Common App Activities Character Counter

Draft all 10 "Activities and Experiences" entries against the real character limits. Type freely. Counters turn red when you exceed a limit, but won't truncate your text.

Tool
0 of 10 slots used • 0 fields over limit
Data stays in this browser only. Your entries are saved to your local storage every 300 milliseconds and restored on reload. Clearing your browser data will erase them. No data is sent to servers.

The three limits at a glance

Field Limit Required
Position or leadership title 50 characters Optional (2026-27)
Organization name 100 characters Required
Description of activity 150 characters Required
Number of activity slots 10 total Fill as many as you have

Newlines and leading/trailing spaces count toward the limit. Emoji and accented characters count as 1 character each.

How to write a 150-character activity description

  • Start with a verb. "Organized" beats "In charge of." "Built" beats "Made."
  • Quantify impact. Numbers are your friends: "Tutored 12 freshmen," "Raised $3,400," "Grew membership 40%."
  • Cut articles and "I." "Volunteered at food bank, sorted 500 lbs of donations" saves 12 chars vs. "I volunteered at the food bank and sorted 500 lbs of donations."
  • No full sentences needed. Fragments are fine. "Built 3 robot prototypes, competed at state, won engineering award."
  • Spell out only ambiguous acronyms. "FBLA" is OK (students know it). Write out "National Honor Society" first time, then "NHS."

What counts as an activity

For 2026–27, the Common App expanded what "counts."

  • Paid work. Your summer job, part-time retail gig, and family business all qualify.
  • Family responsibilities. Caring for a sibling, elderly parent, or managing household duties while a parent works.
  • Hobbies and independent projects. Teaching yourself to code, making music in your garage, photography, building a business.
  • Community service. Volunteering, fundraising, activism, mentoring.
  • School clubs and sports. Classics, but also niche ones (Robotics, Debate, Environmental Club).
Every activity counts. The admissions office reads all 10 entries and looks for who you are when no one is watching.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to fill all 10 activities?
No. List as many or as few as honestly reflect who you are. Three deep, meaningful activities beat 10 shallow ones. Admissions officers read what you submit; they don't penalize you for leaving slots blank.
The position or leadership title field is optional. Should I leave it blank?
Use it if it adds clarity. "Debate Team Captain" tells a story; "Member" doesn't. But "Volunteer" is fine if you didn't hold a formal role. The field changed to optional because not every activity has a hierarchy. Caring for a sibling isn't a "position," and that's OK.
Can I paste in a 300-character description and edit it down?
Yes. This tool won't truncate your text. When you paste, it will show the overage (e.g., "-127 over") in red. That tells you how many characters you need to cut. Trim deliberately: keep the most important details.
What if an activity doesn't fit any category?
Choose "Other" from the activity-type dropdown. This is for hobbies, independent projects, or niche interests that don't map to the standard list.
Do grade-level checkboxes and time commitments affect what colleges see?
They do. Colleges see your grade level (9–12) and whether the activity was during the school year, a school break, or year-round. They also see hours per week and weeks per year, which adds up to total commitment. This helps admissions officers understand what "leadership" meant in context: was this a 2-hour volunteer stint, or a 20-hour-per-week job that shaped your high school?
What is the Common App Activities section for?
It answers a single question: "Who are you outside the classroom?" Colleges use this to understand your values, work ethic, interests, and community. It's where you list everything from sports and clubs to work, hobbies, family responsibilities, and independent projects. The section renamed to "Activities and Experiences" in 2026–27 to reflect that you don't need a title to have something worth sharing.

Sources