The Biggest Common App Activities List Mistake: Underselling Yourself

When students think about the most important parts of their college application, they usually think about their grades, test scores, or personal statement.

The Common App activities list can feel almost like an afterthought.

It shouldn't.

After reviewing countless applications, one of the biggest mistakes I see is surprisingly simple:

Students undersell themselves.

They've spent hundreds of hours working, volunteering, competing, leading, creating, caring for family members, or contributing to their communities—and then describe those experiences in a way that makes them sound far less meaningful than they actually were.

The problem usually isn't that the student needs “better” activities.

The problem is that the application isn't communicating what the student actually did.

Your title doesn't tell the whole story

Imagine a student who has worked at a local restaurant for three years.

When I ask about the job, the student might say:

“I'm just a server.”

And the first draft of the activities list might say:

Server — Took orders, served food, and helped customers.

None of that is inaccurate.

But then I start asking questions.

How many hours do you work?

“Usually 15 hours a week during school.”

Have your responsibilities changed since you started?

“Well, now I train most of the new employees.”

Do you ever open or close?

“Yes.”

Do managers trust you with anything they don't give newer employees?

“Actually, yes…”

Suddenly, “I'm just a server” looks very different.

This student has held a job throughout high school, balanced significant work hours with academics, earned additional responsibility, trained employees, and developed skills working with customers and coworkers.

That's the story the application needs to communicate.

Not because we're trying to make the student sound more impressive than they are.

Because we're trying to make sure the application accurately reflects what they've done.

Students often don't recognize what is impressive about their own experiences

This is one of the most interesting parts of my job.

Students live their own experiences every day, so the things they've accomplished often feel normal to them.

A student who watches younger siblings every afternoon may not think of that as significant.

A student who has worked 15 or 20 hours a week throughout high school may say, “It's just my job.”

An athlete may list four years on a team without mentioning that younger players regularly come to them for help.

A club officer may write “helped plan meetings” when they actually coordinated events, recruited members, communicated with outside organizations, and managed a budget.

A student volunteering at an organization might describe what the organization does instead of explaining what they actually do there.

That's why I rarely accept the first description a student gives me.

I ask questions.

What did you actually do?

What were you responsible for?

Did your role change over time?

Did you create anything?

Did you solve a problem?

Did you teach or mentor someone?

Did you organize something?

How many people participated?

How much time did you commit?

What happened because you were involved?

That's often where the real activity description begins.

Don't describe the organization. Describe YOU.

This is another common mistake.

Suppose a student volunteers with a nonprofit that provides meals to families experiencing food insecurity.

Their activity description might start:

“Organization dedicated to fighting hunger and providing meals to families in our community.”

That's wonderful information about the organization.

But I've learned almost nothing about the student.

Admissions officers can usually understand what an organization does from its name or context. The limited space in the activities section should focus primarily on the student's contribution.

What did you do?

Did you pack meals?

Coordinate volunteers?

Run a food drive?

Recruit classmates?

Manage donations?

Create a new initiative?

Serve 40 hours or 400?

Those details help an admissions reader understand the student's actual involvement.

Leadership is bigger than a title

Students also tend to equate leadership with titles.

President = leadership.

Member = not leadership.

Real life isn't that simple.

Some of the strongest examples of leadership I've seen don't come with an official title.

A student might mentor younger teammates.

Train new employees.

Take responsibility for younger siblings.

Organize carpools so teammates can attend practice.

Notice that a club isn't attracting new members and create a recruitment strategy.

Start an informal study group before AP exams.

Those things tell me something about how the student operates in the world.

And that's exactly what we're trying to uncover.

The goal isn't to manufacture leadership.

It's to recognize it when it's already there.

Specificity makes activities stronger

Compare these two descriptions:

Helped run club meetings and organized events.

Versus:

Planned weekly meetings for 35 members; coordinated 3 school-wide events and recruited 12 new members.

The second description isn't stronger because it uses fancier language.

It's stronger because I can picture the student's contribution.

Numbers aren't always necessary, and students certainly shouldn't force them into every description. But when there is meaningful context available—people served, money raised, students mentored, events organized, hours worked, publications created—it can help an admissions reader understand the scope of an activity.

Specific beats vague.

You don't need ten extraordinary activities

Students sometimes look at the ten available activity spaces on the Common App and think they need to fill every one.

They don't.

And they certainly don't need ten activities that sound like they were created specifically for college admissions.

A job can matter.

Family responsibilities can matter.

A hobby can matter.

A sport you've played for years can matter.

A club where you never became president can matter.

What matters is the larger picture those experiences create.

What do you care about?

Where do you spend your time?

What responsibilities have you taken on?

How have you grown?

What do you contribute to the communities you're part of?

The activities list gives colleges another window into those answers.

The goal isn't to “sound impressive”

Whenever I talk about strengthening an activities list, I want to make one thing very clear:

We are not trying to turn ordinary experiences into extraordinary claims.

Admissions officers don't need a marketing copy.

And students should never inflate numbers, invent impact, exaggerate leadership, or make an activity sound like something it wasn't.

The goal is accuracy.

If you trained six new employees, say that.

If you worked 18 hours a week, that's meaningful context.

If you quietly spent three years helping care for a grandparent, don't dismiss it because there wasn't an award attached.

If you were the person your teammates depended on even though you weren't captain, let's understand what that looked like.

Good application strategy isn't about creating a more impressive student on paper.

It's about making sure the student who already exists actually comes through on the page.

For seniors: go back and look again

If you're completing the Common App right now, take another look at your activities section.

For every activity, ask yourself:

If an admissions officer knew nothing else about this experience, would this description help them understand what I actually contributed?

If the answer is no, you may not need a different activity.

You may just need to tell the story better.

For juniors: start keeping track now

If you're a junior, you have an advantage: time.

Start keeping a simple record of what you're doing throughout high school.

Write down responsibilities you take on, projects you complete, events you organize, people you mentor, hours you work, awards you receive, measurable outcomes, and moments when your role changes.

Don't worry about making it sound like a college application yet.

Just capture the details.

Next year, when you're trying to remember exactly what you accomplished during three or four years of high school, you'll be very glad you did.

One final thought

When a student tells me:

“I didn't really do anything that impressive.”

My response is usually:

“Tell me more.”

Because very often, the problem isn't that there isn't anything worth talking about.

We just haven't asked the right questions yet.

And sometimes, the difference between an activities list that feels generic and one that feels genuinely revealing isn't doing more.

It's recognizing the value of what you've already done—and communicating it clearly.

Want help strengthening your activities list?

Knowing that you're underselling yourself is one thing. Figuring out what to say instead can be much harder.

That's exactly what we'll work on in my upcoming ACTIVITIES LIST WORKSHOP.

I'll show students how to look more closely at their experiences, identify the details that matter, and turn vague activity descriptions into clear, specific descriptions that actually show their contributions.

We'll talk about what admissions officers need to understand, what belongs in those very limited Common App spaces, and how to communicate your accomplishments without exaggerating them.

SEPTEMBER 22nd 7pm CST

For SENIORS working on their Common App Activities List

[REGISTER FOR THE WORKSHOP → HERE]