How to show leadership and impact on your activities list

RReaders in the Stanford admissions office we learned from gave the most weight to activities that show academic energy, support an intended field and demonstrate initiative: research, writing, independent study, events a student organizes herself. That leaves a natural question about everything else on the page, the varsity team, the student council seat, the years of tutoring and church service.

Families hear the advice about research and start to wonder whether those years were wasted. They were not, though most activities pages present them in a way that hides the one quality a reader is looking for, and in that office the quality had a name.