If you opened the 2026–27 Common App and thought the Position/Leadership box had disappeared from the Activities section, you are not imagining it.
The field is still there. Common App changed how students reach it.
For the 2026–27 application cycle, the Activities section has been renamed Activities and Experiences, and students now first answer a Yes/No question about whether they have a position or leadership role to report.
If you answer Yes, the familiar Position/Leadership field appears. If you answer No, it stays hidden.
That may sound like a tiny change, but it sends an important message to applicants:
You do not need to invent a title for every activity.
What Changed in the 2026–27 Common App?
In previous versions of the Common App, the Position/Leadership field was simply visible when students entered an activity.
That created an awkward problem. What should you write if you participate in something meaningful but do not have a formal title?
Students often felt pressure to enter things like:
- Member
- Participant
- Volunteer
- Student
- Team Member
Sometimes those were accurate. Sometimes they were filler because the form seemed to expect something.
The 2026–27 Common App handles this differently. When you add an activity or experience, you are first asked whether you have a position or leadership role to report.
If you choose Yes
You can enter your position or leadership description, up to 50 characters. Examples might include:
- Team Captain
- Club President
- Shift Lead
- Section Leader
- Founder
- Treasurer
- Student Council Representative
If you choose No
You simply continue without entering a title. And that is completely fine.
You Do Not Need a Leadership Title for an Activity to Matter
This is probably the most important part of the change.
Colleges are not only interested in formal leadership positions. A meaningful Activities and Experiences list can include:
- Paid employment
- Family responsibilities
- Caring for younger siblings or relatives
- Hobbies
- Independent projects
- Religious or community involvement
- Sports, music, clubs, volunteer work
- Creative work and personal interests
- Research
- ROTC or military-related experiences
- Significant responsibilities outside school
You can spend hundreds of hours doing something important without ever holding an official title. That does not make the experience less valuable.
A student who works 20 hours a week at a restaurant may carry significant responsibility even if their official job title is simply "Crew Member." A student who watches younger siblings after school may have no title at all. A student who builds computers, creates art, trains for races, runs a small online business, or helps care for a grandparent may also have no formal leadership position.
Those experiences still tell colleges something meaningful about how you spend your time, what matters to you, and what responsibilities you carry.
For how to describe any of them well once you have decided what belongs on the list, see How to Fill Out the Activities Section the Right Way.
Why Is the Section Now Called Activities and Experiences?
The rename fits the broader idea. Not everything important in a student's life happens through a school club.
For many students, some of their most significant commitments happen at work, at home, at church, in their community, online, through independent projects, or while helping their family. The new name makes more room for those.
Common App also updated some activity categories for 2026–27, including changing "Work (paid)" to "Employment or work (paid)" and expanding "Junior ROTC" to "ROTC and Military."
The direction is clear: students should report how they actually spend their time, rather than trying to make every experience sound like a traditional extracurricular.
That has a bigger consequence than the missing title box, and it is worth its own read: Yes, Your Hobby Can Be a Common App Activity.
Should I Answer Yes and Put Member?
Usually not — not just because you feel you need something in the box.
If you genuinely have a role that helps explain what you did, include it. But you do not need to manufacture a title simply because an activity matters to you.
For example:
Activity: School Orchestra
Leadership role? No
That can be perfectly appropriate. Your description can still explain that you performed in concerts, practiced eight hours a week, earned honors, mentored younger musicians informally, or participated for four years.
Activity: Family Responsibilities
Leadership role? No
Your description can explain that you cared for younger siblings every afternoon while your parents worked.
The substance of the experience matters more than creating an impressive-sounding label.
What If I Really Do Have a Leadership Role?
Then answer Yes and use the field. Your title should be accurate and concise.
You do not need to make a normal role sound more prestigious than it is. "Captain" is better than "Executive Athletic Leadership Coordinator" if your actual role was captain. "Shift Lead" is better than inflating a part-time job into something it was not.
Accuracy is more valuable than title inflation.
What If I Created My Common App Account Before August 1?
Common App allows much of the information in the main application to roll over from one cycle to the next. That means students with existing activity information should review every rolled-over entry carefully.
Do not assume that because an activity carried over, every new 2026–27 question has already been answered exactly as Common App now requires.
In particular, review activities that previously had no position or leadership title.
A blank title from an older application does not necessarily mean you would answer No to the new question. It may simply mean the older version of the form never asked you to make that distinction.
The Takeaway
If you are applying to college in 2026–27 and cannot find the old Position/Leadership field, nothing is broken.
The Common App now asks you first whether you actually have a position or leadership role to report.
- Yes → the 50-character Position/Leadership field appears
- No → you continue without one
And that is intentional. Your Activities and Experiences section is supposed to reflect what you actually do, not force every part of your life into a leadership title.
A job matters. A family responsibility matters. A hobby matters. An independent project matters. Being a committed participant matters.
You do not need to turn every experience into a leadership position for it to belong on your application.