What’s an Activity Sheet? Well, on The Common Application, you are given the opportunity to include “Additional Information” about yourself in the form of an Activity Sheet. This is in addition to the activity listing, where you have a dozen spaces to list extracurricular activities. The Activity Sheet is a page or more that you can format and write, and then upload directly under where you send in your core essay on the Common App.

The idea is that you can provide more details about your activities beyond those you listed in the extracurricular box. There’s considerable debate in the college counseling community as to whether you should include anything, such as an Activity Sheet or resume, and if so, how you should present it and what it should include. In a nutshell, the best advice I’ve seen is that it’s a good idea to include the Activity Sheet only if you have a specialty you want to showcase, and/or if you feel the listing of activities did not accurately represent all your interests and passions. If you do decide to include an Activity Sheet, most experts agreed on these points:

1. Don’t just duplicate what you already listed and explained in the extracurricular activities listing section. No laundry lists, please. (I would include a resume only if it doesn’t repeat what you already submitted.)

2. Keep the Activity Sheet short–one or two pages at the most.

3. Read the fine print of the colleges you are applying to to make sure they welcome these. (You could also inquire about this with your college advisor, or do a little Web research.)

I believe that if you have an area of concentration that is defining for you, I would take advantage of the Activity Sheet to highlight this. For example, if you have focused on dance, I would use this to spotlight that passion. Same with graphic design, unique jobs, an independent study project, an Eagle Scout project, acting, poetry, water polo, language study, etc. (If you need to explain a lower GPA or other academic blip in your high school record, this is an ideal place to present an explanation.) If you played water polo on the high school team, and don’t plan to play in college, I wouldn’t include an Activity Sheet on waterpolo. However, if you are on a track to play in college and possibly professionally, this could be a great place to tell that part of your story. Typically, students write these Activity Sheets on the Word or Excel file, and then convert them to PDFs, since those are easiest to upload.

If you do decide to go with an Activity Sheet, make it appealing! Use some interesting graphics, fonts and colors. I wouldn’t get carried away, but make it reflect your passion. If your passion is poetry, why not submit your best poem? Or if you are into graphic design, strut your stuff visually with a snazzy design. A fellow college essay coach has put together some wonderful templates for her clients to use to create Activity Sheets, and has shared them on her web site, Uniquely U College Essay Counseling. If nothing else, you can get an idea of the possibilities! Check out her online Activity Sheet Gallery by clicking HERE.

Still debating whether to include an Activity Sheet or not? This might help.

Most of you will write one or two “core” essays for your college applications. These essays will focus on revealing who you are and why you are unique. But you will also write numerous supplemental (shorter) essays. The good news is that many of these “supps” ask similar questions. So if you are smart, you will find ways to re-use parts of your answers and streamline the process. At the same time, you also will hone, sharpen and improve your answers.

Here are some examples of typical sup questions that are looking for similar answers:

• Why do you want to go to OUR UNIVERSITY?
• Why are you a “good match” for OUR UNIVERSITY?
• What is it that you like the best about OUR UNIVERSITY?
• How will you contribute to OUR UNIVERSITY?

Basically, there are two parts to these prompts. One: Why YOU? Two: Why COLLEGE X? Your job is show how and why they fit together. Here is a short guide on how  to do this:

1. State your main goal for your education at your target schools. To be an engineer? To get a liberal arts education? To play waterpolo? To become a filmmaker? To earn a pre-med degree? To figure out what you want to do in the future?

2. Now jot down some of your other goals for your college experience at your target schools. To meet different types of students?  To join activities that support your interests and hobbies? To connect with real-world opportunities (study abroad/internships/etc.)? To enjoy the school’s traditions and programs?

3. Now figure out how your target schools would help you meet these goals. If you are really wise, you will first take time to investigate your target schools. Start at the web site. Or recall specific facts or observations you collected during a visit. Jot down specific examples of what features will help you meet your goals: unique programs/curricula/classes, student-teacher ratios, class sizes, accolades of professors, reasons for status among other colleges, the campus (classroom buildings, architecture, dorms, gathering places),the surrounding environment (big city, small college town, etc.), size of school, vibe of student body, location in country (near mountains, close to home, etc).

4. Even though these supps are very short, it’s best to focus on (and start with) your main point—that is, the strongest way that College X meets your most important personal goal. Even better, give an example of how you believe this college will meet your most important goal. Be specific. After that, you can add other examples of how this college will meet your other goals.

Example: If you want to be an engineer, and you believe the strongest asset Collect X has for you is their intellectual, eclectic study body, then start with that. You could start by describing the type of students you noticed during a college visit, and how you relate to them. After that, include other examples, such as specific programs, activities, etc. If your main goal is to study in a big city so you can have access to real-world opportunities, describe the urban environment during a previous visit and explain why it’s important to you.

5. Once you have a list of goals and specifics about how College X would meet these goals, you are ready to write. The trick is to write it all out and don’t worry about the word limit. Once you have all your ideas out, re-read and underline the best ideas. Now re-write it and chop out the stuff you don’t need. You want to pack in your best examples and points.

6. Make sure to tweak your answers to address the different questions and schools: This should be obvious, but you will use your same personal goals but provide varying examples and details depending on the school you are writing about. For instance, if you want a college with outstanding study abroad programs, you will be as specific as possible when describing each school’s unique study abroad offerings.

A hot tip: Do not re-state the question in your answer. This takes up your precious word or character count. Launch directly into your answer.

WARNING: If you are re-using your answers and only making minor changes, you must make sure that you only talk about your target school. Re-read each supplement to triple check for any inadvertent mentions of the wrong school. If you are so certain you are a perfect match for a school, your answer had better match perfectly!!!

So you have a rough draft for one of your college essays. You answered the prompt, read it many times and believe it’s a solid piece of writing. And you may be right. But even a solid essay can have one fatal flaw–it’s boring. The last thing you want is for the admissions person to toss your well-written essay in the “read later” pile. Here are a couple tips on how to bump it up:

1: Your introduction is the most important part of the essay, since it will either grab the reader or not. Often, writers start by providing background on their topic and then get to the good stuff. Try to take out the first sentence, or two, and see if you can start farther into your story. You might have to rewrite it a bit, but often you just don’t need that general background right at the beginning. It’s best to switch it up and get right to your best example or point, and then provide the background later. If you can start with your most interesting examples or points, you will grab your reader all the faster, and that’s exactly what you want.

EXAMPLE: “When I was in high school, I played the violin in the school band. It was my favorite activity and I never missed a practice or performance. But one day, to my horror, I left my thousand-dollar violin on the school bus…” You are building up to something exciting here. Try to start right at the heart of the action, the moment you left the violin and your reaction: “As I stepped off the bus, I had the vague feeling I was missing something. But I was late for my orthodontist appointment, and ran to meet my friends. It was only later that night that it hit me: I left my thousand-dollar violin under the seat.” (And then you can go on to background your history playing the violin, etc.)

2:  Once you have your reader’s attention, you want to keep it. Again, if you find yourself making broad, sweeping generalizations or points, make sure to follow them up with specific examples. What does specific mean? Details!

EXAMPLE: You say something like: “When faced with a challenge, I always approach it directly and try to find ways to turn it into something positive…” That’s great. But this could easily get boring to read. So follow up with an example or two. “When I broke my leg and couldn’t play tennis last season, I took up ping pong and started a tournament at my school.” What you are doing is proving the general point you are making with examples. So whenever your make a point, or analyze something, or reflect upon an idea, or explain what something means, follow it up with examples.

3. The best way to “make copy sing,” as they say in the newspaper biz, is to be specific. Go through your essay and look for places where you can provide “concrete details.” Don’t just say I was in the school play; say “I played Puck in Midsummer’s Night Dream.”

EXAMPLE: “My dog ran down the street and nearly got hit by a big truck.”  With concrete details: “My 2-year-old Standard Poodle ran down the street and nearly got hit by a vintage VW camper van.”

4. Check for too many adjectives.

EXAMPLE: “I love the way the old historic, bustling city looked at night.” Instead, work on giving examples/specifics/details of how the city looked at night. The lights in the skyscrapers glowed and long lines of red taillights wound around the city blocks.

5. Work on your verbs! A strong verb can make a sentence.

EXAMPLE: “When I fell into the rushing river, my dad pulled me back into the boat.” “When I fell into the rushing river, my dad grabbed my collar and hauled me into the boat.” You don’t have to over do it, but see if there’s a more powerful verb, especially if you have a lot of “am, was, were, is, do, does, would be, etc.”

This fall, one of my tutoring students taught me a lesson about how cheating on these essays can backfire–even if you don’t get caught. He wanted to write his essay for the Common App on a trip he took to Guatamala to work with poor children. At one point, he confessed that he had not gone on that trip, but that his father had gone. When I looked at him as though I thought he was nuts, he told me, in his defense, “I helped him pack!”

What? Are you kidding me? This student kept insisting that he had no other interesting experiences that he could write about. (If you have read anything on my blog, you know that everyone has umpteen topic possibilities, and that you don’t need to travel the globe to have them.) I gave him a brief lecture about how this was completely unethical, but he only smiled and told me that “all my friends are doing this.” (If this situation weren’t more complicated than I’m describing here, I would have booted him out on the spot.)

Upon his insistence, we pressed on with this essay of the trip that didn’t happen, and as a result, the story was cliche and dull. It was only a description of what happened, and revealed nothing about the writer (How could it have?) The student is actually a great person, super bright, friendly, which made his complete lack of integrity on this issue all the more disappointing. The worst thing is I really don’t think he thought he was doing anything wrong. And I couldn’t help think about his father, who most likely put him up to this or knew about it, and how he should know better. Sad, scary stuff, if you ask me.

These things come around, though, as they say. By using a topic that was not authentic, the essay felt flat and dull. Not to mention writing about a do-gooder trip to a foreign country is cliche and on most admission experts’ topic no-no lists. If this lie is going to hurt anyone, it’s going to be that student. I wonder if his father ever thought about it that way. I will stop preaching and moralizing, but my point is that there is a reason to stay true to yourself on all levels with these essays. Like with most cheating and lying, you might feel like you get ahead of the game, but you really will only lose in the end.

I just read an interesting article in the New York Times about how high school students are seeking out exotic trips, usually to foreign countries, mainly so they will have an intriguing topic for their college essays.  (Article copied below)  I think these trips can be amazing, and that students learn a lot about other places, cultures and themselves. Yes, GO!!  But if you are lucky enough to take one of these trips, the last thing I would do is plan it so you can write a snazzy college admissions essay. I actually believe this approach can backfire. An instant turn-off to essay readers is a student who is trying to impress them.

To avoid sounding over-privileged, students should look for essay topics that focus on everyday subjects, often called “mundane topics.” Every time, the essay about a summer job where a student flipped pancakes at IHOP or washed dishes or sold shoes turned out so much better than the one where they went to Africa and lived in mud huts or helped farmers in Guatamala pull weeds. For some reason, the more basic topics feel more authentic and are naturally more interesting. And the writer comes across more humble, and likable, even.

That’s not to say that you can’t write a fine essay about a cool trip abroad. My advice is that in your search for a topic, don’t consider the trip itself the topic. Instead, focus on one thing that happened on that trip. Focus your essay on a specific experience, and just let the trip to the cool place be the background. That way, the college folks see how adventuresome you are, but you can focus your essay on something more specific and meaningful. College folks want to learn about how you think and what you value. So it’s not so much where you were or did something, but what happened, how you handled it and what you learned in the process. That’s why scooping gelato, parking cars or walking dogs can make more interesting topics than your travels around Timbuktu.

So my advice–not to sound too crass–would be if you want some good fodder for a college essay this summer, get a job!

For a Standout College Essay, Applicants Fill Their Summers

By JENNY ANDERSON

Published: August 5, 2011

The Common App requires one long essay. But it also has a short essay, a supplemental question that asks students to “briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences.”  And they mean brief, no more than 1,000 characters (about 250 words). That’s really short, about one medium-sized paragraph!

The tendency is to simply describe an activity or experience. Trouble is that this description often ends up as a broad overview–BORING!! But how the heck do you give details when you can only use a few words? Here’s the trick: You have to pick something within that activity or work experience and focus on that.

Let’s say you want to pick your cross country running as the activity. My advice is to pick something within cross country that means a lot to you, such as a quality you have learned. How about endurance? Or mental discipline. Now just zero in on how you learned that quality while running cross country, and then give an example. The example is key. It will be like a little piece of a story or a specific moment. “I developed mental discipline from the times I had to run when I had a cold, or when the last 500 feet of the race was straight uphill…I learned to use little mental games to distract myself from the physical pain and fight back the voice that told me to quit…” This will make your answer feel real and specific (and interesting), instead of general and vague (and boring.)

You can apply this approach to any activity, or work experience. If it’s football, try to pick a quality that you developed: leadership, aggressiveness, finesse, timing, whatever set you apart in that activity. If you did volunteer work, mention the organization, but quickly go into one specific task that you did and what quality you learned while doing it. If you volunteered with seniors, for example, talk about how you learned how to run the Bingo game at the senior center, and had to deal with grumpy old people, and what you learned about them and yourself in the process. (The quality you are talking about it patience, and overall social skills. I stole this example from one of my current tutoring clients who wrote a brilliant little piece about this exact topic. She threw in how they would shout at her to talk louder, “Speak up, young lady!” And even rudely questioned why she brought in a Starbucks coffee.)

As far as work experiences, same thing. What quality did you learn while serving donuts,  washing dishes, scooping gelato, bagging groceries, or babysitting? Patience? Dealing with weird people? Finding ways to make a boring job interesting? Learning new skills? Just talk about that quality you learned, and give a specific example or two. That’s it. Short and sweet.

Still want more help on this short answer? Here are a couple links with some more tips:  http://collegeapps.about.com/od/essays/tp/short-answer-mistakes.htm and http://collegeapps.about.com/od/essays/qt/short-answer-essay.htm.

Here’s the link to The Choice, in case you want to bookmark it: http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/

Below is a recent post from The Choice with some solid tips on writing college admissions essays. I really like the one expert’s advice about “loosening up” when you write your essay. I know that sounds easy, and actually can be pretty difficult when all you are used to writing are those stiff, academic essays for your English classes.  (Actually, the advice about writing an imaginary roommate sounds like a good idea, but I don’t know many students who have the time for a creative writing exercise like that. Most just want to get cranking on their actual essays!) My tip is to try to write like you talk, and just get out your story or essay or rough draft, and then you can always go back and clean it up later. (I have many other posts on how to “loosen up” and find your voice on my blog. Check out the indexed posts–listed by topic–over on the right of this page to find what you need.)

If you are writing an essay that responds to a prompt that asks you to tell about yourself, or describe a quality, characteristic, experience or accomplishment (such as the Number 2 UC personal statement prompt!), here’s one way to approach your personal narrative. Remember, “narrative” means telling a story. I’m pretty sure at some point you learned in English class that to create a story you need at least two things: a character and a conflict. So one magic way to create a personal narrative is to search your recent past for a conflict. (You are the “character.”) Again, thinking back to English class, conflicts can come from many different places–from within yourself (internal: you have a personal issue or hang-up that caused you pain or trouble) to outside yourself (external: something bad happened to you.)

To put it simply, a conflict is a problem. Problems come in all shapes and sizes. They do not need to be traumas or a crisis, although those can work, too. (HINT: Basic, everyday problems work best!
Check out this post about “mundane” topics.) Here are other words for a conflict or problems: challenge, obstacle, mistake, hang-up, issue, dilemma, fears, obsessions, etc. Examples of conflicts or problems: you are shy, competitive, stubborn, didn’t make the team, got injured, have big feet, frizzy red hair, smile too much, someone quit at your work, don’t have own car, can’t spell, adhd, ocd, don’t eat meat, perfectionist, slob, lazy, drunk driving, have a mean grandparent, no money, etc…Man, there are a lot of problems out there! But for the purposes of writing these dreaded essays, that’s a good thing for once!

Once you remember a juicy problem, follow these steps:

1. Describe the time you had a problem or describe a strong example of your problem (Include what happened and how it made you feel. Try to start at the moment it hit, or happened for the best impact!  Include the 5Ws! Stick to one or two paragraphs.)

2. Background the history of this problem (when did it start, why/how did it happen or get this way.)

3. Talk about how you dealt with that problem. What you did about it.

4. Reflect on that problem. How did you think about it? Did handling it change you in any way or how you think about things? Share your thoughts.

5. What did you learn from dealing with that problem–about yourself, others or life in general? Anything good come out of it? Talk about that.

6. (Look back at what you learned and see what personal qualities or characteristics you used or developed while dealing with this problem–aha, there’s the answer to your prompt!!)) In your conclusion, discuss how you would/could use these qualities or characteristics or what you learned in your future endeavors.

Chances are you have the beginning of a personal narrative. You told a story about yourself where you encountered a problem, and it affected you in some way that you then analyze and share with the reader. Yes, this is a formula–but it is as old as time. It’s called Telling a Story! The best thing about this style of writing is that it is also naturally very compelling to read.

What you have at this point is a rough draft–so make sure and read my other posts to learn ways to kick it into a brilliant piece of writing!!

This spring, I have also been in the thick of the college admissions craze because my son is a high school senior. And boy what a ride it has been. One of the hardest parts is the waiting–and I know some of you are STILL waiting to hear from prospective colleges and universities. Hang in there!! And then there are the rejections. My son certainly had his share, and it didn’t help that they were the first schools to report. And one was his top pick. But he cast a wide net, and now has three great options to pick from, which is the next challenge. So, it all works out! And it will work out for you, too!

We went through this with my daughter, too, two years ago, and she landed in a fabulous little liberal arts college in the south and loves it. (She’s going to study in India next semester for her study abroad!)

I’m not a college counselor, but I can share with you a couple tips that I wish I had known, or paid closer attention to, for my own kids’ college quest. I can’t say we have regrets, but we certainly learned some things as we went along. In case they resonate with you, here they are (in no particular order of importance.):

• Try as hard as you can to tune out others students and parents who talk up certain schools, especially the “prestigious” ones, and focus on what will be the best fit for you. Remember, you are the one who will go there, not them!
• Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed with all you have to do. Just keep up with the various steps, and it all works out. None of it is really that difficult. Stay open to learning about the different schools, and when you are in the area of a college or university (even if you don’t necessarily want to go there) your sophomore or junior year, drop by and check it out! Your opinions about colleges will change a lot in just a year or so.
• College counselors always talk about aiming high but having back-up schools. We learned the hard way that you should have at least one or two schools you KNOW you will get into. If nothing else, it makes any early rejections a lot easier to endure.
• As far as these essays, it is best to try to get cranking on them the summer before your senior year. For many students, they are a huge psychological obstacle, and it’s best to just get going on them as soon as possible and get them out of the way! Believe it or not, once you track down a good idea, they are not that hard to write! (Read this blog to learn how!!)

Well, enough preaching. I most likely won’t be posting very often until the next college admissions “season” kicks off this summer. But I promise to be here to help you through it–and like my own kids’ I’m confident you will land in a good place!!  Good luck!

I heard of Wordling from a gardening friend over at a totally unrelated blog, called Lost in the Landscape. (Believe it or not, I do other things than read college essays!) Wordling is a program where you can drop in some text and it creates a colorful collage of random words in unusual fonts, and it also makes the words you use the most the most prominent. The idea is that you can get a visual sense of what you emphasized in your writing. (Above is a Wordle of this post! Click the image to enlarge.)

So, guess what I thought would be fun to Wordle? You got it (see, that’s why you are on your way to college!!)–college admissions essays!  In my previous post, I told you my son just finished submitting all his applications. So I Wordled one of his two essays (for the University of California application–basically personal statements about 500 words each).  Then I dug out one of my daughter’s recent college essays. I bet you will be able to see that they are very different in their interests:

My son’s Wordle (click on it to make larger)

My daughter’s Wordle. It’s an essay she wrote for a study abroad application (click on it to make it bigger):

Make your own Wordle: Click the word Wordle here to link to the site. Then just copy and paste in your essay, and see what pops up. It’s really just for fun–but you can also get a visual read on what words and ideas you are emphasizing.

Ok, so I get a little carried away with things I like. I just Wordled my entire No Fear College Admissions Essays blog:

What’s next to Wordle??