<p>I attached an overblown resume and two supplementary recommendations (one from an internship, one from a teacher who knows me very well personally) to my ED application to Columbia. After I submitted my application, I found out that in their FAQ section and in their lengthy application instructions, Columbia explicitly states that they HIGHLY DISCOURAGE the attachment of supplementary materials. I think I put together an otherwise decent application, but does my excess of supplementary materials put my chances in jeopardy? Will they simply brush aside what they don't want to read or will they judge me negatively for overloading my application? </p>
<p>I know that nobody except the Committee knows the answer for sure, but I'd be grateful for any input anyone can offer.</p>
<p>I think if it adds another dimension to your personality then it’s fine. However, if they read all your supplemental stuff and feel like nothing new has been stated, I can’t see this working in your favor…</p>
<p>Thanks for your input. My college counselor told me that the supplementary recs added info absent in the previous letters. However, much of my resume is repetitive and long. My question is whether or not adding these supplementary materials, particularly the resume, is enough to put my candidacy in jeopardy since Columbia discourages the addition of resumes and extra letters.</p>
<p>I think Columbia discourages the submission of supplementary materials so people don’t FedEx them scrapbooks of their life filled with glitter and stickers or chocolate cakes that say “ACCEPT ME, COLUMBIA!” on them in pink frosting. Like what Paul09 said, if it adds a different dimension of yourself to your application, they probably won’t chuck your file in the recycling just because you sent in some extra stuff. If it was just a few sheets of paper talking about the wonderful person you are, they’ll probably just skim them; you most likely won’t be penalized too heavily.</p>
<p>“Why in the world would you knowingly send in a resume like this in the first place??”</p>
<p>lol long story short, it was 4:29 AM when I submitted my app so I guess my judgment was impaired. hopefully they just ignore it.</p>
<p>so Hatoyama, would you say that even if some of my material is unnecessary, it wouldn’t strongly jeopardize my admissions prospects? that’s all i’d like to know. sorry if this comes across as paranoid venting, but this is something i really need to get off my chest. thanks.</p>
<p>People don’t like to read. Using this statement we can make the assumption that Admissions counselors don’t like to read. This being said why give them more crap to read than required. My 2 cents as a lazy high school student /;…;</p>
<p>Lots of poor judgement here–submitting an application while impaired. Every sentence of an application and everything included with it should be carefully done and though through long before you hit send or seal the envelope… To be honest, if it’s one of the lists common here which includes everything you’ve done for more than 4 hours since 8th grade, I’d think you show bad judgement and the application wasn’t even important enough to you to have read the directions.</p>
<p>when they say highly recommend it is probably only to discourage people from information that will be continuously repeated throughout the app. I’m sure it’s fine and won’t harm your application in anyway. But if they didn’t put that warning and everyone attached more supplementary material than i’m guessing admissions would be a lot more difficult and longer.</p>