"Additional Information" section of Common App

<p>Any thoughts about this prompt in the CA? –</p>

<p>“Please provide an answer below if you wish to provide details of circumstances or qualifications not reflected in the application.”</p>

<p>Is this a thing to avoid? Only an opportunity to place one’s foot firmly in their mouth?</p>

<p>Useful for those who may have had extenuating circumstances but not applicable to anyone else?</p>

<p>Any additional chance to blow one’s horn and add some puffery is always a good thing?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>I thought perhaps this section could be used as “overflow” for activities that didn’t fit in the Activities section or for clarification for certain ones. My DS could possibly use it to list his soccer referee certification (national license) that he worked so hard to get and maintain yet doesn’t fit in any of the categories over in the Activities or Honors sections.</p>

<p>I also wondered how many words/characters were actually allowed in this little box. It indicates that it tracks the word count but doesn’t say anywhere what the word limit is!!</p>

<p>Yes you can use it to explain anything extra that is not said before. For example for me I couldn’t continue with STUCO in 11th grade because I changed school, or how you stopped working on drama because your school did not have a play that year. Its just to add anything else.</p>

<p>There is a 650 word maximum in the additional information section. The section can certainly be used to highlight and further explain positives about the applicant, not just to explain negatives. Including an abstract of a research paper is one example.</p>

<p>Hhhmm, interesting. Thanks.</p>