2. Student Resume Overview Brain Dump Getting Organized What do Admissions Committees Want?

3. Brain Dump Create a resume of all of your student activities Reflect on all activities you have participated in since grade 9 and list them

4. Brain Dump, con’t Pay no attention to the length of the list Be sure to get all activities listed Why? o Personal Statement o Letters of Recommendation

5. Brain Dump, con’t Ways to approach the brain dump activity: o List activities of most interest to you o Go through activities chronologically This may be a better method if your fear you may leave out some important activities

7. Getting Organized Organize the activities by theme and flesh them out These detailed activity sheets will help you fill out applications

8. Getting Organized, con’t Reorganize the activities into 6 categories: o School sponsored activities (clubs, political positions, newspaper, the arts) o Employment (paid jobs or internships) o Community service (volunteer positions) o Sports (differentiate between community and school sports clubs) o Travel (any domestic or international travel experience) o Special interests / talents (hobbies, pursuits, special circumstances)

9. Getting Organized, con’t You may not have all 6 categories; this is not a problem – more is not better Include 3 – 5 sentences in your descriptions Highlight leadership and awards details Later, descriptions will be shortened due to application requirements, but for now, more detailed descriptions are needed

10. What do Admission Committees Want? Looking for genuine interest Better to show a passion in a handful of areas “Narrow and deep rather than wide and shallow” Why do they want this information? o To get a sense of who you are o To learn what qualities you can bring to their college

11. What do Admission Committees Want?, con’t Level of commitment How you have progressed over time o Leadership They want to know why you have pursued the passions that you have – they can tell if you’re faking it