How to Show Your Individual Contributions to a Top FIRST Robotics Team on the Common App
A FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team can run to dozens of students working alongside adult mentors, and a district title, a FIRST Impact Award, or a Championship playoff run belongs to every one of them. A selective college can read applications from several members of the same team in one year, each listing the same results. The team's record tells the reader how strong the team was. Your entry has to tell them what you built, wrote, or led.
FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) teams are smaller, but the task is the same. On any top team, work is divided into subteams and specialties, and your application needs to show which piece was yours, in terms a reader can picture and measure.
This guide covers how the Common App activity entry is built, the principles that apply to every role, what members in each role on an FRC or FTC team can claim, and how FIRST's one individual student award fits into your application.
How the Common App Activity Entry Is Built
The Common App's activity section is called "Activities and Experiences" for the 2026-27 cycle. It holds up to 10 entries. Each one has a position or leadership line of up to 50 characters, an organization name of up to 100, and a description of up to 150. It also asks for grade levels, hours per week, and weeks per year.
Give each text field its own job. The position line names your role or subteam, such as "Programming Lead and Drive Coach." The organization line names the team and carries its record. The description holds only what you did. A strong organization line reads like "FIRST Robotics Competition Team 1234, Example High School; 2026 District Championship winner," which uses 92 of the 100 characters and leaves your full 150-character description for your own work. The position line is optional this year, but on a robotics team it is the fastest way to tell a reader where you sat, so use it.
Write out "FIRST Robotics Competition" or "FIRST Tech Challenge" instead of FRC or FTC, and include your team number. Many readers will recognize the full program names faster than the abbreviations.
For hours per week, give an honest average of the time you personally spent. FRC work peaks after the January kickoff, when teams build a new robot in a matter of weeks and then compete through spring, and FTC runs from a fall kickoff through spring championships. Count the off-season projects, outreach, and training you did as well.
Principles That Apply to Every Role
Name the subteam, then the piece you owned. Large FRC teams usually split into subteams such as mechanical, programming, electrical, CAD, strategy, business, and outreach, and FTC teams divide the same work among fewer people. Inside your subteam, name the subsystem, program, document, or project that was yours, such as the climber, the vision code, or the sponsorship program.
Make your part clear next to your mentors' part. FIRST encourages adult mentors, many of them working engineers, and leaves each team to decide how involved they are. The FTC manual describes the right amount of mentor help as however much is needed to inspire the students on the team. Because readers know teams differ, describe the decisions and work that were yours. Working closely with an engineer is a strength when your description shows what you did in that partnership, such as "designed and machined with a mechanical engineer mentor reviewing each revision."
Measure it with numbers that trace back to you. Team rankings measure the team. Look for numbers that moved because of your work, such as autonomous points, the seconds it takes the robot to score one game piece, parts machined, dollars raised, students trained, or portfolio pages written. Before and after numbers show the change you caused.
Lead with a verb that fits only your work. Designed, machined, wired, programmed, drove, scouted, raised, and trained each tell the reader what you were doing. Put the verb first, then the object, then the result.
Count the people you trained. Every year a top team loses its seniors and has to rebuild its skills, and FTC gives a Sustain Award to teams that build lasting leadership and resources. Training the students who replace you is individual work that keeps paying off after you graduate, and it belongs in your description.
Pull your specifics from the team's records. Your FTC portfolio, your FRC team's technical documentation, the commit history in your code repository, and the version history in your CAD files all hold dates, test results, and design iterations. They are the fastest way to recover the precise numbers your entry needs.
The Drive Team
The drive team is the small group that takes the robot to the field for each match. In both FRC and FTC it is made up mostly of students, and no more than one member may be an adult, who usually serves as drive coach. The roles are drivers, a human player who handles game pieces from the edge of the field, a drive coach, and in FRC a technician who prepares the robot and fixes problems at the field. Each match opens with an autonomous period in which robots run on code alone, 20 seconds in the 2026 FRC game and 30 seconds in the 2025-26 FTC game, followed by the period when drivers take control.
Drivers and operators. Many teams split control between a driver who moves the robot and an operator who runs its mechanisms. If you held either seat, count the matches you drove and name the highest level you drove at, such as a district championship or the FIRST Championship playoffs. Your strongest numbers come from practice data, such as the seconds per scoring cycle before and after a practice plan you designed. If you worked with programmers on the controls, such as button layout or an automatic aiming feature, say so.
Human players. Name the task, such as feeding or throwing game pieces, and give your accuracy or speed and how practice changed it.
Drive coaches. A student drive coach watches the whole field, calls strategy, and plans each match with alliance partners. Count the matches you coached and describe the planning you led.
Technicians. The technician keeps the robot ready between matches, from batteries to connection checks to quick repairs. A record such as zero matches lost to a dead battery or a loose connection across a season is a number that belongs to you.
A driver's description might read "Drove 58 matches at 4 events, including FIRST Championship playoffs; designed practice drills that cut cycle time from 9 to 6 seconds," which uses 133 of the 150 characters.
Programmers
FRC programmers usually write in Java, C++, or Python on top of WPILib, the standard FRC software library, and most FTC programmers write in Java. Programmers build the autonomous routines, the driver control code, and the systems that help the robot act on its own during a match.
Name those systems in plain terms. Swerve drive, in which each wheel steers on its own so the robot can move in one direction while facing another, takes serious control code. Vision code that reads AprilTags, the printed square markers placed around FIRST fields, lets a robot work out its own position. Path following, often built on FTC libraries such as Road Runner or Pedro Pathing, lets a robot trace a planned route. If you wrote any of these, name it and what it let the robot do.
Your numbers come from the robot's performance with your code: average autonomous points, the share of matches in which your routine ran cleanly, or the seconds an automated sequence saved each cycle. FRC's Autonomous Award goes to a team whose robot performs consistently and reliably in autonomous, and Innovation in Control recognizes inventive control systems. FTC's Control Award requires the portfolio to list each control component on the robot, the challenge it solves, and how it works. If you wrote those systems, that list is a map of your claims.
Many top teams publish their code, and some programmers contribute to open source projects other teams use. Work that other teams build on reaches past your own robot, and the number of teams using it belongs in your description.
A programmer's description might read "Wrote Java swerve and vision code with WPILib; built 5 autonomous routines averaging 38 points; trained 4 new programmers," which uses 121 characters.
Mechanical and Fabrication
FRC robots often weigh more than 100 pounds, and top teams make many of their own parts on CNC routers, mills, and lathes, machines that cut aluminum to computer-controlled precision. FTC robots are smaller and often combine kit parts with custom 3D-printed or machined pieces. Mechanical and fabrication members turn designs into parts and assemble them into a working robot.
Count what you made. The number of parts you machined, the machines you are trained to run, and the subsystems you assembled give the reader the scale of your work. Reliability is the strongest number in this role, such as the matches your mechanisms ran without a failure after a fix you made. Weight you removed, repair time you cut in the pit, and the build-season deadlines you met all count as well.
FRC's Quality Award recognizes robust design and fabrication. If your team won it and the subsystems judges looked at were ones you built, you can claim that connection.
Shop safety training is real leadership in this role. If you trained new members to run the machines safely, give the number.
A fabrication member's description might read "Machined 140+ parts on CNC router and lathe; built shooter and climber; cut pit repair time to under 4 minutes; trained 6 freshmen in shop safety," which uses 145 characters.
CAD Designers
CAD (computer-aided design) members model the robot in 3D software, most often Onshape on FIRST teams, before anything is cut. On a top team, nearly every part is designed in CAD first, so the designer decides what the fabrication members make.
Name the mechanisms you designed, the number of iterations each went through, and what changed between them. The reasoning is your work too. If you built prototypes, tested alternatives, and chose the design the team used, describe that sequence with its numbers, such as how much faster, lighter, or more reliable the final version was. If you designed the full robot assembly that ties every subsystem together, say so, since that integration is its own skill.
Several judged awards map onto design work. FRC's Excellence in Engineering Award recognizes how well a robot's mechanical parts work together, Industrial Design recognizes the balance of form, function, and appearance, and Creativity recognizes an inventive component that strengthens game strategy. In FTC, the Design Award recognizes industrial design and the Innovate Award recognizes creative solutions and original design. If judges recognized a mechanism you designed, or you presented it to them, you can claim that connection directly.
Many top teams publish their CAD after the season so other teams can learn from it. If you prepared that release, include it.
A designer's description might read "Designed intake and climber in Onshape over 4 iterations; presented both to judges for our Excellence in Engineering Award; published team CAD," which uses 142 characters.
Electrical
Electrical members wire the robot, from the battery and power distribution to the motor controllers, sensors, and the network cables that let the robot's computer talk to each device. On an FRC robot, a single loose wire can stop the robot in the middle of a match, so electrical work is judged by reliability.
Name the robots and systems you wired and any standards you set for the team, such as connector types, cable labeling, or a pre-match checklist. Your strongest numbers are failures removed, such as matches lost to power drops or disconnections before and after your changes, and the time it takes to replace a component in the pit. If you designed custom circuit boards or integrated new sensors, name them and what they made possible.
FRC's Innovation in Control Award covers inventive electrical, mechanical, and software control systems, and the Quality Award recognizes robust construction, which includes clean wiring. If judges recognized a system you built, you can claim that connection.
An electrical member's description might read "Wired 2 robots; wrote wiring standards that ended mid-match power losses; cut pit rewire time from 25 to 8 minutes; trained 3 members," which uses 133 characters.
Strategy and Scouting
Strategy starts at kickoff, when the game is revealed and the team decides which tasks its robot will be built to do. Scouting continues it at every event. FRC matches pit alliances of three robots against each other, and before the playoffs the top-ranked teams become alliance captains and pick their partners. FTC alliances have two teams. Scouting data decides those picks and the plan for every match.
If you wrote the kickoff game analysis, name the design priorities it set, such as the scoring method the robot was built around. If you built the scouting system, whether a paper form, a spreadsheet, or an app, give the number of scouts who used it, the events it covered, and what it measured. Many strategists combine their own data with public statistics from sites such as The Blue Alliance and Statbotics, and if you built that model, say what it predicted.
If you ran your team's pick list meetings, count the events and say how far those alliances went. Teams that are picked rather than picking still use scouting to plan each match with partners, and if your data set those plans, describe the decisions it shaped.
A strategist's description might read "Built scouting app used by 25 scouts at 6 events; ran pick list meetings; our picks reached 3 playoff finals; shared data with 12 partner teams," which uses 143 characters.
Portfolio and Award Submission Writers
In FTC, the team portfolio is the written record of the season, holding up to 15 pages on the robot, the engineering process, and the team's work in its community. It is required for the Inspire Award, FTC's top judged award, and for the Think Award, which goes to the team with the best portfolio, as well as the Control Award. Judges also interview each team, and the portfolio and interview together shape most judged results.
If you wrote the portfolio or led it, count your pages or sections, name the documentation systems you set up for the team, such as weekly entries each subteam submitted to you, and say how many judge interviews you prepared the team for or led. FTC portfolios identify students only by first name and last initial, so if yours credited contributors, your own sections are already marked.
In FRC, the written work with the most weight is the FIRST Impact Award submission. FIRST calls the Impact Award its most prestigious honor, and it recognizes a team's long-term effect on its community. Teams submit written material, and students present it to judges. Writing that submission and presenting it are individual roles you can claim, along with the results.
An FTC portfolio lead's description might read "Wrote 11 of 15 portfolio pages; led judge interviews at 5 events, earning 2 Think Awards and an Inspire Award; built weekly documentation system," which uses 144 characters. An FRC student might write "Co-wrote our FIRST Impact Award submission; presented it to judges at 3 events; won the Impact Award at our District Championship," which uses 129.
Business, Marketing, and Media
A top FRC team runs on a budget that covers parts, machines, registration, and travel, and students raise much of it. Business members find sponsors, write grant applications, track spending, and report back to the companies that fund the team. Marketing and media members build the team's brand, website, social media, and videos.
This role produces some of the clearest individual numbers on any team. Give the dollars you raised, the number of sponsors you brought in or renewed, the grants you wrote, and the size of the budget you managed. For media work, give the audience growth, the views on a video you produced, or the materials you designed that sponsors and judges saw.
Several awards recognize this work. FRC's Team Sustainability Award recognizes sustainable team practices, and the Imagery Award recognizes a unified visual identity across the robot and the team. FTC's Sustain Award recognizes leadership and resources that keep a program going, and the Connect Award recognizes partnerships with the STEM community. If you built the work judges recognized, you can claim that connection.
A business lead's description might read "Raised $42,000 from 14 sponsors; wrote $96,000 annual budget; led 6-member business subteam; sent sponsor reports that renewed 11 of 14," which uses 135 characters.
Outreach and Program Building
FIRST weighs community impact heavily. Top teams start and mentor teams in FIRST LEGO League, FIRST's program for younger students, help new FTC and FRC teams get running, run summer camps and demonstrations, and volunteer at events. FRC's Impact Award and Engineering Inspiration Award both recognize this kind of work, and FTC's Reach Award recognizes teams that bring new participants into FIRST.
Outreach is often the most individual part of a FIRST record, because a single student usually founds or runs each program. Give the number of teams you started, the students they serve, the mentors you recruited and trained, and how the teams have done. If a program you founded keeps running after you hand it off, say so.
Decide whether this work earns its own entry. If it has its own participants, schedule, and results, such as a set of FIRST LEGO League teams you founded, give it a separate activity entry with the program's name on the organization line. If it was a smaller part of your team role, fold it into your main robotics entry as one clause.
A separate outreach entry might read "Founded 6 FIRST LEGO League teams at 3 elementary schools; recruited and trained 9 student mentors; 48 students served, 2 teams advanced to state," which uses 145 characters.
Captains and Subteam Leads
Large FRC teams often have a formal structure, with a captain or president over the whole team and a student lead for each subteam. FTC teams have captains too. Titles differ from team to team, so a reader learns what your title meant only from your description.
For a captain, give the size of the team and the number of subteams you coordinated, the schedule you set and the deadlines it met, and the meetings you ran, such as weekly design reviews or planning sessions with mentors. Recruiting, training new members, settling disagreements over design direction, and keeping a large team on one plan through build season are all leadership with concrete results.
For a subteam lead, name the subteam, the number of students you led, and what the subteam produced under you, then add one clause about your own technical work. A lead who also built the robot's vision system has two claims, and both belong in the entry.
A captain's description might read "Led 45-member team across 6 subteams; set build season schedule and weekly design reviews; recruited 18 new members; ran mentor planning meetings," which uses 145 characters.
The FIRST Leadership Award
FIRST has one award that recognizes an individual student, and it is the most direct way to separate yourself from a strong team. The FIRST Leadership Award was called the Dean's List Award from 2010 through 2025. It honors students for leadership, technical expertise, commitment to FIRST's values, and work that spreads FIRST in their communities.
Each FRC and FTC team may nominate up to two students in 10th or 11th grade, and a mentor who is not related to the student writes the nomination. Nominated students become Semi-Finalists. Finalists are chosen at regional, district, and state championships after an interview of about 6 to 10 minutes, and FIRST names 10 FRC winners and 10 FTC winners each year at the FIRST Championship.
If you are a sophomore or junior, talk with your mentors about a nomination well before the deadline. The nomination asks your mentor to describe your individual contributions in detail, which is the same material your activity list needs, so the work of preparing for one feeds the other.
List the award in the Honors section at the highest level you reached. Because the name changed in 2026, a title such as "FIRST Leadership Award (formerly Dean's List) Finalist, Example District Championship," which uses 85 of the 100 characters, helps a reader who knows the older name. If you earned it under the old name, use that name. A Semi-Finalist listing is worth including too, since it means your team chose you as one of its two nominees.
Multiple Roles and Progression Across Years
Many FIRST students hold more than one role, especially on FTC teams and smaller FRC teams. Put the two roles that took most of your hours in the position line, such as "Programming Lead and Drive Coach," and give the others a clause each in the description.
If your role grew over four years, the position line can show the path. "Mechanical (9), CAD Lead (10), Captain (11-12)" uses 46 of the 50 characters, and the grade levels field confirms the span. Your description can then focus on your most recent role and add one earlier milestone, such as the first mechanism you designed.
Many students compete in FTC before moving to FRC. If it was one continuous path at the same school or club, a single entry can cover both, with the organization line naming both programs. If each program gave you its own substantial role and results, two entries let each one carry its own numbers.
The Honors Section and Additional Information
The Honors section holds up to five honors, each with a 100-character title, a grade level, and a level of recognition (school, state or regional, national, or international). The FIRST Leadership Award belongs at the top of this section if you earned it. After that come your team's biggest results, such as an event win, a FIRST Impact Award, an Inspire Award, or a judged award earned at the FIRST Championship.
When a team award maps onto your role, the title can say so. "Autonomous Award, Example Regional (lead programmer, Team 1234)" uses 63 characters and ties the award to the student who wrote the code. The same works for a portfolio lead and a Think Award, a designer and an Industrial Design Award, or an Impact Award presenter. List each award once, in Honors, and let your activity description hold the work behind it.
The Additional Information section allows 300 words. If your team's division of labor takes more than 150 characters to explain, a few sentences there can say which subsystems, code, or documents were yours, and can link to your code repository or a portfolio of your CAD work.
Beyond the Activity List
An essay can show the thinking behind the work your activity entry lists. Center any robotics essay on a problem you personally carried, such as a mechanism that kept failing in the week before an event and the tests you ran to find out why. The team's results are shared by everyone on the roster, while the choices you made under that pressure are yours alone.
FIRST mentors are often working engineers who supervised your technical work closely, and many colleges accept an additional recommendation from someone outside the classroom. If a mentor writes for you, give them specifics they saw firsthand, such as the code reviews you led, the machining you did under their eye, or the new members you trained. A mentor who has already written your FIRST Leadership Award nomination knows your individual contributions in detail.
Schools with strong engineering programs often accept supplementary portfolios. MIT, which uses its own application, offers an optional Maker Portfolio reviewed by faculty, and it accepts team projects as long as you explain your own part. CAD renders of mechanisms you designed, excerpts of code you wrote, photos of parts you machined, and portfolio pages you authored are exactly what such a submission is built from.
Work With Cosmic College Consulting
Cosmic College Consulting's team of PhD-credentialed admissions consultants specializes in STEM applicants, including members of competitive FIRST teams. We help you find the work that was yours, the numbers that measure it, and the words that fit it into your activity list, Honors entries, essays, and portfolio. Schedule a consultation to start building yours.
