## Why the activities list gets overlooked [00:00] Hello everyone. Welcome, welcome, welcome. I'm Coach Jun from Elo. Thanks for joining me today. I'm very excited to walk you through one of the most underestimated parts of your college application, the activities list. Most students may think, "Oh, I will just list my clubs and call a day." But trust me, how you write this section can absolutely help your application stand out whether you are applying to UC's common app schools or both. I'm going to show you how to write about your activities like a pro. All right, it's going to be fun. Here's a quick look at the major parts of what we are going to cover today. First, we will talk about why this section matters and why it often gets ignored. Then we will compare weak and strong activities entries. And I will show you something called the SWI method. It makes your blurs pop. We will do some live practice together and go over formatting tricks to save space and boost impact. A little bit about me. I have a Warden MBA, a master's degree in computer science and over 10 years of experience helping students get into top colleges. But one of my favorite job is helping students like you tell your story. Well, this is going to be a I think today is going to be practical, hands-on, and fun. Okay. All right. Let's start with the elephant in the room. Most of students overlook this section. You know why? Because it feels like a list, right? But for admissions readers, this is where look they look for action, clarity, and impact. Now, let's do a reality check. Admissions readers spend maybe 1.5 to 2 ## How readers evaluate action and clarity in blurbs [03:00] minutes total on your activity section. They are scheming. If your entries are generic like helped at a camp, they will move on. But if you write with purpose and specifics, you will stick in their minds. Our goal is to be memorable, not forgettable. You want the readers to go like, "Oh, wow. These students did something meaningful. Okay, take a look at these two examples. First one volunteered at a hospital. Okay. Doing what? For how long? What was the impact? Compare that to support uh supported 20 plus student uh patients weekly by translating in Spanish tracking vitals and prep prep I'm sorry prepetting intake notes for nurses boom that paints a picture right same with participate in robotics club versus led fourth person CD design team to place second in state finals. Implemented AI sensor for object detection. One sounds passive and vague. The other sounds like someone who's taking initiative and get getting results. ## Weak vs strong examples that show real impact [05:00] Now here is the magic formula. S SWI strong verb plus what plus impact. Let's start with a powerful verb like led, built, organized, created, coached, launched. Do not use did or was responsible for. Then add what you actually did. Be specific. Give some detail. Finally, finish with your impact, numbers, outcomes, changes you contributed to. Look at this example. Organized 10 community cleanups removing more than 300 pounds of trash instead of uh just saying did the cleanup service. Okay. So now you are getting this is how we turn a job description into a story fast. All right. Any questions so far? Okay. Someone says volume is low. I'm going to turn up the volume. All right, no questions. Let's do a quick brainstorm together. Here is a basic activity. Future students in math. It's very vague, right? Think what kind of math? Algebra, calculus, geometry. How many students? How often did their grades improve? If so, by how much? ## The SWI formula and how to use it [07:30] Right now, let's do an exercise. Students, drop your ideas in the chat. I going to I'm going to give you one minute. Okay. One minute. All right. Start now. Don't be shy. Just improve this forward activity description. tutored students in Mac. Nobody's volunteering. Awesome, Nora. Yeah, you are all doing a great job. Okay. words like successfully. You don't need to use that. Okay. Just cut it to save space. You said helped then earn E or above grade. That's that means success. Okay. Successfully is redundant. All right. Great job. Let's move on. Let's look at the uh two samples. Okay, first one ## Formatting hacks to save characters and space [10:30] coached 15 middle schoolers weekly in algebra raising quiz scores by 20%. So coached strong verb quantify 15 how often weekly what in algebra result raising quiz scores by how much 20%. The second one is more qualitative. Okay. Lead after school math sessions for underserved students. Designed worksheets, tracked progress, and build confidence in algebra and geometry. Both are good. Okay. See how we went from generic to meaningful with just a few changes. Right now let's break down the common app versus UC applications. They are very different and you need to know how to tackle each. On the common app you get 10 slots for activities 150 carers each. Okay. So every word has to hit hard. The order matters. So list your top five first to show what's most important. You also get a separate section for up to five academic honors with 100 characters each. That's a place for things like AP scholar or competition awards. The UC app gives you up to 20 entries, 350 characters each, so you can go deep. Awards on UC apps are part of your activity entries, no separate action uh section. Common app wants tight punch summaries and you see wants breath and death. Okay, let me show you a difference really quick. Okay, first this is a common app. The owner section actually are ## Common App vs UC activity sections explained [13:00] actually it's located under education section. Okay, you can list up to five academic owners with the title that's 100 characters each level and recognition up to five. Okay. Activities you can list to up to 10 activities. They have more categories than UC application. A a long list here. Okay. from academic to other to work to other club activity. So you have for example for social justice you have position description organization name and describe the activives only 50 characters long. So you need to be punchy and concise. Okay. Right. and you see okay here's the UC's activity and awards activities and awards section here they have much less categories okay categories only this one two three four five six six categories the first one is award or owner okay you give the name of the award or owner when did you receive it and the level. Okay. The type academic or nonacademic and eligibility requirements 250 characters and uh what did you do to achieve this award or owner? That's 350 characters. Okay, that's the main part. Okay. All right. So, let's move on. And uh okay, this this one's very interesting. These are some tricks. Okay. Formatting is everything when you are working with tiny character limits. Think of like packing a suitcase. You've got to fit a lot in a small space. Okay. Use digital numbers and characters like tilda. Okay, for about plus for more than and for and end to save space. All right. For example, founded club triple the membership and hosted three not not t hre e okay citywide events. You also want to group similar roles together. For example, if you have done ## Mistakes that make your entries sound generic [16:00] two uh two summer two summers three times over two summers, you don't want to list them as the as three or two activities. Group them into one. Okay? For example, for this one, you you can say led junior instructors to teach three STEM camps over two summers with more than 100 attendees. Sometimes you can even omit the last period, okay, to save space. Every character counts. Okay. And skip like I was responsible for. Just say what you did. Don't write in full sentences. From examples we have seen so far. They are all partial sentences, right? Like the bullet points. Then okay I said this section is really important. Why? What admissions officers really care about? Well they love saying leadership. Whether you are club president or just took charge in a small way. They notice if you stuck with something for years without growth or grew into a big role. They want the results. Numbers are awesome, but even a qualitative impact like helping a teammate comes. They also like activities that tie to your major or goals. and they go crazy for unique combos like a programmer who is also a musician. ## What admissions readers love seeing [18:00] Pick activities that show your growth and what makes you stand out. All right. And okay, here is a big mistake alert. Don't turn your activities list into a mini essay. The activities section is for quick snaps. Think action and impact like organized five fundraisers raised $2,000. Save the deep stuff like why fundraising changed your life for your essays. That's where you reflect and tell the full story. Keep your activity entries short and punchy and natural assets do the heavy lifting. You can think of your activities as proof of what you've done. Your essays are where you explore why it mattered and who it helped shape you into. Okay, that will make your whole application feel balanced and strong. Any questions so far? All right, you guys are really really quiet today. Okay, so here is a quick recap. The activity section is powerful. Don't underestimate it. Use the S SWI method to write high impact blocks. ## How to group and condense experiences effectively [20:00] Tailor your format to common application or UCF. Don't waste space with fluff. think action and impact. This one this is one of ch your chances to show colleges who you are beyond the grace and essays. Okay. Let's wrap up with some quick advice. Do start early. This section takes time to get right. You will go through many revisions. Okay. Keep a Google doc or sheet with all your bls so you can tweak them for different applications. Ask a teacher or counselor for feedback on clarity. And uh don't use passive voice like was done by me or um the research was done by me. Things like that. Don't repeat the same sentence structure for every entry. It's boring. Don't assume the readers know about the technical jargon from your programming, your biology class or your um engineering class. Okay? Because many of the readers have degrees in humanities and uh be clear, specific and strategic. Okay. All right, the good news is you don't have to do this alone. There are solid tools or resources to help you ace your activity section. The first one is for UC applications. They have actually a wonderful PDF file. for you to to show you how to fill out this section. Okay, very very useful. Okay, I'm going to drop the link in the chat. The other one is S SWI method worksheet. I'm also going to drop it drop it in the chat. Okay. All right. Yeah. Talk to your friends or your family members for feedback. If you are our students, talk to your coaches. Talk coach or coaches because we have open office hours. If you want more help, you can text book book to the number on screen and uh get a free 50inut session with one of our advisors. We also have help for financial aid. ## Final tips and how to keep refining your activity list [24:00] Even if you think your family earns too much. Okay. Don't don't miss out. You can be surprised links. I Okay. Oh, you guys are not seeing the two links in the chat. Two hosts. Oh, sorry. Sorry. Let me do that again. Did you guys get it? Uh only one. I think the fire node loading may take a while. Did you get the uh S swi worksheet? Nope. Yes. Yes. Yo, someone get Okay, for those say no, just wait for a minute. Yep. Cuz your internet connection may be slow. Okay. The QR code. Sorry. I'm going to upload the file Yeah. Can you guys see the uh or download the S SWI worksheet? Cool. So, how can I do this? Okay, I'm going to upload upload the file and made it public. Okay, just moment. Just bear with me. Okay. Can you put the SW file to the Discord? Because the problem is I'm not sure if all of you are our students. Maybe some of are, some of are not. Okay. I just upload the file to my Google Drive. Say if you can open it. No permission. Okay. No permission. Share. Anyone with the link. All right. Please try again. I changed the permission to anyone with the link. Can you open it? All right. Good. Good. Thank you very much. Okay. All right. So, we've covered a lot today. Now, it's your turn. What questions do you have for me? All right. So, if you don't have questions, thank you for being here. And uh yes we do have a list template for activities list of resume. Are you our student? Uh McDonald family. Yes, you do send the activity list to the essay portal. Actually the essay portal is misleading. The essay portal is for essays, resumeumés, activist, anything you want us to revise of. Uh not yet. Well, resume for high school students. You can just do a Google search. There are a lot of good template out there. Okay. You just search for resume template for high school students. For paid internship, should it go to extracurricular activity or work experience? You can well it can go either place. Go to either place. Okay. as extracurricular activity or work experience for the awards honor section. Should I be a blend for National Honors Society or anything else? Well, National Honors Society I think um it's paid. It's like a you need to pay, right, to become a member. So, just do a I think do a quick research to see if that program fits you. Okay. If you are interested in scholarship, National Honor Societies might be a good choice. Otherwise I would think about it. Okay. Is it best to focus on fit to major extra? No. No. No. No. No. Okay. Fit to major is just part of your activities. Okay. So you need to be uh like uh you need you don't want the admissions officers to think you are a an a nerd. Okay. You need to have some other activities or hobbies. All right. Being a president in student council important? Well, it depends. Well, yeah, it depends if you if you uh if your club or the student council improves by even 1% under your leadership, you can put it there. So if you just uh sit through every meeting and uh do a lot of talk no actions is not important. Okay. Yes. Of course the the cast will help the children uh your student to look at the activity list and policy. Yes, of course. If you have more than five awards, AP scholars, you can um put it elsewhere like the additional information section. Okay. On common application, I think they have uh they have a additional information section, right? Yes. I don't think AP scholar is that important is not is I don't think it's not uh is important that important. Should we add why the is important to me? Yeah, you yes of course you can uh if you have space you can briefly explain why the EC is meaningful to you. Okay. For example, if you start a fundraiser be because of uh um let's say because uh you are inspired by something. H that's not a good example. Um I cannot think of a good example now but you yeah yes you can see that you can add that if you have space to what section of the application should I add it add what let me I Why it fits me? What fits you? Because there are a lot of questions going on. Yes, the recording will be available in 48 hours in our YouTube channel. Okay guys, uh I think uh I have a another meeting at 6:35 because uh I think it already passed uh the time. So thank you. Thank you very much for joining me at this time because I think a lot of you are probably uh on the road and are having dinner. Thank you for the sacrifice and all of you good luck with your applications and have a wonderful evening. Okay, bye-bye.