The UC admissions readers need a well-wrought set of activities to appraise your application.
A candidate can submit 20 activities with up to 500 characters to describe each. An activity list can possibly reach a maximum of 10,000 characters, around 1,600 words or 3.5 pages. Now imagine being a UCLA admissions reader at 2am on a Saturday morning coming upon her 1007th description of an ASB council member heading up a beach cleanup? Yes, it’s part of the job description, but show a little mercy.
Last year, UCLA received 120,000+ applications containing 480,000 personal insight statements. Add to this over 300,000 pages of activities. If a judicious applicant can refine and laser focus these activities, her candidacy will likely be looked upon with grace.
The admissions readers are the audience you need to keep entertained or at least engaged.
Unless there is something about your activities that requires a lot of explanation, I’d attempt to keep your description of an activity to around 150-160 characters maximum. One reason for this self-imposed limit is it will make transferring the activity over to the Common Application, where the character limit is 150, easier. Moreover, in the UC Tips and Tools for freshmen admission applicants @ https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/apply-online-freshman-cal.pdf, on page 5 is an activities and awards worksheet, which can be used to sort through all the things you spend time on, but it, too, advises you to limit your description to around 160 characters.
All 20 activities do not need to be filled in. Having only 12 or 15 works fine. The key is to supply activities that represent who you are and how you spend your time. This is about the quality not quantity of efforts. The UC tells us in the directions: “…focus on the ones that are most important to you. Choose experiences that demonstrate commitment, responsibility, leadership, and most of all, genuine interest.”
There are six categories to select among from a pull-down menu.
· Award or honor
· Educational Prep Programs
· Extracurricular Activity
· Other coursework
· Volunteer/Community Service
· Work Experience
There are no restrictions on how many within a specific category. If you’re groping for ideas on activities take a look at Prep Scholar’s list, which is reasonably extensive. https://blog.prepscholar.com/list-of-extracurricular-activities-examples.
Describe an activity concretely. The more specific the better. Use active verbs (in the past for activities completed (e.g. acted) and present tense for activities still ongoing (act). If you need an assortment of verbs to select among go to the following verb list and extract the most telling ones.: https://www.themuse.com/advice/185-powerful-verbs-that-will-make-your-resume-awesome. While the list is for enhancing a resume, that’s the essence of an activity list.
Lead, Claudius, Trinity HS Drama Spring performance of Hamlet; played five sold out performances; Nominated for Orange County Cappies (Critics and Awards Program for high school theater performers)
Along the lines of the resume, you don’t need complete sentences or unnecessary words. Go right to the bone. Note an instruction from UC Admissions: don’t use acronyms. You don’t know who is reading your activities. He or she may or may not know MUN or FBLA. Don’t risk confusion by assuming anything.
Avoid exaggeration or fabrication, if the claims get too wild, such as you just received your second Pulitzer Prize in non-fiction and you’re about to publish your memoirs, the UC’s have resources to investigate and confirm or expose false claims.
To see a wide assortment of sample writeups go to the following blog https://www.collegeessayguy.com/blog/guide-uc-activities-list-application-example. It gives examples of write ups for all the UC Activity categories. The key to this portion of your application is to inform UC admissions what ‘genuinely interests’ you. If you haven’t participated in a lot of activities tell them why. If a lot of your time is taken up working with a family member or at a job, tell them. The whole exercise is about you. Let your activities speak for you.