Don't Overlook These Common App Sections: Activities and Experiences, and Additional Information

Most applicants pour nearly all their energy into the main personal essay and treat the rest of the Common App as paperwork to fill out quickly. That's a mistake. Two of the most overlooked common app sections, Activities and Experiences and Additional Information, offer real opportunities to round out your application, and skipping past them carelessly can leave a committee with an incomplete picture of who you are.

What's New in the Activities Section

For this application cycle, the Common App renamed the Activities section to "Activities and Experiences," a small but meaningful shift. It reflects the fact that not everything meaningful you've done fits neatly into a formal "activity" with a title and a club roster. This cycle also made listing a leadership or position title optional for each entry, which matters most for students whose meaningful contributions didn't come with an official title: informal caregiving, self-directed projects, or work that mattered without a formal hierarchy attached to it.

That said, optional doesn't mean irrelevant. If you did hold a real title or leadership role, include it; it still helps a reader quickly understand your level of responsibility. The change simply means students without a title are no longer at a structural disadvantage in how they describe their contribution.

Getting the Most Out of Activities and Experiences

Because space in each entry is limited, treat every description like a micro-essay rather than a resume line. A few practical guidelines:

• •Lead with what you actually did and what resulted from it, not just the name of the group or program.
• •Use active, specific language and real numbers where they add clarity, such as people organized, funds raised, or hours logged.
• •Order your list by what matters most to you and your story, not strictly by hours per week; the first few entries get the most attention.
• •Make sure your activities collectively show range and depth rather than several shallow, unrelated commitments.
• •If an activity connects to your intended major or the themes in your essay, make that connection legible without over-explaining it.

The Additional Information Section: An Underused Opportunity

The Additional Information section remains optional, and it's capped at 300 words. Because it's optional, plenty of applicants skip it entirely, sometimes wisely, sometimes not. This section exists for context that genuinely doesn't fit anywhere else in the application: a family circumstance that affected your grades one semester, a health issue, a schedule change due to work or caregiving responsibilities, or another factor a reader would benefit from understanding.

What it is not for

• •Restating achievements already covered in your activities list or resume.
• •A second personal essay on a topic you simply didn't fit into your main statement.
• •Generic enthusiasm about the school you're applying to; that belongs in supplemental essays, not here.

Used well, this section is short, factual, and specific. State the circumstance plainly, explain its impact briefly, and avoid over-justifying. A committee reading this section wants context, not a defense.

How These Sections Work Alongside the Main Essay

Remember that the main Common App personal essay, chosen from one of seven prompts, requires a response between 250 and 650 words, and that same essay is sent to every school on your list. Because the personal essay has to serve every school equally, it usually can't carry school-specific or highly situational context. That's exactly where Activities and Experiences and Additional Information earn their place: they let you round out details the universal essay can't cover without sacrificing its focus.

Think of your full application as a coordinated set of documents rather than one essay plus a stack of forms. Your personal essay should reveal how you think, your activities should show what you've actually done and cared about, and your additional information, if you need it, should supply context a reader couldn't get anywhere else. When all three are working together, a reader comes away with a coherent, three-dimensional sense of you rather than a single flattering anecdote surrounded by blank space.

If you're not sure whether your activities descriptions are pulling their weight, or whether something belongs in Additional Information, SummaEssay's editors can review your full application package, not just the personal essay, to make sure every section is working toward the same clear picture of who you are.

Want expert eyes on your own draft? Explore SummaEssay's personal statement and SOP editing services or browse free essay samples for inspiration.