<p>Within the actual common application tab (non-specific to each school), under 'Additional Information' the following prompt appears:</p>
<p>"Please provide an answer below if you wish to provide details of circumstances or qualifications not reflected in the application. You may enter up to 650 words." </p>
<p>I have circumstances that I believe they should know, but I want to know if writing another 650 word essay for them to read is a bad thing. It just seems like that + the common app prompt + the writing supplement is a lot of writing for them to read. I feel like they wouldn't put it there if you weren't encouraged to use it if you feel you have reason to, but I don't want to devalue my other essays by making them want to hurry up and be done reading my applications. </p>
<p>It's very possible I'm over thinking this, and I already have the essay written. Any body have an opinion?</p>
<p>Its not an essay. You can write in sentence form or bullets. Write however you feel you need to explain it, but don’t make it an essay. Don’t try to fill up the space, just use as much as you need. What is the circumstance (you can PM me if you don’t want to reveal it publicly)? Some circumstances are better left explained by guidance counselors and can affect your application negatively if you mention them.</p>
<p>Agreed in that it’s not supposed to be an essay. For me, so far I have mentioned two things, one was a score for an IB exam that wasn’t on the list, and the second was the topic of my extended essay research paper (for IB). This section is supposed to be more of a bullet list of things that should have gone on your application but didn’t fit or the option wasn’t given. Other things that you could mention are extensions to your ECs or awards (but not an additional resume). One of my ECs was very unique so I had to explain it where it asks for “additional details/accomplishments” and I didn’t have space to include the accomplishments. I am considering adding my accomplishments to the additional info section. Or let’s say you’re a mathlete of some sort and would like to continue your explanation of your ranking, like best team in the state and ranked top 5 out of 2000 in individual category for 2012, ranked best team in nation 2013, etc. All of that won’t fit in the “additional details/accomplishment” so this is a space where you can put it. You should not add extra activities, only expand on what you already have. </p>
<p>If it’s something that you believe will sound like an excuse, then get your guidance counselor to talk about it. These include low grades due to illness or family death or moving schools or new baby in the family, not taking enough APs because of schedule conflicts or getting low SAT scores because you had pneumonia while taking the test. </p>
<p>Yeah, no this definitely makes good sense. Thanks guys. Re-purposed the tab nicely. Lol
The 650 word part is what had me so confused.</p>
<p>I think that most people will go up to 100 words max, if anything at all. The 650 words allows people like home-schooled applicants, international applicants with extenuating circumstances, professional athletes/performers, military kids who went to 10+ schools, etc. to have ample space to explain things, since they probably have a lot of academic info that doesn’t fit with the standard common app. </p>
<p>Can I write about 2 things that happened in my life that caused my 9th and 10th grade GPA to not be as well as it could be in essay form? I used only 450 words, and went in depth on my situation. It somewhat gives off a ‘personal statement’ impression but that’s how I usually write lol.</p>