what to put in additional information on college application forms

The Common App has greatly streamlined the application process for applicants looking to use to multiple colleges.

It allows applicants to complete one common application, hence the proper name "Common App," when applying to universities.

That said, the Common App is a function of the admissions procedure that needs to be filled out with precision and care.

Presenting why yous are the perfect educatee for an incoming course to an admissions commission of complete strangers is no easy feat.

We created this guide to assistance you write the best possible Mutual App Additional Information Department!

How Many Parts Are There on the Common App?

The Mutual App is essentially a standard form that allows an applicant to input basic data, which will then become straight to university admissions.

Some sections of the Common App are standard to all schools.

Other sections are specific to particular schools, should they have additional requirements such as writing samples or additional information.

For a first-year college applicant, sections are divided into:

1. Profile: This section includes basic information like name, address, and phone number. You will also be asked data near demographics and geography, such as your birthplace, citizenship, and race/ethnicity (optional).
2. Family unit: This section has a identify to list parents or guardians and their didactics level and occupation, as well as siblings.
3. Teaching: In this section, you will list all schools attended with contact data and bookish information, such as GPA, class rank, and honors received.
4. Testing: This section includes your standardized test scores, including Human activity or Sat, TOEFL (if required for not-native English speakers), and AP, IB, or Saturday discipline tests.
5. Activities: In this department, you are able to list up to 10 extracurricular activities and how you were involved. This includes how many years y'all participated, how often, and any leadership positions held.
6. Writing: This is the all-important personal statement. You will write a 650-word essay from 1 of 7 prompts. You will as well have the run a risk to explicate any disciplinary history on your tape. The Boosted Information section is located here.
7. Courses & Grades: In this department, you will enter in your courses and grades received. This is required for some colleges.
8. College-Specific Questions: Some schools choose to enquire additional questions, which will exist listed in this section. These questions vary and oft cover things like your academic interest or program, your state of residence, or preferences about school housing.
9. College Writing Supplements: If your schools crave additional essays or writing samples, you will complete them in this section.

What Is the Additional Information Section? And Why Is It Important?

The whole Mutual App seems pretty comprehensive, right?

In that location is a identify to list every class, action, and personal reason that y'all are a great fit for a particular school.

So what is the Additional Information section for and why is it important?

• The Boosted Data department is located in the Writing portion of the Common App as an optional place to add together relevant situations and/or qualifications that are non mentioned elsewhere in the awarding.

These are frequently more than personal in nature simply should not be confused with the personal statement.

• Using the Boosted Data section is not required and should simply be done when you have something to highlight or explain that makes your overall application stronger.

Deciding to utilize this department is something that should be advisedly considered and based on the individual applicant'southward life circumstances.

There is a 650-word limit on this section if the applicant decides to use it as a relevant part of their Common App.

What Should You Put in the Additional Information Section?

The Additional Data section is designed to include relevant factors to your application that would otherwise exist missed.

The key to this section is to have a residual in what you are putting.

• You may want to highlight a prestigious honor or enquiry project yous were dedicated to while in high schoolhouse, as it could add strength to your application.

It tin also be an opportunity to describe an experience or volunteer project that actually influenced your work in the classroom or other organizations listed on your application.

• If you had an unusual high school experience, such as homeschooling while traveling away or attending a specialized school, you tin explain why your transcript may not wait like what the admissions committee is expecting to meet.

This does not include an caption for bad grades considering you didn't written report or piece of work hard.

• Rather, it is the take chances to explicate why the grading system used is singular.

If you have a legitimate personal reason for bad grades, such every bit missed days of school due to a family emergency or illness, the Additional Information section may be the place to list it.

A good Additional Information entry may look something like this:

I felt that the curriculum offered at Josano Principal High School did non challenge me to achieve my truthful potential. For this reason, I applied to the Kansas Science and Tech Academy during my freshman twelvemonth. KSTA offers a magnet curriculum, merely featuring classes that are at or in a higher place AP/Honors level. Although it was challenging to become accustomed to the residential and academic environment at KSTA, I developed efficient time management strategies to meet the demands of the rigorous coursework.

The opportunity to written report advanced courses like Number Theory, Linear Algebra, Multi-Variable Calculus, and Computational Science has enabled me to challenge myself academically. The ability to perform inquiry with a university professor to solve a existent-world trouble through the BHG department at KSTA was a program that was as well proficient to laissez passer upward. These opportunities would non have been available to me at my home high school.

Or something like this:

The residential requirements of KSTA express my voluntary and employment hours to a few weekends per calendar month and over the summer. However, I establish opportunities to serve inside the KSTA customs by volunteering every bit a peer tutor and serving on the Student Calculating Support Squad. I was also able to have advantage of social media platforms to create fundraising drives for Ananda Sagara, an orphanage and charitable organization I work with in Bangalore, Republic of india.

This passage is besides a neat case:

Additionally, I will be publishing papers in the Journal of Robotics during the jump semester of my senior year. The publishing appointment has not been established, but I have confirmed that my work on propulsion applications in rocket robotics has been vetted and approved for publishing.

In this example, the applicant wrote factual information about the KSTA programme and how it impacted them academically and in extracurricular activities.

They did highlight the volunteer efforts they were able to do and an upcoming professional newspaper they will have published.

Here are some more examples.

This instance is virtually the passing of a parent:

My mother passed abroad in Leap 2018. It led to financial hardship for my family and a drop in my grades. Since then, I have strived to amend my grades by attention after-school peer-to-peer tutoring.

This student describes the sacrifices her family made:

I attend a school 35 minutes from my abode. It is located in a school commune that my family favors. I get out extra early in the morning and get habitation at seven pm, once my parents are off from work and can pick me up.

An example is from a student who wrote a strong IB essay:

My IB essay was about media commentators, journalists, politicians, and prominent news anchors and their effects on stock prices after discussing political economy and markets on tv set shows.

Finally, this last student discusses her wellness issues:

I suffered from a string of concussions in my sophomore and junior years. As such, I needed to leave schoolhouse for days at a time, as acute headaches impaired my vision and power to walk in schoolhouse. While my grades dropped during this time, I kept upwards with all my courses, scored well on the SATs, and became captain of the softball team.

What Should You Not Put in the Additional Information Section?

Just as important every bit knowing how to utilize this department of the Common App effectively is knowing what not to include.

Annihilation yous add should be 18-carat and important.

• For case, if you tell a lamentable story only to proceeds sympathy that is not 18-carat, it will reflect poorly on your awarding.
• The Additional Data section is not a identify to continue or aggrandize on your personal statement.
• Make sure that annihilation you add is distinctly different from the topics you covered in other writing portions of the Common App.

Some applicants want to explain poor academic performance or records in the Additional Information department.

This may be a good place to do so, just information technology may also come beyond as making excuses.

• Beginning, make sure that you accept a legitimate caption for your poor performance, such as prolonged illness or missed school days due to a family move.
• If that's the case, keep your explanation short and to-the-point.
• This is not the identify to weave an emotional story of overcoming hardship.
• If you feel that your story is amend told that fashion, consider making information technology the subject of your personal argument, just only if it is the all-time way to answer the prompt.

The key to determining if you should use the Additional Information section is if the information you plan to include adds value to your application.

If information technology does, and it's not already included in another section, go alee and add it. If not, it's best to leave it off and spend your time polishing the rest of your awarding.

Do's and Don'ts When Writing the Additional Information Department

Below are some examples of things to include, too every bit things Not to include, on the Boosted Information section of the Common App.

Exercise's

• Relevant Details About Published Work

If you have participated in an impressive research study or have been published, absolutely mention your accomplishments in the Mutual App. You tin can list these accomplishments in the Boosted Data department if they are not mentioned elsewhere in your application

If your brusk story won a prize on a national, country, or county level or you lot placed highly in a competitive science competition, these items are of import to mention.

This is particularly true if the accomplishment is related to your potential long-term career path or major of study.

Retrieve, consistency in portraying who you are as an individual is central with telling your own personal story on the Common App.

Continue in mind that y'all don't desire to mention whatever of your accomplishments twice, as this will waste matter the access officer's time. If you lot mention it elsewhere in the awarding, don't state it in the Mutual App Additional Data section.

• Explaining Extenuating Circumstances That Affected Your Academic/Standardized Examination Performance

This is the most frail of the entries on this section and has to be handled with care.

If you had an firsthand family member sick or y'all were ill yourself, this is worth mentioning.

Other commons circumstances that can be explained in the Boosted Information department include family unit emergencies and tragedy, struggles with gender or identity that afflicted academic functioning, a relocation that caused missed days of school, or economical hardship that required you to piece of work during or after loftier school.

The betoken with this is to go along the writing brief and direct to explain what happened and what menstruation of fourth dimension it afflicted in your life.

You should too make a signal to highlight how you overcame that obstacle and grew from the experience.

• Explaining Different School Systems or Extracurricular Requirements

If your school did not have traditional marker systems or y'all went to school abroad for high school, exist sure to mention the departure in requirements so that the admissions committee has a articulate picture of your high school experience.

Your transcript should embrace the school's grading organisation, merely, in the Boosted Data department, you lot have the chance to explain how that afflicted you.

• Consider How This Additional Information Is Enhancing Your Existing Application

Before filling out the Additional Information section, have a expect at the big moving picture of your application. Make a listing of goals of what cardinal points you would like to get across to the admissions commission.

By doing this, you will be able to encounter what holes there are in the application. Utilize the Additional Data section to fill up in any missing data that will be beneficial to your application.

• Highlighting Relevant Leadership Experience

Leadership experience is of import to highlight on your Mutual App.

When considering whether to include it in the Additional Data department, make sure you were involved in the action for at least one year and are able to demonstrate growth from the experience.

Keep in heed that you are able to listing and briefly describe leadership you held within activities in the Activities portion of your application.

The experience should become above and beyond what is considered normal to include it in Additional Information.

• Consider Mentioning Overcoming a Valuable & Difficult Life Obstruction

If genuine personal hardships did impact your academic performance, and you lot overcame them, be sure to mention this.

An example would be a parent passing away or you recovering from a serious affliction that impacted the grades of one semester or yr of high school.

If your GPA does reverberate this pattern, exist sure to explain information technology. If you lot did exceptionally well after the incident occurred, that is something to exist proud of and it will also show the admissions commission that you had difficult circumstances, worked hard, and did well in the stop.

• Cultural Experiences Tin can Be Relevant Here

If you spent time in French republic for one twelvemonth and became fluent in French or your parents had your family move to Africa while they worked for the Red Cross, you should mention this.

Why?

Considering it shows unique life experiences and positive contributions that you will bring to a academy's classroom.

International experiences count if they are more than a brusque trip and if they provided you with a new skill or exceptional personal growth.

Don'ts

• Add Many More Extracurricular Activities

The Additional Data section is not intended for several more extracurricular activities to be listed than allotted for in the principal Activities/Work Section.

It's OK to list 2-3 more activities, merely non more. Make certain y'all are not using this department to fit in more information for the sake of looking impressive

The reality is that doing so will reflect negatively on your overall application because it will prove that you joined likewise many activities and did not follow the application instructions.

• Including Family Photos or Certificates of Completion

In general, do not include personal family unit photos or certificates of completion in your awarding.

Many times, this will reflect poorly on your application because it is not what the admissions committee asked for.

For applicants applying to Performing Arts or Arts schools, this rule is different in that you will be required to submit a visual portfolio; however, for other applicants, images in general need to be avoided unless specifically asked for by the school.

• Do Not Extend an Existing Essay

Admissions officers practise non enjoy applicants that write more than is asked for or that practice not follow the application's instructions.

If you extend a prior essay in the Additional Data section, the admissions officeholder volition not have time to read it and will see that you disregarded their instructions.

This may overshadow other impressive parts of your application.

• Do Not Brand Excuses

Granted, in that location are many difficult situations that happen in life that practice impact academic and exam performance.

Many applicants endeavor to make excuses for poor operation by using life events to their advantage on college applications. Recall carefully before you mention a hardship in this section.

For example, if you received a 3.7 GPA and write something nigh a close family member's illness negatively impacting your GPA, this is not normally going to be seen well.

Rest carefully when writing near complicating life situations.

• Skip the Bones Volunteer Trip

It is a common mistake to include a small-scale volunteer trip to show delivery to community service.

Admissions officers will not view this well. Include volunteer experience if information technology is prolonged and shows a genuine delivery.

Additionally, make that volunteer experience unique and related to maybe your cultural background, local community, or career ambitions.

This will show that you are non a "joiner," merely rather, an accurate contributor to a customs service arrangement.

If yous take legitimate volunteer feel for an extended catamenia of fourth dimension, it may exist relevant to include in the Additional Information department; still, brand sure to avoid including curt volunteer experiences that did not significantly touch your life's story.

Conclusion: How to Write the Common App Additional Info Section

When filling out the Common App, it is vital to take a step back from the awarding and look at your own personal state of affairs.

• What are your strengths?
• What are your goals?

What must be included to show the admissions committee who you actually are and what you will bring to their school?

By asking these questions, you will be able to know what information can be put into the more generic sections of the Common App and what information needs to be highlighted for extra special consideration in the Additional Information section.

Retrieve, being authentic, unique, and honest is where the Additional Information section volition be a strong asset to you in your Common App.

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