This week, The College Conundrum features guest blogger Marissa Daftary. She’s got a few ideas for the stressed-out seniors that need a few last minutes resume-builders before that January 1st deadline.

It’s mid-December and time for everybody who got their act together before November 1st to receive decisions from colleges. As I watch all of my fellow classmates get into the colleges of their dreams, there is only one thought in my head: “Oh no.”

For those of us who could not think that far ahead for early decision, regular decision is looking less and less appealing than ever.

To add to this stress, the Common Application has decided to give us something more to worry about. In prior years, the extracurricular and work experience area only had a few slots, but over-achievers could attach a resume to it and send it off to colleges.

This year, the Common Application staff has decided to darken the fears of high school seniors across the country. There are now 12 daunting spaces for applicants to fill out instead of attaching that additional resume.

What exactly does this mean? Well, nothing, if you’re one of those people who does everything to the extreme. If you’re the captain of three sports teams, an E-board member, a volunteer at many different places, and employed somewhere in the mall, then I’m pretty sure you have nothing to worry about. You’ll fill up those 12 spaces, piece of cake. Check, done, move onto the next piece of crucial information.

For those of us who only participate in one or two things per year, we seem to be in some sort of pickle. The common symptoms for this are: sweaty palms, bug-eyes, and the desperation that comes with filling in those 12 spaces. If you’re like me, seeing those empty spaces just reinforced the fact that getting into college is not going to be easy.

So, I have decided to do something that I thought might help those who are panicking. Here are a couple of ways that you can fill in those twelve spaces if you are seriously lacking in the extracurricular and work experience area.

1. Personal Reading

Say that you read a lot. It could range from anything that is personal reading to school assigned books and articles. (How will colleges ever know?) Type personal reading into the box and click 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th. This shows dedication to your studies and that you take joy in the arts. A lot of high school students don’t actually read outside of school, so this might just give you the edge that you need to be admitted.

2. Personal Writing

Maybe you’re the type of person who writes a lot of poems and stories, but they never amount to anything. Although this is similar to personal reading, personal writing can be expanded on in the short answer. You could write about all the great ideas that you have and why they are important to you. It’ll really make you interesting because I’m sure no one will have the same story ideas as you. Sure you’ll probably be making a lot of it up, but it’s worth a shot.

3. Baker

In some rare instances, you might bake every week or every few weeks with your family. You can put baker as an activity on the Common Application because it shows dedication and that you love spending time with your family. Not a lot of people have a special bond with their parents, so it’s important that you show colleges that you love your family. A note of caution: don’t go overboard because colleges will think you’re going to have anxiety leaving them.

4. Video Game Marathoner

Say that all you do after school is play video games. Maybe you participate in an annual 24-hour marathon with your friends over winter break. Put this in! It’ll show colleges that you’re dedicated to your hobbies and spending time with your friends. (This probably includes eating lots of take-out food and yelling at each other competitively while playing video games, but who cares if it’s not exactly quality bonding time?)

5. Mall Walker

For work experience, this would be a top priority for me. I definitely admit that there are times when I just aimlessly walk around the mall. For those of you like me, use this to your advantage! You’re burning calories and you’re becoming so familiar with the mall that you could give anyone directions. That seems like a job to me…

6. Food-giver to your pets

If every morning you wake up and feed your pets, this is not just a chore that your parents forced on you. You’re showing them you are responsible and you can take care of other beings. It’s important to show colleges that you are mature enough to go off to college at such a young age.

Feel free to be creative! Colleges aren’t going to take off points because you have something unusual in the extracurricular and work experience section. They might actually think that you’re pretty witty for thinking of all of those ideas.

In any case, have fun and don’t stress out. Just a couple more weeks and us seniors will be done with this whole stressful application process! We soon will be able to just kick back and relax until March.

Good luck, 2011!