The Common App activities section is where you list what you do outside class: clubs, sports, jobs, family duties and things you taught yourself. For 2026-27, Common App renames it “Activities and experiences” and keeps room for up to 10 entries. Each entry is a handful of short fields, and the hard part is fitting a real commitment into a few characters. Every limit below comes from Common App’s own documents, each with its year.
Key Takeaways
- For 2026-27, the section is renamed “Activities and experiences”, and the position/leadership field becomes optional.
- You can add up to 10 activities, and Common App’s 2026-27 application PDF says “there’s no pressure to add all 10”.
- The 2025 activities guide allows 50 characters for the position, 100 for the organization name and 150 for the description. The 2026-27 deck says the limits will not change.
- The 2026-27 PDF gives one rule on order: “List your activities in order of their importance to you.”
The Common App Activities Section for 2026-27, Field by Field
Common App describes an entry in three documents. Its activities guide is dated 2025. Its 2026-27 update deck, written for counselors, lists what changes for 2026-27. The third is a PDF of the first-year application, dated July 31, 2026 in its file viewer.
The PDF prints no application year, but it carries the 2026-27 rename, so we read it as this cycle’s form. The online form needs a sign-in, so the field names below are the PDF’s.
| Field | 2025 activities guide | 2026-27 deck and application PDF |
|---|---|---|
| Section name | Activities section | Activities and experiences |
| Number of entries | Up to ten | Up to 10, with no pressure to add all 10 (PDF) |
| Activity type | Chosen from a dropdown, with other club/activity as a fallback | No type field printed in the PDF |
| Position/leadership | 50 characters | Becomes optional (deck); marked if applicable (PDF) |
| Organization name | 100 characters | Marked if applicable (PDF) |
| Description | 150 characters | Limits will not change (deck); field named Description (PDF) |
| Participation grade levels | Not in the guide | 9, 10, 11, 12 and Post-HS (PDF) |
| Timing of participation | Not in the guide | School year, school break or all year (PDF) |
| Time spent | Hours per week and weeks per year; a best guess is alright | The same two fields (PDF); post-high school time reported more accurately (deck) |
| Plans in college | Not in the guide | Yes, No or Not sure (PDF) |
The character limits are the 2025 guide’s figures. The deck does not print the numbers; it says “Character limits for activity names, roles, and descriptions will not change”. The PDF prints no limits at all, so check each entry against the 2025 figures before you paste it in.
How to Write Each Field of an Entry
Activity type
The 2025 guide starts here: “First, you’ll select your activity type.” If none fits, it says you can choose “other club/activity” and explain in the other fields. The 2026-27 PDF prints no type field, so we cannot confirm this cycle’s dropdown options. Our advice: pick the closest type and let the description say what the activity really is.
Position/leadership
From 2026-27 this field is optional: the deck says it “will become optional”. The 2025 limit is 50 characters. Use it for a title or role when you have one, such as captain or shift lead, and leave it empty for a hobby with no role. Our advice: if your role grew, show both steps in order.
Organization name
In the 2026-27 PDF this field is marked “(if applicable)”, and the section welcomes activities that are “self-taught or not part of an official group”. The 2025 limit is 100 characters. Our advice: write the group’s real name, and add the town or the kind of group if the name alone says little.
Description
This field has the tightest space: 150 characters in the 2025 guide, which labels it “Activity details, honors won, and accomplishments”. The guide warns that you “may need to abbreviate words and simplify your grammar”. Its own example cuts a 256-character paragraph about shelter volunteering to 141 characters. The cut version drops the time spent, “because that information is reported elsewhere in the section.”
Harvard’s application tips, updated September 23, 2026, point the same way: a description “should be concise, or it may be cut off by the Common Application.” Our advice: open with a verb, give one number, and name what changed because of you. The title and the hours already have their own fields.
Participation grade levels and timing
The 2026-27 PDF asks for the grades you took part in: 9, 10, 11, 12 and Post-HS, which it defines as “After graduating high school”. It then asks for timing: school year, school break or all year. Harvard says the grades “help us to understand the depth of your involvement”, and that “Not all extracurricular activities must be a four-year commitment”. Our reading of the labels: a summer job is a school break activity, and a job you keep through the year is all year.
Hours per week and weeks per year
The 2025 guide and the 2026-27 PDF both ask for hours per week and weeks per year. If you cannot remember exact figures, the guide says “it’s alright to give your best guess.” For 2026-27, the deck adds that time on post-high school experiences “can be reported more accurately”. Harvard wants to know “how you manage your time”; our advice is to estimate an ordinary week, not your busiest one.
Plans to participate in college
The 2026-27 PDF asks “Do you plan to participate in college?” and offers three answers: Yes, No and Not sure. Harvard says the question helps it see “how you might contribute at Harvard”, and that some students narrow their focus or try new activities in college. Not sure is a real option on the form, so you do not have to guess.
A Sample Common App Activities Section Entry We Wrote
This entry is invented and describes no real applicant. It shows the shape of each field, measured against the 2025 limits.
| Field | Sample entry (ours) | Length or format |
|---|---|---|
| Position/leadership | Volunteer math tutor; lead tutor since grade 11 | 47 of 50 characters |
| Organization name | Eastside Public Library Homework Help | 37 of 100 characters |
| Description | Tutor middle schoolers in algebra. Built a practice-problem bank now used by 5 tutors; recruited 3 classmates to run a Saturday session. | 136 of 150 characters |
| Grade levels | 10, 11, 12 | Boxes |
| Timing | School year | One box |
| Hours and weeks | 4 hours per week, 32 weeks per year | Numbers |
| Plans in college | Yes | One box |
Each field does one job. The title sits in the position field, so the description can spend its characters on results: a problem bank other tutors use and a new Saturday session. The time sits in its own fields, as in Common App’s example.
How Many Activities to List, and in What Order
The 2026-27 PDF allows up to 10 and says “there’s no pressure to add all 10”. The 2025 guide tells you to focus on the activities that tell your story “and not on the number you’re reporting.” Harvard says it is “much more interested in the quality of students’ activities than their quantity”. Stanford’s admission overview, updated July 21, 2026, says depth in one or two activities “may demonstrate your passion more than minimal participation in five or six clubs.”
If you are still deciding how many extracurriculars to list, settle the count before you write the descriptions. On order, the 2026-27 PDF gives one instruction: “List your activities in order of their importance to you.” The 2025 guide does not mention order.
Harvard puts it another way: “Filling out the grid is an act of prioritization”, and your answers show what is “most meaningful to you.” Our reading: rank by what matters to you, not by what you think sounds most impressive.
Jobs, Family Duties and Activities Without a Club
The 2026-27 PDF’s examples include employment or work, family responsibilities and hobbies, alongside clubs, sports, arts and volunteering. Stanford says work and family responsibilities “are as important as any other extracurricular activity.” Harvard names babysitting for your family and working in a restaurant as examples.
Right after the list, the 2026-27 PDF asks a separate question under Responsibilities and circumstances. It asks which responsibilities “you spend 4 or more hours per week doing”, such as caring for younger family members or working a paid job for household income. It also says “You may repeat information you already provided elsewhere”. Our advice: if a family duty fills real hours, list it as an activity and check its box there too.
What Belongs Outside the Activities List
Academic honors have their own optional Honors list in the 2026-27 PDF, for honors “related to your academic achievements”. For more room on one activity, the 2025 guide points to the Additional Information question in the Writing section, whose open prompt the 2026-27 PDF caps at 300 words. Harvard says family duties and jobs can be listed and also “discussed in essays”. Our advice: an activity whose story needs more than a list belongs in your Common App essay.
If a college also asks for a resume, keep the resume’s titles, dates and hours the same as your activities list; our guide to the college application resume explains which colleges ask for one.
Every line you enter is certified. The 2026-27 PDF’s signature states that the application is “my own work, factually true, and honestly presented”. ExceptionalGrad’s Detailed Application Review is a comprehensive review that, in the page’s words, ensures “all sections of the application including essays and experiences are fully prepared for submission.” Our advisors edit and advise on the entries you write; we never write them for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many activities should you put on the Common App?
As many as feel meaningful, up to 10. Common App’s 2026-27 application PDF says “there’s no pressure to add all 10”, and Harvard’s application tips, updated in September 2026, ask applicants not to “feel a need to fill every line”. Our advice: list an activity only if you can say what you did in it.
Does the order of Common App activities matter?
Yes, by the form’s own instruction. Common App’s 2026-27 application PDF says to list activities “in order of their importance to you”, and its 2025 activities guide gives no order rule at all. Our advice: put the activity you would defend first at the top, even if a club with a bigger name sits lower.
Is the Common App activities description limit in words or characters?
Characters. Common App’s 2025 activities guide allows 150 characters for the description, 100 for the organization name and 50 for the position. Its 2026-27 update deck says those limits will not change. Our advice: draft each entry where you can count characters, then paste it into the form and check that nothing was cut.
Can a job or family responsibility count as a Common App activity?
Yes. Common App’s 2026-27 application PDF lists employment or work and family responsibilities among its examples, and Stanford calls them as important as any other extracurricular activity. A work entry we wrote, inside the 2025 limits: position “Cashier”, organization “Family-owned grocery”, description “Ran the register and closing count; trained 2 new hires.” (56 characters).