Guide/02 Building Your Application
Activities
What counts as an activity, how to show impact and leadership, and why numbers matter.
Chapter 7 of 244 min readUpdated September 23, 2026 Preview
Activities are the core of almost every strong application. Once your grades and scores get you into serious consideration, your activities and your writing are what make a reader remember you.
This chapter covers the difference between an activity and an honor, what "impact" actually means, why activities outside school carry extra weight, and how to write descriptions that show — in 150 characters — what you did and what changed because you did it.
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What’s in this chapter
- 1Activity or honor?
- 2What the section looks like
- 3Show impact, not attendance
- 4About "passion projects"
- 5Look beyond your school
- 6Use numbers. Always.
- 7Putting the list in order