Common App Extracurriculars: Why the 'Laundry List' Ruins International Applications

Extracurriculars: Why the 'Laundry List' Ruins Applications

In many countries, getting into college is based entirely on one huge final exam. In the United States, however, top colleges use holistic review (this means they look at your whole life, not just your grades). College readers want to know what you do when no one is forcing you to study.

The Common Application gives you room to list up to 10 extracurricular activities (things you do outside of class). For international students, this section causes a lot of panic, leading to the biggest mistake on the application: The Laundry List.

The Problem with the "Laundry List"

A "laundry list" is when a student tries to fill all 10 slots by listing every single club they went to once, every two-hour volunteer event, and every small hobby.

College readers do not like the laundry list.

When you list "Debate Club Member (1 hour a week)" right next to "Started a Free Coding Camp (15 hours a week)," you make your big achievements look less special. The laundry list tells a reader that you are just trying to look good on paper, rather than actually caring about helping your community.

The Death of the "Well-Rounded" Student

For a long time, people told international students to be "well-rounded": play a sport, play an instrument, do some volunteer work, and join the debate team.

This advice is old and bad.

Today, top US colleges are not looking for well-rounded students; they want a well-rounded class made up of students with "spikes."

A spike is a deep, strong passion for one or two things. If you want to study Computer Science, it is much better to spend 20 hours a week building free software and teaching local kids to code. Do not quit coding just so you can join the school choir to look "well-rounded."

Beware "Pay-to-Play" Extracurriculars

The people who read your applications know a lot about international schools. They are very suspicious of "pay-to-play" activities—these are expensive volunteer trips, generic international contests, or research papers that a student paid an agency $5,000 to help them get.

They want to see real, local impact. Raising $500 to fix the roof of your local community center often looks much better than paying $10,000 to build a house in another country for two weeks. Remember that recommendation letters from your teachers will also show if your passions are real.

How to Write Strong Descriptions

The Common App gives you very little space to describe what you did: 50 characters for your title, 50 for the group name, and 150 characters to describe it.

You cannot waste space on full sentences. You must use short, action-focused bullet points with real numbers.

• Weak: "I was a member of the debate club. We went to tournaments and I helped younger members practice their speeches on weekends."
• Strong: "Helped 15 new students; ran a local tournament for 200+ kids. Placed Top 10 at National Championships out of 500 people."

Focus on action words and numbers. And remember: if you only have 5 or 6 activities that really matter to you, stop there. A shorter, honest list is always better than a long, fake one.