You only get 150 characters on the activities list for the Common Application. How do you make the most of them? Here are some tips with accompanying college activities list examples.

Applying through the Coalition Application, ApplyTexas, UC Application, or another application system? These tips still apply.

In this guide I’ll cover:

• Why it’s worth spending half an hour up-leveling your activities list

• How to develop more and better content for your activities list

• How values can help you bring much more variety to your activities list

• Whether you should “show” or “tell”

• Why you should never stretch the truth on your activities list

• Answers to commonly asked questions

• Tips for the Honors and Awards section

• Tons of examples

What’s the activities list again? It’s the space on the application where you name and briefly describe your non-academic pursuits.

What’s its purpose? “Extracurricular activities can be a great opportunity to see how an applicant has self-directed their passions and interests,” says Jorge Delgado, Associate Director of International Admissions at Brandeis. “There are only so many hours in the day so seeing how a student has involved themselves outside the academic arena is a great way of understanding their potential fit for a university campus.”

Why should you spend 30 minutes up-leveling it?

Your activities list can make a big difference in your application.

Want proof? Compare these two:

ArtCreated art and organized club.

Founder, Art Honors SocietyOrganized and ran meetings, set up field trips, brainstormed and created group art activities, wrote and sent newsletter to members.

Most students write a pretty good activities list description and then they stop there. But it doesn’t take long to up-level an activities list from pretty good to great.

Here are three tips for doing that:

1. Use stronger verbs. I’ll define “stronger” in a moment, but in short: Are you describing your activity in the most dynamic way possible? Most students aren’t. Why? Because they’re using just-okay verbs.

2. Develop better (and perhaps a bit more) content. Have you included a wide range of responsibilities? Most students forget to include solving problems, gaining skills, and making tangible (and even quantifiable!) impact.

3. Demonstrate skills & values. Are you communicating what you learned or how an activity changed you? If not, you may be leaving money on the table.

Here’s how to make it happen.