1. Extracurricular Activities
Preparing An Extracurricular Activities Bio

2. How Do Activities Help Your College Application?
Colleges (specifically more selective schools) will look for other talents that you can contribute to the college’s community.
As Michelle Hernandez puts it in Acing the College Application: “strong academics open the door while a substantial talent may get you in.”

3. Depth over Breadth
Colleges are more interested in seeing students deeply committed to a few activities, rather than popping around to a lot of different ones.
Think about where you have shown leadership.

4. What Are Some Activity Categories?
Extracurricular Activities (including athletics).
Hobbies and Special Interests.
Work Experiences and Internships.
Awards and Honors.
Summer Activities.
Community Involvement.

5. What Activities Should I Include in My Bio?
Include only activities participated in during high school.
List activities in order of importance.
If involvement in an activity was only for a short period of time, leave it out.

6. Writing a Description of My Activities
Concentrate on giving an informative, succinct description of key activities.
Use clear terminology that admissions counselors will understand.
Use everyday vocabulary, and spell out abbreviations.
Describe your personal contribution to the activity, especially if you played a substantial role in developing or leading it.

7. Writing a Description of My Activities (CON’T)
… Use active verbs to describe these contributions. (See “power verb” worksheet.)
Don’t repeat your essay.

8. What if I Have Very Few School or Community Activities?
Think beyond your clubs and organized activities, e.g.:
Church/Temple involvement
Musical interests/talent
Family obligations
A blog that you started
A photography exhibit that you participated in

9. Extracurricular Activity Bio Examples
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES (Including Athletics)
PARTICIPATION GRADE LEVELS. HOURS/WEEK
POSITION
DESCRIPTION
KEY CLUB INTERNATIONAL
12th Grade
1-2 hours/week
Senior Class Representative
Key Club International is sponsored by the local Kiwanis Club and was started at WPHS five years ago. It encourages students to help the community through service projects and fundraisers. As senior class representative, it was my responsibility to communicate projects and volunteer opportunities to students in my grade. Throughout the year, we did various fundraisers and service projects, such as Midnight Run which had students bringing food to the homeless in NYC.

10. Extracurricular Activity Bio Examples
WORK EXPERIENCES & INTERNSHIPS
PARTICIPATION GRADE LEVELS. HOURS/WEEK
POSITION
DESCRIPTION
DEER LAKE APPLE ORCHARD
January present
Concessions, manual labor working register, helping customers
While working at Deer Lake Orchard, I worked at the concession stand, sorted and bagged apples, as well as worked at the register and helped customers. The best part of working there was being exposed to so many different jobs at the same time, like stocking, placing orders, using Math skills, and communicating with customers. You are forced to multitask while still being productive.

11. Extracurricular Activity Bio Examples
SUMMER ACTIVITIES
PARTICIPATION GRADE LEVELS. HOURS/WEEK
POSITION
DESCRIPTION
COLLEGEFLIER: College Admission and Application Academy
Summer between junior and senior year. One week, 30 hours.
Participant
Participated in summer bridge program that offered hands-on classroom instruction to rising seniors. This helped me to clarify the admission process and begin to complete all aspects of my college applications.
During the academy I learned how to research colleges, create college lists, write essays, and complete my college applications.

12. Extracurricular Activity Bio as a Tweet
The Common Application allows for no more than 150 characters when entering an Extracurricular Activity.
You will need to abbreviate your activities in order to fit your text in the box asking you to describe your activity.

13. Extracurricular Activity Bio Examples
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES (Including Athletics)
PARTICIPATION GRADE LEVELS (Hours/Week)
POSITION
DESCRIPTION
TWEET
KEY CLUB INTERNATIONAL
12th Grade
1-2 hours/week
Senior Class Representative
Key Club International is sponsored by the local Kiwanis Club and was started at WPHS five years ago. It encourages students to help the community through service projects and fundraisers. As senior class representative, it was my responsibility to communicate projects and volunteer opportunities to students in my grade. Throughout the year, we did various fundraisers and service projects, such as Midnight Run which had students bringing food to the homeless in NYC.
Encouraged students to help community through service projects, fundraisers, and volunteer opportunities, such as bringing food to homeless in NYC.