what it is, who gets it, and why it matters.

Name the selectivity. “First place” is much more useful when the reader knows the field. “1st place, state science fair (280 teams)” is better than “1st place, science fair.”

Spell out acronyms. Some are universally known (AP, NHS). Many aren't. When in doubt, spell it out in the first reference.

Stack related awards if needed. If you have more than five awards worth listing, you can group connected ones into a single entry. “DECA: 2x Regional Champion, State Champion, International Finalist” is one entry that covers three results.

Include money if there was money. A scholarship or prize amount is concrete information that tells the reader something about the significance of the award.

If you haven't won formal awards, don't worry about it. Many schools don't offer them, many activities aren't competitive, and admissions officers understand this. Leave the section blank rather than filling it with participation certificates that don't signal anything meaningful.

Common Mistakes on the Common App Activities List

Padding the list. Adding weak entries to fill slots. Every thin entry makes the good ones less visible.

Describing the activity instead of your role in it. “Model UN is a program where students simulate the United Nations” wastes every one of your 150 characters. The reader knows what Model UN is. Tell them what you did.

Vague verbs. “Helped with,” “assisted in,” “participated in.” These say you were present, not that you did anything. Replace them with what you actually did.

Copying the title into the description. If your title field says “Captain” and your description starts with “Served as captain,” you've wasted roughly 20 characters repeating information already on the page.

Inflated hours. Reporting your single most intense week as your standard weekly commitment, or using 52 weeks for a school-year activity. Experienced readers notice when the numbers don't add up.

Leaving out jobs and family responsibilities. These are real commitments. They belong on the list.

Using complete sentences. The format doesn't call for them, and the character limit doesn't have room for them.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Common App Activities List

What is the Common App activities list?

The Common App activities list is a section of the Common Application where you record up to 10 extracurricular activities, jobs, family responsibilities, and independent projects. Each entry includes a position title, organization name, a 150-character description of what you did, and the hours and weeks you committed to it. For 2026-2027, the section is called “Activities and Experiences,” and the position field is optional.

How many activities should I list on the Common App?

List as many as you've genuinely earned, up to 10. If you have six strong entries, list six. Filling every slot with thin or weak entries makes your list worse, not more complete. Quality matters more than quantity.

What counts as an activity on the Common App?

Almost any sustained commitment outside required coursework: clubs, sports, arts, paid jobs, family responsibilities like caring for siblings or translating for parents, and independent projects like apps you built or businesses you started. The 2026-2027 optional leadership field makes it easier to include experiences without a formal title.

How do I write a good activities list description in 150 characters?

Start with a strong action verb, name a concrete result or number, and cut filler words. Use shorthand, not sentences. Stack accomplishments with semicolons. Put information about your title and organization in their own fields so it doesn't eat into your 150-character description.

In what order should I list my activities on the Common App?

Put your most significant commitment first, meaning the one where you invested the most time and did the most real work over the longest period. Admissions officers treat the first entry as the most important, so don't bury your best entry because it doesn't sound prestigious.

How do I report hours per week on the Common App?

Report what a typical week looks like when the activity is in full swing, not your single most intense week and not an average spread across the whole year. If your sport runs 15 hours a week during the season, report 15, and use the weeks field to show how long the season runs. Use 36 weeks for a school-year activity, not 52, unless you genuinely do it every week of the year.

Do I have to fill out the honors and awards section?

No. If you don't have meaningful awards or honors to report, leave it blank. Filling it with participation certificates or minor recognitions that don't signal anything sends the wrong message.

Can I use the additional information section to add more about an activity?

Yes. If an activity is too complex to describe in 150 characters, write a focused description in the activities list and note “See Additional Information” at the end. Use the additional information section to add context, not to repeat what you already wrote.