What do you do? When a college’s application supplement contains essays that are labeled “optional,” you know that they aren’t really optional. Not if you want to be taken seriously as someone who really, really wants to attend this school.
So does that rule of thumb also go for the Additional Information Section on the Common App? Not necessarily. Here we have a different situation entirely. If there’s one thing we know to be universal about admissions staffs, it’s that they hate wading through too much stuff—extraneous letters of recommendation; unasked for videos and resumes; even too many phone calls and personal emails during the waiting period. There’s a fine line there that you just don’t want to cross. Consider that when deciding whether to fill out that essay—of up to 650 words—of additional information.
Some guidelines:
–What would you write? Is the compelling additional information jumping out at you immediately? No? I’m guessing you’re trying to think up ways to make yourself unforgettable—is it like that date Ted and Barney once concocted for Robin in How I Met Your Mother (just perfect)? Or more like a pizza with too many toppings (a muddle where nothing truly stands out)?
–You have more than the ten activities they gave you room for, and you want to talk about them. No, the answer is no. First of all, admissions folks all stress that they want quality over quantity in activities. Filling in all ten is just fine, and hopefully there’s a thread there that ties many of those extra-curriculars together, but if you do have more than ten, edit. Prune and edit. And the eleventh through fifteenth most important activities are certainly not worthy of making an admissions counselor read through an additional essay that you’ve written.
–You want to use this space for the resume that they’ve given you no space to attach. Tip: If a college is interested in your resume they will ask for it in their supplement somewhere. Many provide additional space for you to upload a resume. If you’re majoring in theatre or art or some other specialty field, they will usually require it. Look for whether the college offers such a space. The Common App does not—don’t use the Additional Information Space to include it.
–They ask if there are circumstances or qualifications they should know about—so, you’re asking yourself, why am I not taking advantage of that to make them know how special I am? Fair enough—and maybe you should. Here are some examples of times when you should consider filling out Additional Information section on the Common App:
• Medical circumstances. You didn’t want to be all gloom and doom in your main essay and make this a focus, but if your diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome kept you in an out of school and adversely affected your grades junior year, by all means include this. Be clear, concise, and explain how your condition affected your performance at school.
• Other adverse family or life circumstances—a sudden move or other life transition, a death in the family–if something traumatic has directly affected you in such a way as to impact your normal course, write about it. This is not to say you need to philosophically muse about something unpleasant. As stated above, be clear, concise, and explain how and why the turn of events has impacted you.
• You work. Maybe that activity section is thin. Maybe it’s because you work. I’m not talking about the two hours a week that my daughter used to work teaching kids at the tennis center. Maybe your family has a store or business or maybe you just have a steady part-time job—if out of financial necessity or simply because you have a compelling interest in a job (maybe you work in a music store in exchange for free lessons, and it’s led to a mentor relationship, and a position in a band, and now you teach music lessons yourself….) that is tied to a passion of yours. In either case, you did not choose to make this your main essay, but it is a big piece of your life and it didn’t fit into the activity section in a way that allowed you to elaborate sufficiently. That’s legit. Caring for siblings regularly counts for work also, by the way.
• A sideline in your life that is out of the box and doesn’t fit neatly into a one-liner—something with some longevity. Are you an accomplished seamstress? Learn to operate a tractor on your uncle’s farm over many summers? Teach archery at camp every summer? Maybe you’re an engineering applicant but you’ve been in a comedy club, even tried your hand at stand-up, for years. You started a dog-walking business. As long as it’s been something meaningful, you can show a thread of involvement (not just a two-week course), and you can write about it with passion, then consider including it. Remember, this is one case where you don’t need to use all 650 words.