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Are you currently applying to college and wondering how to talk about hobbies in your applications? With so many hobbies that students can potentially have, it can be tricky to choose what to highlight on your application. This post is here to help guide you through the process of discussing hobbies on your college applications so you can submit a strong application.
Hobbies on College Applications
Examples of Hobbies
Playing an instrument
Practicing a sport
Creative writing
Cooking/Baking
Gardening
Drawing/Painting
Gaming
Robotics
Hobbies Dos
Choose meaningful hobbies: Talk about hobbies that are meaningful to you or that you are deeply passionate about. For example, this could be something that you have engaged in for an extended period of time. The longer you have engaged with a certain hobby, the more likely you are to be passionate about it, which will show in your application.
Be specific: Discuss the details of what you did as part of this hobby. Do not just simply state all your hobbies as a list - explain each hobby in-depth. This could include the tasks you had to do to complete this hobby, how you collaborated with others (if applicable), what you learned, any leadership roles you took on, etc.
Quantify achievements: Where possible, you should provide numerical values to help quantify your achievements. For example, instead of simply stating you played the piano since childhood, you could say you have been playing the piano for the last 10 years and performed at 10 concerts/recitals.
Show personal growth: You should discuss how you grew as a person as a result of partaking in this hobby. What new skills did you learn? Did you join any clubs that were specifically geared towards your hobby? What lessons did you learn from other people who share the same interests? How will you use these skills in future?
Highlight leadership: You should discuss roles in which you took an active lead. For example, if you were in a club for your hobby (eg: cooking club, robotics club), you can show growth if you went from a general member in your freshman year to a president/vice-president by junior/senior year. This will be more impressive to admissions officers than if you consistently stayed in a low-level position throughout high school.
Show diverse experiences: Highlight a range of different hobbies to show diversity in the skills you gained and the people you interacted with. Explain how each of these experiences has shaped you and prepared you for the future. How can you use these skills at college? For example, you could say that your experience in robotics club has prepared you to tackle STEM programs at college.
Hobbies Don'ts
Don't be vague: You should avoid making general statements such as saying "I learned new skills" or "I am so passionate about this". Instead, your narrative should be descriptive and give a clear picture of your participation in this hobby. Provide descriptive anecdotes to bring your experiences to life.
Don't exaggerate: Even though you may have a large range of hobbies, you may not have participated in all of them in equal depth, which is normal! However, you should make sure not to exaggerate your hobbies when you describe them as admissions officers can often make out when descriptions are not honest. Even if you only did a certain hobby a few times, describe those experiences as genuinely as you can.
Don't include irrelevant hobbies: Focus on talking about hobbies that were meaningful to you or that helped you gain skills that you can use in future at college. Don't include one-off events you took part in just to make your list longer as you will not be able to show meaningful growth and connections for hobbies that you didn't engage deeply in. Hobbies are activities that you are deeply passionate about, so make sure to only talk about those experiences which you engaged deeply or had a genuine passion for.
Don't leave out challenges: While it may seem tempting to discuss only the positive aspects of your hobbies, you should aim to talk about the challenges you faced as well. This shows admissions officers your resilience and perseverance, which are good qualities to have on a college application.
We hope this guide has helped you identify how to discuss hobbies on college applications. Good luck with everything!
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