The Best and Worst Verbs to Use in Your Activity List
The Best and Worst Verbs to Use in Your Activity List
How do you spend your time?
This seems like a simple question until you have to try to explain it to someone else. When you start getting into the details, definitions and descriptions often become more vague or murky.
In describing why you’re a great fit for their college, admissions officers want to paint the fullest picture of you possible. Diving beneath the surface level of what you do and uncovering the substance beneath it will help your story appear more vibrant and compelling to the person who reads your activity list.
Don’t underestimate the importance of this document amongst all the material that makes up your college application. Your activity list can prove instrumental in helping an admissions officer assess what you will contribute to their community. In fact, the way you complete your activity list – the detail you put into your word choices, the closeness of how it resembles the tone of your essays, and the context it provides about who you are – will go a long way to determining how an admissions officer differentiates between you and other uber-qualified students.
Choose impactful, persuasive verbs that illuminate your contributions. Your description of the activity is as important as the activity itself, if not more, for the purposes of gaining admission. Thousands, if not millions of students, participate in activities like Model UN each year around the world, for example. Unless you carefully craft your description to account for the specific impact you made through MUN, it will get lost in the shuffle. The same is true for virtually all of your activities.
It’s not the “what” that captures the imagination. It’s the “how” and “why.” Especially when your word or character count is limited, selecting precises, descriptive verbs set the proper tone.
Below are some of the best and worst verbs to use in your activity description. Let’s begin with the verbs to avoid.
The Worst
The following verbs all suffer from the same fate – they are not specific enough. As such, they create the illusion of being revelatory without actually distinguishing you from the pack. Steer clear of these verbs:
Worked/Interned
If you were an employee or an intern somewhere, this will be obvious from the title of the activity. Use the description to add important context to your work experience. Get right to the point describing your most significant responsibilities or accomplishments.
Helped
Helped who? Helped how? By definition of including the activity in your list, there is a certain level of helpfulness implied. Go beyond this and start to identify concrete ways your help was demonstrated.
Assisted
Similarly, “assisted” doesn’t tell your reader enough. It also shifts the central role of the action to whomever you were assisting. Instead, itemize your responsibilities, paying special attention to specific tasks you accomplished.
Organized
Running an event is hard work. Your reader wants to know about the obstacles you overcame and the vision you instilled into completing your task. “Organized” paints too broad a brush on this and it makes it seem like you did everything by yourself. Be clear about your contributions.
Volunteered
Volunteers volunteer. But the nature of that service isn’t the same for everyone. Give context to how (and why) you volunteered by using the description box to showcase your impact. Did you make fliers? Did you spend one-on-one time with a person who needed your help? Did you run errands for them or go door-to-door collecting signatures? Bring your service efforts to life by the way you describe them.
Visited
Avoid verbs like this where you remain a passive observer in the action. Visiting isn’t compelling; engaging is. When you went to a new place, how did you involve yourself? What mark did you leave? What mark was left on you? How were you active in the situation?
Participated/Played/Acted
Similarly, participation isn’t enough. By virtue of including the activity, it’s obvious you participated. Even if you aren’t the president of the club or captain of the team, what active role have you played in shaping your own experience? Have you trained outside of practice time? Have you brought discussion topics to the forefront? Have you gone out of your way to make others comfortable? Be clear on how your participation stands out and don’t waste space.
Am/Was
Forms of the verb “to be” create passive descriptions, stripping your description of power and can often lead to wordiness in your response. Eliminate them, keeping each description active and punchy.
The Best
Now that you have a better sense of words to avoid, let’s take a closer look at the kinds of verbs that will enhance the quality of your activity list.
Created
Take ownership of the work you’ve done or the projects you’ve spearheaded. Show the reader what you made. As you elaborate on the what, don’t forget to leave some space to touch on the why. How does your creation improve the functionality or experience of your target?
Earned/Won
You didn’t just get that MVP award. No one handed you that recognition in your internship. You earned them! Place yourself in the center of your own accomplishment. And be sure to clarify the criteria you met or exceeded to earn your special recognition.
Researched
What sources did you scour to gain new information? How and from where did you seek knowledge? Rather than just saying you “learned about” something, demonstrate the steps you took to acquire that understanding. Using a verb like this will force you to dive right in on the substance of your inquiry.
Designed/Built
Similarly, shed light on what you have designed or built. What are the specs? What did it take for you to put that project together? If it’s a program or an event, highlight your contributions to shaping the curriculum or agenda.
Implemented
It’s great that you were elected student body president, but what policies did you implement? How did you exert your influence and point of view within the position you held? What was different about you being captain than the last person? Spell that out, beginning with a strong verb like this.
Trained/Taught
These verbs create a natural place for the who, what, why, where, and how of your activity description. Elaborate on what your tutoring or section leader experience was really like.
You’ve got the template for a strong activity list now. Of course, you’ll need strong activities to have something to write about. Pour yourself into your passions with zeal, then carefully describe the core of those activities with compelling, powerful verbs. If you do, you’ll be one step closer to a very successful admissions process.
The expert admissions consultants at Wise World Prep have helped hundreds of students maximize their potential of being admitted to their top choice colleges and universities. Over 20 years, we have successfully guided students through each stage of the application process – from choosing competitive high school courses to building an appropriate college list to drafting winning essays to writing persuasive update and appeals letters. We would be happy to answer your questions and partner with you to create a successful admissions roadmap.
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