College applications ask you to list your activities, describe them in 150 characters, rank them by importance, and report your hours. If you start tracking in freshman year, this takes 30 minutes. If you start in senior year, it takes hours of guesswork. This guide sets up the system.

Set up your tracking system

Create a Google Sheet (or any spreadsheet) with these columns:

Activity Name | Organization | Category (academic, clinical, service, leadership, work, other) | Role/Position | Start Date | End Date (or “ongoing”) | Hours/Week | Weeks/Year | Total Hours | Description (full paragraph for your records) | Short Description (150 characters for Common App) | Key Accomplishment

Tip
Make a copy of this template and fill it in today. Set a monthly reminder to update it. The five minutes per month you invest now are worth more than the five hours of panic in October of senior year.

What counts as an activity

More things count than you think: clubs and organizations, sports teams, volunteer work (clinical and non-clinical), paid employment (including babysitting, tutoring, retail), family responsibilities (caring for siblings, translating for parents, family business), research or independent projects, music, art, theater, summer programs and camps, religious or community group involvement, and hobbies pursued seriously (coding, writing, gardening).

Info
College applications do not just want academic activities. They want to see who you are as a person. A student who works 20 hours a week at a grocery store to help their family is demonstrating responsibility, time management, and maturity. That is impressive.

Writing strong 150-character descriptions

The Common App gives you 150 characters (about one sentence) to describe each activity. Every character counts.

Weak example (148 chars): “I am a member of my school’s Health Occupations Students of America chapter where I participate in various activities and competitions throughout year”

Strong example (147 chars): “HOSA Chapter VP; organized school blood drive (45 donors); led team to 2nd place at state Medical Terminology competition; mentored 8 new members”

The difference: the strong version uses action verbs (organized, led, mentored), includes specific numbers (45 donors, 2nd place, 8 members), and shows leadership progression (VP, not just member).

Study Tip
Practice writing 150-character descriptions for every activity now, even as a freshman. Revise them each year as your role grows. By senior year, you will have polished descriptions ready to paste into the Common App.

How to rank your activities

The Common App asks you to list activities in order of importance to you. This is not about what looks best to admissions. It is about what matters most to you. Put clinical experiences and sustained commitments near the top. Brief or one-time activities go at the bottom. If your most meaningful activity is not medicine-related (maybe it is music, or caring for a family member), put it first. Authenticity stands out.

Common mistakes

Padding with one-time events. Attending a single health fair is not an activity. Organizing one is. Admissions readers spot padding instantly.

Exaggerating hours. If you volunteered 2 hours a week, do not write 4. Admissions offices sometimes verify hours, and dishonesty is grounds for rescinding admission.

Listing everything without curation. You have 10 slots on the Common App. If you have more than 10 activities, combine related ones (e.g., all volunteer work under one entry) or drop the least significant.

Be Careful
Integrity matters more than impressiveness. An honest, well-described list of genuine activities is always better than an inflated list that falls apart under scrutiny.
For Parents
Parents: help your student set up the spreadsheet, but do not fill it in for them. The exercise of describing their own activities in their own words builds the writing skills they will need for application essays.
Last verified: April 2026