Common App Activities & Experiences Worksheet: Find What You're Missing

This worksheet helps you uncover activities and experiences you may not think to include. Jobs, responsibilities, hobbies, personal projects, and self-directed interests can all be worth exploring.

You do not need ten.

Print this page or save it as a PDF to fill it in by hand.

Part 1 — Discover

Write down whatever comes to mind. Do not decide yet whether anything is good enough.

1. What do you spend a ridiculous amount of time doing?

2. What have you gotten really good at just because you wanted to?

3. What have you built, created, mastered, collected, repaired, designed, moderated, taught, or competed in?

4. What do your friends ask you for help with?

5. What have you stuck with even though nobody was giving you a grade, an award, or a title?

Part 2 — Explore

Take each thing you wrote down and ask these. Copy this block for every candidate.

Experience:

What did you actually do?

How long have you been doing it?

How much time does it take?

What did you create, contribute, learn, or take responsibility for?

What does this add to what a college understands about you?

Part 3 — Build your list

Only now start thinking about which of these belong in the Common App, and how you would describe each one.

You do not need ten.

The goal is not to fill every slot. It is to find the experiences that best show how you actually spend your time.

Found something you had forgotten about?

Add it to your Activities & Experiences list in CollegeHound while it is fresh, and keep the details — hours, years, what you did — in one place for when you fill out the application.

Save my list in CollegeHound →

Wondering whether hobbies really belong here? Read Yes, Your Hobby Can Be a Common App Activity.

Ready to write the entries? See How to Fill Out the Activities Section the Right Way.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is this worksheet for?

Getting everything on the table before you decide what belongs in the Common App. The Activities and Experiences section can include paid work, family responsibilities, hobbies, independent projects, and self-directed interests — but students rarely list those, because the question they are usually asked is about clubs. These five questions ask something different.

Do I need to fill in all ten activity slots?

No. Common App's own guidance says you can add up to ten activities but do not need to enter ten. A shorter, honest list is better than a padded one. The goal is to find the experiences that best show how you actually spend your time.

Should I judge each item as I write it down?

Not in Part 1. Judging during capture is how things get lost — the experience you dismiss in four seconds is often the one worth including. Write everything down first, then use Part 2 to work out which ones have real depth behind them.

Can I print this?

Yes. Print the page or save it as a PDF and fill it in by hand. The writing space and section breaks are set up for it.