Activities Resume, Summary
Some colleges encourage students to submit an activities resume with their applications, usually with specific directions about what to cover and how (e.g., USC asks for one page covering specific areas). Other colleges say that they won’t accept an activities resume (e.g., the University of California and Stanford University).

Work Experience, Employment Grids
No matter how menial or little the pay, colleges appreciate seeing that a student has spent some of his or her after-school, weekend or summer time working. In the employment grid, be sure to include any kind of work including babysitting, working for your parents or other relatives, and, of course, employment outside the family.

9.  MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS

Disciplinary action at an educational institution involving probation, dismissal, suspension, removal, expulsion or criminal conviction of a misdemeanor, felony or other crime.

Students must inform colleges of any major disciplinary action, dismissal, suspension, criminal conviction or juvenile probation they have had while in high school. Do not be tempted to overlook this question or lie about it. Most Secondary School report forms ask high school counselors the same question; so even if you wanted to hide the situation, you can’t.

The best way of handling this question is to give a simple, honest description of the circumstances of what happened, as well as what you might have learned from it. It doesn’t hurt to say that you regret having done it, and that it will never happen again.

adMISSION POSSIBLE® TIP! Resist the temptation to throw out all of your college admissions files after you have completed the applications. You never know when you might need to re-send a lost application or a piece of it, or just refer to something in the file.

Where else are you applying?
At first sight this may appear to be an innocent inquiry, but be careful. How you answer this question could affect your admission. Colleges not only want to keep tabs on who their competition is, but also might use your answer to interpret your interest in their school. If, for example, on one application you list a number of colleges that are more selective than this particular college, admissions people could conceivably judge that their college is merely one of your back up schools and decide to wait list or reject you.

One way of handling this question is to say something such as, “While your college has always been a top choice, to make sure that I have other viable options I am also applying to A, B, C, and D.” Then list colleges comparable to that college.

Question regarding taking time out after high school graduation.
A growing number of high school students take a year off between high school and college, a practice called gap year. If you have taken a gap year, this question is a wonderful opportunity to tell admissions people what you did, why you decided to do it, what you learned from the experience, as well as how the year changed or helped you grow.