I’m heavily involved in a club/team (captaining, assistant directing tournaments/keeping stats, fundraising, logistics, etc.) and was stressing about how to fit all of that in the Common App activities section until I heard that the Additional Info section could be used to expand on activities done. Before that, I had been planning on asking one of the club advisers for an additional rec (which I feel might give AOs a good understanding of everything I’ve done in the club/my character as the adviser loves me, but, as the saying goes, “thicker the file, thicker the kid”).
Would it be worth getting a rec letter, summarizing what I’ve done in the Additional Info section, or both? And on the subject- what can or shouldn’t be mentioned in Additional Info? Thank you all in advance for your advice!
IMHO, I would not recommend including a recommendation letter in the Additional Info section. That’s not really how it’s supposed to be used. With that said, submitting an additional recommendation depends on the school. For example, Dartmouth and UChicago will both accept a letter of recommendation from your club advisor. On the Common App, I believe it would be included as “Other Recommender”, and it has to be in addition to the counselor rec and two teacher evaluations. UChicago will only accept this one additional rec. On the other hand, Dartmouth will also accept one more from an art teacher (if applicable) and also strongly encourages a peer recommendation. Others may frown upon sending more stuff to them.
The Additional Info section can be used to explain/justify problems with your application (e.g. you bombed sophomore fall because your mom had cancer) and/or enhance your application (e.g. you won a lot more than 5 awards and would like to list them all). Yes, you can use it to explain what you did in your club, but I don’t think that’s nearly as compelling as an excellent recommendation from your advisor.
@Shrmpngrtz Thank you- I should have clarified that the rec letter would be the “other recommender” on the Common App, not through the additional info. I know one of my friends is in a similar situation and is using Additional Info to expand on her role in the club- so you would say that this wouldn’t be prioritized/looked at/valued as much by colleges?
I’ll take a look at what the policy about additional recs for the colleges on my list are, though- thanks for the advice!
Sorry - I totally misunderstood you.
I think there is no “right” answer, but again, IMHO, it really depends on the story you are trying to tell through your application. Right now, you are thinking of including it in the EC section, expanding upon it in the Additional Info section, and then having the advisor write a recommendation for you. That’s a lot of space in your application. Is it that important? I’ve always been in the camp that your entire application (e.g. course load, teacher recs, ECs, essays, etc) should work together to promote your story. If this particular EC is that important to that end, then yes, you should highlight it. If not, then think carefully about adding stuff, just for the sake of adding stuff.
As for prioritizing/looked at/valued as much…put yourself in the AO’s shoes. Which one would you value more? 1. A list of unverified things that the applicant claims she did. 2. A recommendation from the club advisor stating that the applicant was an integral part of the club and was one of the best students she has been around. I would take #2 every single time. I’m not trying to poopoo #1 because it may be informative, but #2 carries a lot more weight…or to put it another way, #1 will probably not get you in, but #2 might help.
But again, I will emphasize that it really depends on your story. And that is also especially important when it comes to fit - the better your story fits the college, the better your chances of being accepted.
One other point, just because the advisor loves you, it does not mean that they will be able to write a great recommendation. Be careful with that.
I’m just reading some of your old threads…I don’t feel like jumping around so I will just respond to one of them here.
Regarding your recommendation question…a bit late now, but be careful with how to choose your recs. Unless the school specifically states “1 STEM, 1 other”, I think you should go with the people who will help you to promote your narrative the best. My kid will be attending UChicago this fall and submitted 2 humanities recommendations plus a music rec…and he wrote that he wants to go into math, econ or stats.
If you made the NMSF cut, you will most likely be a NMF. There are ~16000 NMSF and ~15000 NMF. I think the 1000 that were eliminated were students who did not submit the application, wrote some thing super creepy in their essay, or did not have a good SAT scores.