Your college application is a chance to paint the fullest picture of yourself—not just as a student, but as someone who contributes to the communities around you. Whether you’re an artist, athlete, entrepreneur, volunteer, caregiver, advocate, teammate, or friend, your activities list helps us understand how you spend your time, what matters to you, and the role you play in the communities and relationships that shape your life.
What is the activities list?
The activities list is a section of the college application where you describe your extracurricular involvement outside the classroom.
Most applications, including the Common App and Coalition on Scoir, will ask you to share:
- The name of the activity or organization
- Your role or position
- A short description of what you did
- The amount of time you spent on the activity
- The years you participated
As part of Johns Hopkins’ holistic, context-based review, we consider the activities list alongside other parts of your application. This section in particular offers insight into how you engage with your interests and community and how you might get involved in ours.
What should I include in my activities list?
One of the most common questions we get is: What should I put in my activities list?
The short answer: Anything that meaningfully takes up your time outside of class and helps us understand who you are.
Your activities list can be made up of formal extracurriculars, such as student government, athletics, music, or academic clubs. But you can incorporate a wider range of experiences too.
Your activities list might also include:
- Part-time jobs and work experience
- Caring for siblings or family members
- Community service and volunteer work
- Advocacy or civic engagement
- Faith-based, cultural, or identity-based organizations
- Creative pursuits like art, music, writing, dance, or film
- Independent projects and research
- Personal hobbies and interests
If it’s something that takes time, commitment, and energy, it’s worth including in your application.
Focus on contributions, not titles
Not every activity comes with a formal title or award, and that’s totally okay. Everyday contributions can tell us a lot about how you engage with the people and opportunities around you.
As you draft your activities list, think about the part you played, how you connected with others, and what made the experience important to you.
As you draft your activities list, ask yourself:
- Why did I choose to get involved?
- What role did I naturally take on?
- What did I bring to the group?
- How did I help others feel welcomed or included?
- How did I collaborate with or support others?
- What did I learn?
- Why did this experience matter to me?
Show us how you build community
One quality that stands out in our community is the ability to bring people together. You don’t have to be the president of a club or a team captain to do this. Community building can happen in many ways like mentoring, collaboration, service, school spirit, advocacy, creativity, or simply being someone others trust and turn to.
Examples of community building activities
Maybe you’re the person who:
- Welcomes new students and helps them find their place
- Organizes groups to go to home games, performances, or school events
- Helps a group work through challenges or disagreements
- Brings together people with different interests, backgrounds, or perspectives
- Creates spaces where others feel included and supported
If you’ve played this kind of role in your school, neighborhood, workplace, family, place of worship, or another space, consider highlighting those experiences in your activities list.
At Johns Hopkins, we value students who strengthen the communities they’re part of. Sharing examples of how you’ve built connections and supported others helps us understand how you might do the same on our campus. Our community is shaped by students who are eager to become friends and grow alongside one another.
How to write activity descriptions: Be specific and use action words
Because the activities list is usually short, every word counts. Try to be clear, concise, and specific. Use active verbs and exact details to help us understand what you actually did.
Activity descriptions
Example 1
❌ Instead of: “Student council member”
✅ Write: “Organized pep rally, collected student feedback, helped launch a peer mentorship program for first-year students.”
Example 2
❌ Instead of: “Worked at a grocery store”
✅ Write: “Worked as a cashier, trained new employees, and helped support family expenses.”
Specific descriptions help admissions committee members understand the scope of your commitment, the skills you developed, and the impact you had.
Quality over quantity: Focus on what matters to you
There isn’t a magic number of activities we’re looking for, and there isn’t a checklist of “the right” extracurriculars. We’d rather see sustained involvement in a few meaningful commitments than a long list of activities that don’t reflect your genuine interests.
We understand that some students have access to many clubs, teams, and enrichment opportunities. Others spend much of their time working, helping at home, commuting, or supporting family. All these experiences can be meaningful. What matters is that you help us understand your context and how you choose to spend your time.
Ultimately, the strongest activities lists reflect genuine curiosity, dedication, responsibility, and growth. Whether your impact was large or small, formal or informal, public or behind the scenes, your activities list is an opportunity to show us how you engage with the world around you and how you might do that at Johns Hopkins.
Put these tips into practice
Ready to get started? Here are three steps to help you build your activities list:
1. Write down all the ways you’ve spent time outside the classroom
Think beyond clubs and sports. Include jobs, family responsibilities, creative projects, hobbies, and anything else that’s taken up your time and energy.
2. Ask people who know you well where they see you making an impact
Friends, family members, teachers, or coworkers can help you recognize contributions you might overlook. They can help you see things you might not give yourself credit for.
3. Describe your role and what made each experience meaningful
For each activity, briefly explain what you did and why it mattered to you. Focus on the part you played and how you connected with others.
Want more hands-on guidance?
Join From Activities to Essays, our virtual workshop designed to help you present your experiences authentically and put your best application forward.
