<p>Over the past few days I have started the process of filling out the Common Application. While filling it out, I stumbled across the section entitled "Education Interruption".</p>
<p>The section reads:</p>
<p>"If your education was or will be interrupted, please check all that apply."</p>
<p>I checked "did/will take gap year" because I'm taking a gap year (I joined an Americorps program).</p>
<p>The Common Application won't let me move on without uploading a document about this interruption. Should I write an essay explaining my choice to take a gap year? Just a paragraph or two? I'm confused as to how I'm supposed to address this. I talk about my decision to take a gap year in my personal essay. But, I could definitely write an entire essay about my gap year decision and its impact on me.</p>
<p>I hate to resurrect my own thread, but this is a rather pressing issue. I asked my guidance counselor, and he had no advice other than “Try the CommonApp’s customer support.” So I tried that and I still haven’t heard back from them.</p>
<p>Write a brief statement explaining what you did. Write it in Word and then upload it from your document list. When you’ve completed the app, pull it up using the “print preview” feature and you will see it.</p>
<p>It 's really not that big of a deal.</p>
<p>And you don’t need one to three paragraphs especially if you’re covering it in you essay later. More like one to three sentences.</p>
<p>We had to do his because my son switched schools two months into his freshman year. Once we checked the box, it required a written explanation.</p>
<p>The reason I suggested the 1-3 paragraphs is this: it’s another chance for the admission committee to learn something about you that is different than what they’ve already learned from the rest of your application. If you really have said it all in your main essay, then of course don’t bother to write something here. But if there’s an angle on your choice/plan that’s meaningful and important to you, which hasn’t already come out elsewhere, then why not use this opportunity to say a little something about it?</p>
<p>Just write a sentence or two like: I am taking a gap year so that I can have some real life experience before college, and am going to do Americorps.</p>
<p>My initial reaction to this was, “No, it is a big deal!” It’s easy to lose perspective when you’re so emotionally tied up in something…and working 70 hours a week on little sleep doesn’t exactly help either.</p>
<p>I’ll write my three paragraphs or so, and I’ll move on. Thanks for the advice guys, I really should have figured this out myself, but it’s easier to follow someone else’s advice when you’re stressed out.</p>