How should I format my activities list using the College Essay Guy's advice?

You’re right that the College Essay Guy emphasizes making your activities list concise, specific, and impact-focused—especially because the Common App only gives you 150 characters (not words!) for the description of each activity. Here are some core suggestions you can use, adapted from his advice:

First, start each description with a strong action verb. Instead of saying, "Responsible for organizing events for club," try: "Organized monthly speaker events for 50+ students, increasing turnout by 40%." It’s more active and quantifies your contribution.

Don’t feel like you need to list every detail about your involvement. Instead, prioritize the most impressive (or unique) responsibilities and impact. Focus on leadership, results, or tangible changes you helped bring about. If you held more than one role, highlight either the highest title or the one with the most responsibility, then quickly summarize key accomplishments.

For example:

Before: "Member of Science Club. Helped with experiments and worked on science fair."
After: "Led experiment design for regional science fair project; coordinated team of 4; won 2nd place out of 30 entries."

Ordering is also important. College Essay Guy suggests you list your activities in your personal order of importance or impact, not just by time or recency. Put your most meaningful or impressive activity at the top—even if it isn't your most recent. Impact is more compelling than pure quantity.

A quick tip: use abbreviations where obvious, avoid filler words like "I" or "responsible for," and replace descriptors ("helped with") with measurable impact ("tutored 8 students, improving pass rate by 25%").

If you want another before/after example:

Before: "Volunteered at animal shelter, walked dogs, cleaned kennels."
After: "Trained new volunteers and coordinated daily care for 20+ shelter animals; organized adoption event placing 15 pets."

Summing up: prioritize key achievements, use space wisely by being specific, list in order of significance, and quantify your impact where possible. This approach should help your activities stand out—even with the strict character limits.