<p>I know I should poet this in the Common App thread but I'd rather get advice from MY peers.
In filling out the EC essay, D wants to discuss 2 of her ECs - not one as the directions indicate. They are both very important to her - a sport and her instrumental music. She wold like to discuss how despite their obvious differences, she approaches them similarly and gets similar "psychic" rewards from them; i.e. individual best leading to successful group effort, etc.
I'm getting stuck on the not following directions thing but she says she can't decide which to talk about! Any advice?</p>
<p>Follow the directions- you never know who will be reading your application. If you follow the directions exactly, you won't be taken out of the pile on a technicality by someone who didn't have enough coffee that morning.</p>
<p>I don't think you need to blindly follow the directions here, but you do at least need to acknowledge you understood them. So she might start out with a sentence that says something like, "while for most people music and sports might seem like completely different ECs, for me they are very similar." I don't think she'll be penalized.</p>
<p>^^^ I agree with Mathmom.</p>
<p>The exact directions say, "Please briefly elaborate on one of your extra-curricular experiences or work experiences in the space below or on an attached sheet (150 words or fewer)."</p>
<p>To me that's pretty general. Write about an EC OR a work experience. I don't think your daughter would violate any rules writing about 2 EC's. That said, 150 words runs out pretty quickly. I think this is a chance for her to elaborate on the EC that was most important to her or had the most meaning for her. Or the one that would be most impressive to an admissions counselor. </p>
<p>If she wants to write about how both EC's were rewarding, she could probably do that very nicely in the Personal Essay (Choice # 6 - Topic of your choice.). She gets 250 words there, although I think most kids routinely go pretty well over 250 words!</p>
<p>However, if she really can't decide between 2 EC's, and she has a different topic she wants to write about in the Personal Essay, I see no reason she couldn't write about 2 EC's in the EC essay. I wouldn't worry about violating "rules" with writing prompts.</p>
<p>150 words isn't much space for talking about 1 EC, much less two. I'd write the essay the way she plans and then take a look to see if it doesn't seem a little skimpy. If so, choose one and write all 150 words on that one.</p>
<p>I agree with ellemenope. 150 words really demands that you get right to the point, so she needs to really boil down things down. How about using one as a topic for the longer essay, and the other for the shorter one?</p>
<p>And, don't forget that there are OTHER places to bring both of the EC's forward. For example, she could use the additional information section of the Common App to discuss the other EC, or to include a short activity resume (or she could mail the activity sheet separately). She could also ask her counselor to mention both EC's, and what she has gained from them, in the school recommendation. She could also bring both of the EC's up during interviews, etc.</p>
<p>In short, before she decides to cover both in the short essay, she might look at the overall picture of all of the opportunities available, and see if she can get the information about both across in other ways. </p>
<p>Of course, if she feels she can do justice to both in the short essay, she should go for it --- but she should still look for ways to tie everything else together if at all possible.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the advice.
I think she may find that 150 words doesn't allow for a lot of wiggle room. She hasn't written the actual essay - just put down a few bullets. I'll have her read these posts and hopefully she'll realize that she can elaborate on one of them in another section.
Under that "additional info" piece in the Common App, she can just write a word document and then upload it when she sends to individual schools, right?</p>
<p>if she has time have her write one essay for each activity and pick the best one</p>
<p>woody, yes she can do that but BEWARE of formatting issues with the Common App. My S filled out the Common App 2 years ago (dear Lord, time flies!) and it was REALLY important to look at the Print Preview before sending the Common App electronically. The colleges will see what the Print Preview shows, NOT what your D sees when she fills in the app. There was some sort of mid-step involving using Notepad... it was really a bizarre pain when DS had a nice-looking bullet-pointed EC resume to upload to the "additional info" page and it looked almost unreadable when uploaded directly from Word. </p>
<p>Unless they have fixed this problem since then, in which case..... (Gilda Radner voice) "Never mind."</p>
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<blockquote> <p>Under that "additional info" piece in the Common App, she can just write a word document and then upload it when she sends to individual schools, right?<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>Yes, she can add what she would like to the additional info. section. However, I believe that this year, once it is sent to one school, you can no longer make changes to that section.</p>
<p>Lafalum - HAHA! Until I read your message I completely forgot about my S's application 2 years ago. The EC section that looked so good on HIS computer looked like total garbage in Print Preview. He didn't do it as an upload though - just in the space provided, I think, maybe??
Oh Lord, I hope they fixed this - not looking forward to those kinds of problems!
Carolyn, We haven't tried it yet but it looks like she has to send one app out and then can send different versions.</p>
<p>^ They made a change mid-season last year to common app to allow changes after a version had been submitted.</p>