Lakeside School

In the back-to-school edition of Inside Lakeside, Ari Worthman, director of college counseling, wrote about the need to shift our culture away from focusing on awards, titles, and credentials, and retraining students to search for meaning in what they do. In September, he dispelled misperceptions about the role of activities in the Common Application. Last month, Worthman called on parent/guardian(s) to encourage their students to pursue co-curricular activities for authentic interests, not for the sake of college applications. Below is the fourth piece in a yearlong series addressing how to change our culture around students’ engagement in co-curricular activities.

Think of the activities list as banchan: for the admissions reader, the extracurriculars section is not the main meal (that’s what the student’s academic transcript is for!) Rather, the activities list is an array of small side dishes, served early in a meal, occasionally returned to between bites. 

When I reviewed applications for highly selective college admissions offices, skimming the activities section whet my palate, introducing me to how the applicant had spent their time outside the classroom over the last few years. After reading further into the application, if I had any questions — what does that acronym mean? what did they do in that activity, again? — I could swipe back to the activities section as a refresher.

A “good” activities list is not a set menu; admissions readers don’t tick off a mental checklist of “must have” extracurriculars! So, as parent/guardians, there is no need to force your child to sing in the choir or play a sport or start a club just for the sake of appearing “well-balanced” for college applications. Admissions readers want to know what has piqued the applicant’s authentic interests over the years, even if that means their activities list includes a few extracurriculars where the student decided, “I tried it… I didn’t like it… so I stopped!”

That said, a “good” activities list does convey important information to the admissions reader, no matter what array of activities the applicant pursued. For instance:

• Why does the applicant care about this activity? Why might they have done this activity for however long they did?
• Can the applicant deftly employ proper spelling and grammar in sharing those activities?
• Does the reader get a sense of the applicant’s writing voice, even in an abbreviated setting? Does the list sound like the applicant, rather than a focus group or outside consultant?
• How does each activity reflect the applicant’s values? How does each activity add to the applicant’s overall story?

Let’s read through a sample activities list together. My examples below focus on the Common Application, which is the most frequently used application platform for Lakeside students. Depending on which application platform a student or university uses, the activities section could vary by format, number of activity spaces, word/character count, etc. Remember, you can refer back to Ari Worthman’s September Inside Lakeside article for images of what each field means.

First, we’ll begin with the barebones activities list for a completely fabricated Lakeside applicant, whom we’ll call “Tobina” (she/her). 

This list does not yet include the 150-character activity descriptions, but there is already a lot we can learn about Tobina’s last few years of high school. As you read, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Across four years of high school, what has Tobina been involved in? 
2. Which activities appear the most significant to Tobina? 
3. Are there any questions that you have about any of Tobina’s activities?

From Tobina’s extracurriculars list, we start to build a story about her. Early in high school, she volunteered at a food bank, played sports, and worked a summer job, though eventually these activities faded in her rearview mirror (presumably, as 11th and 12th grade got busier). Correspondingly, these activities are listed towards the bottom of Tobina’s list, and she selected that “No,” she likely would not continue these activities in college — reflecting their relative unimportance to her.

Aside from a brief stint co-founding a school Go Club, Tobina seems to have spent the most time playing softball and co-leading the Middle School QSA affinity group. And, though they didn’t take up much time, she’s listed her GSL Colombia trip and Museum of Flight role prominently in her extracurriculars list. Most likely, these are her more fervent interests!

While crafting their activities list, an applicant can communicate with their reader, using the order of their list and even the position/leadership description and organization name (i.e., the text in bold, such as “Volunteer” and “University District Food Bank”). At the same time, there’s no need to go overboard! Try not to overstress about exactly where each activity goes in the list — in other words, whether an activity is first or second doesn’t make a difference, but whether it’s second or eighth does), or over the Common Application counts for hours-per-week and weeks-per-year if these vary depending on the season!

Next, let’s examine activity descriptions that are not “credential-heavy.” In his September article, Ari showed an example of a “credential-heavy” activities description and explained why it’s unhelpful for admissions readers:

Using the same extracurriculars, here are more effective activity descriptions. In the same 150 characters, this applicant conveys both how/what they specifically accomplished and why. For the first activity: instead of merely dropping statistics about how much they fundraised, the applicant shares exactly how they fundraised — allowing the reader to infer how much work this applicant must have done to communicate between various schools. For the second activity: instead of listing times and awards, the applicant conveys how and why they have earned an award for team spirit!

Curious to see a filled-out hypothetical activities list? Check out this resource! 

In the next edition of Inside Lakeside, my college counseling colleague Bonnie Singh will share strategies for parents and guardians to support their students in reflecting on their activities and finding the why instead of just the what. Together, we can encourage our students to pursue meaningful activities and be able to convey any lessons learned in their unique writing voice.

Frances Nan is associate director of college counseling at Lakeside School. Special thanks to Wyatt L. ‘25, Emily P. ‘25, and other counselees for their help with the activities descriptions.