Perfect 10: Writing the Common Application Activity List

On the Common Application, you will be asked to list a variety of basic biographical information that ranges from you parents’ occupations to your address. You will be asked your academic history; you will be asked for your test scores; you will, crucially, be asked for your activity list. 

The activity list is exactly what it sounds like: a concise summary of your extracurricular engagements from grade 9 to grade 12. You are asked to list these based on the number of years you’ve spent on each activity, number of weeks per year, and number of hours per week. You must give your designation for each activity; you must also submit a 150 character activity description, which is where the craft of activity list creation begins.

Submitting a well-written activity list is the most important thing you can do in order to demonstrate the scope of your academic and extracurricular engagement to admissions teams. This is the perfect place to summarise your profile — a coherent and demonstrated record of increasing engagement with your chosen academic field, from Grade 9 up to Grade 12.

The Common App form allows you to input 10 activities, each with a description of just 150 characters (including spaces)! The UC form is much more generous with the space it provides you: 20 activities which can be described in 500 characters each. Application forms for UIUC, ApplyTexas, and Canadian universities have their own word counts and specifications, but most effective activity lists are structured according to similar principles.

We’re here to help you develop an impressive activity list that shows colleges just how proactive, focused, yet diverse you are in your interests and pursuits. Here’s some tips to get you started:

1. Order your activities based on degree of importance.

   • Activities in which you have invested a lot of time and effort deserve a place at the top of the list, as do selective or credit-bearing programs.

2. Focus on your scope of action.

   • In the limited space you have, you want colleges to know in what capacity you have contributed to a certain initiative or program — it will give them an indication of how you might benefit their university campus in the future.

3. Numbers are just as important!

   • If your social project has directly impacted a large number of lives, you have raised significant amounts of money for a specific cause, or you hold an impressive sports ranking, it’s a big deal — let colleges know what you are capable of achieving.

4. Some things are bound to be left out.

   • We know you’ve done 2 summer schools, volunteered at 3 NGOs, and interned at 5 publication houses, but there’s no way everything you’ve ever done can be included in this concise list. Remember to be selective and only choose the activities that demonstrate your best personal achievements.

An Example

Let’s see what a bad Common App entry looks like:

Founder of XYZ Initiative
Istarted an innovative social project called XYZ which works towards the objective of making quality education accessible to all sections of society.
(150 characters)

Why is this a bad entry?

To begin with, it violates Rule 2 — it gives the reader no specifics about what you’ve done with regard to this project. Second, 150 characters is just not enough space to write a long sentence with extraneous descriptives; in fact, your description can comprise just phrases explaining your engagement in the project and its impact.

How can you fix this entry?

Founder, XYZ Initiative
Worked to widen access to quality education; partnered with NGO ABC; developed educational content for students of Class 3; conducted 10 workshops
(146 characters)

Take your time to think about why this version works better to showcase your profile. Understand these simple tips, and you’re on your way to the college of your dreams!

Tongue-Twisters: An Essai Guide to the TOEFL & IELTS Exams

If you are planning to study abroad in an English-speaking country for your Bachelor’s Degree or Master’s Degree, you will most likely have to submit either an IELTS or TOEFL score. The TOEFL and IELTS are two of the most widely-accepted tests to certify your English proficiency, which determine your English level by assessing your reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. 

So, what exactly is the IELTS?

IELTS is an abbreviation for International English Language Testing System. The test is available in two formats: ‘IELTS Academic’, for those planning to study at a higher education level abroad; and ‘IELTS General Training’, which focuses on social skills and workplace contexts. In this piece, we will focus on IELTS Academic.

The IELTS test uses British English and consists of four parts: reading, listening, writing and speaking. It takes two hours and 45 minutes to complete, including transfer time from one section to the next. In India, the IELTS exam is offered by two institutions: the British Council and an Australian organization known as the IDP. At essai, we prefer to use the services of IDP, as they offer both a paper-based IELTS exam in addition to the computer-based IELTS exam. Additionally, the design of the IDP tests allows you to send all of your scores through an online portal. In contrast, if you take the exam administered by the British Council, you have to physically send your documents and a demand draft signed by your bank to the British Council office in Gurgaon in order to send your scores.

And what about the TOEFL?

TOEFL is an acronym for Test of English as a Foreign Language. It is an English proficiency test, developed by an American company, ETS, to measure an individual’s reading, speaking, writing, and listening proficiency in American English. There are two methods of taking this test; it can be taken as a Paper-Based Test (TOEFL PBT) or an Internet-Based Test (TOEFL IBT); TOEFL IBT, however, is more popular. The test takes four hours to complete. 

Comparing IELTS and TOEFL

For the UK, you can submit a TOEFL score for your application; however, only the IELTS UKVI, is accepted to support the UK Visa and Immigration application. But for Canada and the US, both the TOEFL or IELTS will work across all universities. For admissions purposes, both have equal weightage — however, if you are determined to attend a UK university, you’re better off with IELTS.

But do you really need to take these exams?

Kind of. Most colleges require you to submit TOEFL or IELTS scores if you do not hold a degree from a U.S. institution or from one of the English speaking countries (India doesn’t count). This might seem odd to you, as English has probably been the primary medium of instruction at school throughout our academic journey. Along with this, you’ve probably also taken the ACT or SAT examinations (which already test your skills in English). It is important to note therefore, that while the system is flawed, there are some ways in which you can get around these requirements.   

It is possible for you to request a waiver for these English language proficiency exams — but first, you are expected to satisfy different conditions by different universities. Sometimes you can be automatically exempted, based on ACT/SAT score; sometimes, you have to send in an English Proficiency Certificate; sometimes, you have to write and request a waiver; and sometimes, you simply have to take the TOEFL/IELTS.

Depending on the the university requirements, you may be required to specify the particulars if not already covered as an automatic exemption. In such cases, the admissions committees will most likely evaluate the validity of the waiver request on a case by case basis. Here’s a list that covers the TOEFL/IELTS waiver policy of different universities:

College Name	Score Exemption Policy	Form / Admissions Email
Babson	SAT Evidence Based Reading and Writing: 650 or higher ACT English: 27 or higher	ugradadmission@babson.edu
Bentley	Earned a score of 650 or higher on the SAT Evidenced-Based Reading and Writing section. Earned an ACT reading and English score of 29 or higher.	ugadmission@bentley.edu
Boston College	You score 650 or above on the SAT EBRW or 29 or better on the ACT English section.	bclawadm@bc.edu.
Boston Uni	Waiver requests must be received by the application deadline and must accompany a complete application (no specific exemption policy)	admissions@bu.edu
Brown	Brown does not require a test of English proficiency, but our most competitive applicants whose main language of instruction throughout high school is not English will submit the IELTS/TOEFL.	admission@brown.edu
Boston Uni	Waiver requests must be received by the application deadline and must accompany a complete application (no specific exemption policy)	admissions@bu.edu
Chapman	600 on the SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing. 24 on both the ACT English and Reading sections (studying in English schools makes them automatically review you for a waiver)	admit@chapman.edu
Claremont Mckenna	A waiver can be granted for students whose primary language of instruction throughout high school was English.	admission@claremontmckenna.edu
CMU	No Waiver	admission@andrew.cmu.edu
Cornell	A score of at least 35 on the SAT Reading Test OR a score of 30 or higher on both the ACT Reading and English Sections.	admissions@cornell.edu
Dartmouth	If you currently attend a secondary or post-secondary academic program conducted in English, then this testing requirement is waived.	admissions.reply@dartmouth.edu
Emory	SAT Evidence Based Reading and Writing: 700+ ACT English: 30+ 4 years in English school	admission@emory.edu
GWU	SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing or Critical Reasoning: 650+ ACT English: 29+	gwadm@gwu.edu
University of Indiana	SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing - 560 ACT English section - 21
Northwestern	English-medium school will qualify kids for waiver	admission@northwestern.edu
Notre Dame	SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing: 650+ ACT English or Reading: 26+	admissions@nd.edu
NYU	Your education has been completed entirely in schools/colleges/universities where the language of instruction is English.	admissions.ops@nyu.edu
Santa Clara	ACT Reading: 27 and ACT English: 27 SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing: 630	admission@scu.edu
UMass Amherst	Entire secondary education (four years) is at a school where English is the primary language of instruction and the British or American curriculum is followed	mail@admissions.umass.edu
UNC-Chapel Hill	Waiver granted on case-by-case basis	unchelp@admissions.unc.edu
UPenn	No Waiver	info@admissions.upenn.edu
USC	650 on the SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing exam (redesigned SAT) OR 27 on the ACT English exam	admissions@usc.edu admitusc@usc.edu

Show Me the Money! Essai's Guide to Merit Scholarships

Applying to university in the US can be an expensive affair — not just tuition costs, but accommodation, meal plans, stationery, and flights. Only 5 universities (MIT, Princeton, Yale, Harvard, and Amherst) are need-blind towards international students, and, needless to say, these colleges are not easy to get into. 

Nonetheless, a number of other top-ranked universities make merit-based scholarships available to international undergraduate applicants. Some of these are internal, and do not require additional essays; some are internal, and require extra essays (and have different deadlines); some are external, and awarded by independent bodies.

Here’s essai’s guide to making that US undergraduate degree within your reach:

The Robertson Scholars Leadership Program
If you choose to apply to Duke University or the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, you can apply for the Robertson Scholarship which covers full tuition, board, lodge, and other mandatory college fees. With a deadline of November 15, you need to submit three 500-word essays about your intellectual interests and leadership style.

Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt’s three big scholarships — the Ingrams Scholarship Program, the Cornelius Vanderbilt Scholarship, and the Chancellor’s Scholarship — reward commitment to service, academic achievement, and demonstrated leadership. While the Ingrams Scholarship requires three 500-word essays, Cornelius and Chancellor’s require only one 500-word answer each. Each of these scholarships has a December 1 deadline, and decision notifications are usually out by mid-March.

Wake Forest University
From the Stamps Scholarship to the Guy T. Carswell Scholarships, Wake Forest offers a number of merit-based scholarships that do not require an external application. All you need to do is submit a completed application before December 1. Additionally, it is recommended that you complete the optional interview that is part of the regular application process.

What’s more exciting is that Wake Forest also offers a talent-based scholarship — the Presidential Scholarship for Distinguished Achievement. If you’re a visual artist, dancer, musician, debater, or theatre practitioner, you should complete this application with a recommendation from someone familiar with your talent, a portfolio of your work, and preferably, the admissions interview. To increase your chances of earning this scholarship, you should apply by November 15. 

University of Southern California
USC offers a range of scholarships of varying amounts, with the Mork Family Scholarship covering full tuition as well as providing a stipend. With about 6 other scholarships — including the Trustee and Presidential Scholarships, and the International Freshman Academic award — open to international undergraduate applicants, opportunities are plenty. You’re automatically considered for all of these, so get ready to submit a completed application to USC by their December 1 deadline!

Tulane University
Apply to Tulane EA or — with additional scholarship essays — to be considered for the Paul Tulane or Deans’ Honor Scholarship. An extremely competitive application process, scholarship recipients from the past 3 years have had ACT scores of over 31 or SAT scores higher than 1400.

If you apply to either of the above scholarships, you’re automatically considered for the Stamps Scholarship as well, and the Global Scholarship has no additional application at all!

Tata Scholarship
The Tata Scholarship, while externally-instituted, is available only to students who have received an offer of admission from Cornell for any undergraduate program. This scholarship, however, is based on demonstrated need; it also requires you to be an Indian citizen with a sufficiently high TOEFL or IELTS score.

Next Genius
Next Genius rewards meritorious students who are currently in Grade 12 or on a gap year. Open only to Indian citizens, this award is given out even before the college application process begins. Being a Next Genius means that you will be supported as you apply to any of their partner universities in the US, and if accepted, Next Genius covers your tuition fee, either partially or completely.

Six Easy Pieces

This is part of a blog series by Nicholas Henderson on the Do’s, Don’ts, and Dangers of the US college application process.

When it comes to applying to American universities, it is tempting to think that each college will consider the nuances, special circumstances, and unique complexity of each applicant’s character, history, and potential. They will see the real you. They will understand your specific strengths. They will generously understand your limitations.

This is false.

In reality, the application process is highly proscriptive, in which certain kinds of information are valued far more than others. The result is that each college will only get to know certain aspects of each applicant – aspects which reflect the institutional priorities of American colleges. It’s an imperfect system with many holes and pitfalls. But the upside is that knowing which information is important – and knowing how, where, and when to emphasize this information – will leave you a greater chance to communicate your individual message, meaning, and motivation. It’s a game, and like any game, you can win or you can lose: it all depends on knowing how to play by the rules.

What follows are the Six Easy Pieces of any US college application. This is all the data each college receives about any applicant, so take heed: your very future depends on it.

1.     School Grades. These are by far the most important metric for colleges, which will look for the rigor and relevance of your courses, as well as your informal rank (the first pool of candidates you’ll be compared against are other people from your school). The simple fact is that no amount of profile-building and ACT scores will offset poor grades. So study hard.

2.     Test Scores. It’s a sad truth that American colleges care about test scores. A lot. A few years ago, tier-one private colleges Emory and Claremont McKenna got in trouble for falsifying their student scores (pretending they were higher than they actually were); to this day, incoming student ACT/SAT score remain one of the biggest components of the all-important college rankings.

3.     Letters of Recommendation. You have the option to submit two academic LORs, one counselor/principal LOR, and up to two external LORs for each college. These are a great chance to showcase your strengths and explain your weaknesses, while corroborating the other aspects of your profile to create a unified and coherent whole.

4.     Activities List. On the Common Application portal, you’ll have the chance to submit short descriptions of ten activities, and it is important you have ten things to write about. This is meant to give the colleges a picture of what you’ve been doing outside the classroom since grade 9 (the way your school grades/LORs give colleges a picture of what you’ve been doing inside the classroom since grade 9). You’ll be asked to rank your activities in term of numbers of years committed, number of weeks per year involved, and number of hours per week engaged.

5.     Common Application Essay. This is the fun part of the application. The Common Application essay (650 words) is a chance to showcase your quirks and questions, your habits and hobbies, and your outlook and opinions. Most Indian students make two common mistakes: they brag too much (save that for the LORs!) or they stay too strictly biographical (save that for the Activities List!). Great Common Application Essays are risky, bold, provocative, and memorable. Above all, they are personal, and they are real.

6.     Supplemental Essays. This is the challenging part of the application. Almost every college will ask you to write a few additional pieces, which invariably will require you to discuss “why do you want to come to this college?” and “why do you want to study your subject?” Being able to answer these by pointing to selected extracurricular and academic activities from your profile – in conjunction with sophisticated and specific discussion of intended college major – is the key to a compelling, coherent, and creative supplemental essay.

Contact us here for more info about Essai's college counseling services.

How to act on the Activities List

In the Activities List section of the Common Application, we are told: “Reporting activities can help a college better understand your life outside of the classroom. Your activities may include arts, athletics, clubs, employment, personal commitments, and other pursuits. Do you have any activities that you wish to report?”

The answer is yes: you wish to report all your activities.

The Activities List is one of the most important components of a US college application. Firstly, it gives colleges an idea of an applicant’s interests and achievements; secondly, it communicates an applicant’s more subtle – but important – skills like time management, multi-taking, and work ethic.

There is space for ten activities on the Activity List, which apply to any and all pursuits you have taken part in between Grades 9 and 12. School clubs? Music? Volunteering? Internships? Language-learning? All good. On the Activities List, itself, you’ll have the option to rank your activities and to list the number of years pursued, number of weeks per year practiced, and number of hours per week engaged. Always be as accurate as you can with these time-estimates, and don’t feel intimidated just because you haven’t been able to devote as much time to your less important activities: it is often these small peripheral engagements that result in the most interesting supplemental essays.

There is a common misconception that a ‘good’ activity will involve something high-level or prestigious. In fact, a ‘good’ activity is simply something an applicant has engaged in meaningfully over the course of years. An extended engagement such as this will, of course, result in increased opportunities to participate, which may lead to more selective experiences (such as a committed musician being invited to join a jazz band or a chess player gradually working her way through the ranks to compete at the State Championships), but these end-products are the result of continued extra-curricular engagement, not the goal.

A warning about the “shotgun approach”: more activities does not necessarily lead to a better or more compelling profile. There is very little value in engaging in extracurricular pursuits just to fill the Activities List; in truth, colleges are very good at seeing through this well-meaning deception. It’s important to follow a simple rule of thumb: never try to impress colleges. Don’t do things that ‘sound good’. Pursue your goals and hobbies with all your passion and resources, and you will ‘sound good’ – whether your passion is research, music, sports, or tiddlywinks.

Contact us here for more info about Essai's college counseling services.