Extracurricular explanation on Common App

<p>I already wrote a long post about this in the Common App section of the forum, but I wanted to see what people who know Wash U well think, since it is my top choice. The EC 150-word response that I wrote was about a research internship at a hospital laboratory that I had done over the summer, but I wrote more about the experience I had than the actual research I did. In short, it was creative, but while I did state what my project was, I guess I didn't describe it in detail. Should I email my admissions officer and ask her to replace my short answer with a more detailed one about my actual research (at the risk of looking careless), or is it not really a big deal?</p>

<p>I don’t think it’s a big deal, but go ahead and call or email the admissions officer and ask if it’s okay to send a separate one page description/write up of the research project that they could maybe add to your file. If anything this would show them a higher level of interest on your part.</p>

<p>Thanks so much for the advice! I thought about doing that, actually, though I wasn’t sure if that might make it seem like I couldn’t talk about my research in 150 words. I think I might consider just being honest and asking whether it’s necessary to replace the whole EC short answer or whether I can just add on a one-page description as a supplement.</p>

<p>Any other opinions?</p>

<p>Just ask them about whether it’s allowed to send in any additional information. They’re always nice about it and acceptive, but to be safe, just ask them. :D</p>

<p>(I’m now a freshman at WUSTL) I used my extracurricular short answer to discuss my experience on debate team, but focused much more on why I loved and enjoyed debating than the actual debating. </p>

<p>But similarly to you, I conducted research over the summer, and added my abstract to the “extra information” on all of my applications except for my WUSTL one. Because I was being super silly and just forgot. So I just emailed it to my admissions officer, who added it to my file. I would recommend you do the same, because they’ll be able to see the seriousness of your research.</p>

<p>^ Thanks for the advice! I did email my admissions officer, so I’m just waiting for her to get back to me at this point. :)</p>