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How to write the Common App activities list

How to fill in the Common App activities section: the 50, 100 and 150 character limits, what to put first, and how to write descriptions that say more in fewer words.

2 min read · Updated October 17, 2026

On this page
  1. What counts as an activity
  2. What to put first
  3. How to write a 150-character description
  4. Common mistakes
  5. Questions

The Common App activities section has room for up to 10 activities. Each one gets a type, a position, an organization name, a description and some numbers: grade levels, timing, hours per week and weeks per year.

The space is tiny. The position field allows 50 characters, the organization name 100, and the description 150, including spaces. That is about one line of text. Writing it well is a skill of its own.

What counts as an activity

  • Clubs, teams, arts and school organizations.
  • Jobs and internships, paid or unpaid.
  • Family responsibilities, such as caring for siblings or working in a family business.
  • Independent projects: something you built, wrote, made or ran on your own.
  • Community service, religious groups and cultural organizations.

What to put first

Order matters, because readers start at the top. Put first the activities that took the most time, carried the most responsibility or mean the most to you. A long commitment with growing responsibility usually belongs above a short, impressive-sounding one.

How to write a 150-character description

  1. 1Start with a strong verb: led, built, taught, organized, managed.
  2. 2Say what you did, not what the organization does.
  3. 3Add a number where you honestly can: people, hours, money raised, events run.
  4. 4Cut articles and filler. Fragments are fine: "Run weekly practice for 20 middle schoolers; plan drills, track progress."
  5. 5Do not repeat the position or organization name; they already appear above.

Common mistakes

  • Using the description to explain what the club is instead of what you did in it.
  • Leaving out family responsibilities or a part-time job because they feel unimpressive. They are not.
  • Inflating titles or hours. Counselors and teachers write about you too.
  • Repeating the same activity in your essay without adding anything new.
Free toolActivities list counterCheck every field against its character limit as you type.

Questions

Do I have to fill all 10 activities?

No. Fewer activities with real commitment read better than ten thin ones. List what you actually did.

Do spaces count toward the character limits?

Yes. The limits count every character, including spaces and punctuation, so check your text in a counter that counts them the same way.

Should my essay be about one of my activities?

It can be, as long as it shows something the list cannot, such as how you think, a decision you made or what you learned. Repeating the list in prose wastes your 650 words.

Check your draft against all of this

A score out of 100, a note on every sentence, the paragraph costing you most and a 10-point draft check, in 5–10 minutes. We never write a word of your essay.

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