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Student Activities - Common App


OnMyOwn
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My ds has a number of really substantial activities to list that involved volunteer work, boy scouts and paid work.  Those things seem easy to write a description for and seem worth putting on his application.  But what about activities he was just a participant in, such as a local strategy games club?  Or his one year in speech club?  He did participate in tournaments the year he did it, but did not continue with it.  Should I list these things as activities or not?

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I would only list activities which the student either pursued over a long time or where the student performed at a significant level or held leadership positions.

Not everything a young person does needs to end up on the college application.

I would only list a club in which the student participated for a single year if there was nothing more substantial to report.

Colleges are not impressed by large numbers of activities in which students dabbled; they prefer to see sustained, significant commitment.

Edited by regentrude
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I'd be tempted to put the year of speech club in, especially if he participated in tournaments.

 

Not only is speech time and work-intensive, it's also a way to build certain skills that one does not get from many other activities. It isn't something that the majority of students have done. It's definitely not an underwater-basket-weaving type of activity, nor is it a filler "Secretary of the Chess Club" type of activity.

 

I think having participated in speech says something (very positive!) about a student, even if the student only did it for a year and regardless of how the student placed at tournaments.  Anybody who's been at all involved with speech, themselves or through their children, will appreciate the value of it. Even if the particular person who reads your son's application doesn't have personal experience with speech, chances are he's met students with a speech background and knows what that can mean.

 

I can't imagine there's any downside to including it. So what if he didn't continue? That year was undoubtedly a year of some serious growth. You can't do speech at a competition level without getting a lot out of it. He stuck with it. He found it wasn't where he wanted to put his time. He competed, completed the year, and moved on to other things. It's all good.

 

 

ETA:  Another thought... If you don't want to put it down as an extra curricular, you could include it as an elective on his transcript!  I would think it would mean more as an EC than as an elective. Doesn't an EC suggest that it was more a personal interest and self-driven choice than an academic elective? And that the student put more personal time into it than an elective done for school credit? That may just be how it feels to me w/ my own kids.

Edited by yvonne
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Thank you!  I think I will put speech on there. It was an awful lot of work and he did pretty well with it.  I guess I was just questioning it since he did not continue this year.  He really doesn't need any more elective credits and I don't want to write another course description or change my transcript, lol!  The transcript and the course descriptions are d.o.n.e. 

 

 

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I've heard it go both ways.  You don't want to dilute more impressive accomplishments with a bunch of activities that have low commitment.  On the other hand, I'm really moved by Yvonne's explanation of the value of even one year of debate.  Particularly if the applicant appears to be pointy, like maybe very mathy, this could provide some balance to that.  

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The activities towards the beginning should be serious commitments, but those near the end can be more lighthearted and fun. If he still loves to play strategy games that's more relevant than a year of speech and debate that he does not intend to pick up again in college.

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