The Activities Section

The Activities section is where you should list important extracurriculars. Interests that you pursue on your own, like baking or reading, belong in your Personal section.

Your Activities section should contain the same sort of information that you put in your Experience section. Each entry will look something like this:

Iowa Youth Writing Project, Iowa City, IA
Volunteer Coordinator, 15 hours/week | 8/2014–5/2015

• Recruited, interviewed, and coordinated other volunteers in a young, fast-growing nonprofit that stages writing workshops for underserved youth.

Tips

1. Explain what the organization does.

As with your Experience section, you should add a sentence or phrase of description.

The Viola Question, New Haven, CT | 6 hours/week | 9/2003–5/2006

• Practiced twice weekly and performed roughly once a month in a short-form improv comedy group.

2. Note your major responsibilities and accomplishments.

Don’t just list your activities; show that you played an important role.

The Record, Wellesley, MA | 5 hours/week | 1/2009–5/2012

• Contributed an average of four articles a year to biannual college satirical newspaper.
• Elected to the editorial board as a junior.

3. Give a sense of your time commitment.

These examples note the time commitment in terms of hours per week, but you could use a different metric if that works better for you.

4. Cut activities for which you didn’t have major responsibilities.

Admissions officers know that you can sign up for a club or activity to boost your résumé without committing much time. It’s better to go deep than wide. Two activities for which you can demonstrate your commitment will look better than ten activities for which you can’t.

Rank activities by your responsibility and time commitment; cut from the bottom if you need to free up space.