“Facilitated psychical exertion and interworked amongst a diverse squad to creatively tackle a common goal.” Quick, what activity do you think this description was written about? If you said, “soccer,” you would be the first. And yes, this was a real description written by someone.
The common app asks for a description of each activity listed in their activities section. The box reads, “Please describe this activity, including what you accomplished and any recognition you received, etc.” in 150 characters or less. While describing any type of activity can trip a student up, we see it the most when it comes to sports. (If you don’t know where to start with the activities section, read our blog on it.)
The opening sentence of this post is only 105 characters and could *technically* describe being on a JV soccer team, but it’s really not the vibe that you should be going for.
Why is writing about sports hard?
Most people know what most sports are. We see a lot of students use their 150 characters to describe the sport. No, like really describe what the sport IS. Trust us when we say, the reader of your application knows what basketball is. They don’t need to read, “Dribbles a ball into the range of a net and then sinks the ball through the net as a part of a team of 5 while also defending our side.” Yes, that is what happens in basketball, but we really did not need you to tell us that.
It sounds obvious, but sometimes students don’t know what to write if they can’t just describe the sport. Often students go too far the other way. They try to make a sport sound’ fancy’ and ‘important’ which is how we get sections that describe cheerleading as a “grassroots marketing experience.”
Students often think sports don’t make them sound impressive, but playing sports can tell colleges a lot about a student. People who play sports are motivated, dedicated, and often they are team players (sorry singles tennis). Those are great qualities. You don’t have to dress them up as something they aren’t.
‘So what should I say?’
If you have successfully avoided waxing poetic and a description straight out of Wikipedia, you might be asking yourself, ‘what can I write?’ Let’s start with the obvious. It is right in the ask for the section: “...including what you accomplished and any recognition you received, etc.”
Do you have a rank on your team? Did your team go to state? Were you undefeated? Got MVP or Most Improved? Take a moment to think if you have had any specific titles or awards given to you or your team. This is a great place to start. If you didn’t receive anything like that, don’t sweat it, and don’t try to exaggerate. You don’t need to be the best in everything. “Accomplishments” don’t need to be awards. For example, on the track team did you get 90 seconds off your mile?
The next thing you should consider writing about is what you do for the team outside of gameplay. If you are the co-captain or the assistant coach, this is easy to include. But you don’t need a specific title to say what you do off the court. Helping organize weekend practices, being the go-to snack person, driving members of your team to meets: all of these things show organization, leadership, and teamwork. So many of the lessons from playing sports happen off the court and writing about those experiences here is encouraged.
If you are still racking your brain on what to write, we have two words for you: commitment and details. High school sports usually meet several days a week. Going to games, going to practice, and using your time to pursue this activity takes commitment. You can write about how much time you dedicate to your sport. Don’t go overboard, but if you are spending a lot of time doing something, it is obviously important to you.
Details can really elevate your description of any sport. If you swim, do you do all four strokes or just some of them? Add which. It’s not describing the sport, it’s describing what you do in the sport. Describing the concept of gymnastics isn’t needed, but we want to know that you only do floor and bars.
Writing about sports isn’t different than writing about any other activity. The activities section is all about sharing what you’re doing outside of class and it can be as simple as that. Colleges want to see you are a person with passions. Even if you don’t realize it now, a passion for volleyball is just as interesting as a passion for volunteering. They want to know the truth about how you are spending your time. You don’t need to sell how being on the baseball team is a leadership experience. They know the lessons being taught in and through playing on a team. And maybe just as importantly, they know what baseball is. So as long as you tell them your accomplishments, add details, and don’t say anything like “Consults on physical strength variants in a high-paced environment” for track, you got this.
Still not sure how to write your activities section? Contact us here.