Does formatting matter for the Harvard optional writing supplement? Is there a specific font, spacing, color requirement, etc.
I know there’s an option in the common app to upload a pdf, so if I included pictures and extra formatting would the layout be preserved? Or is it just a bad idea to do that in general?
Thanks
Formatting with photos/pictures in MS Word tends to vary slightly from computer to computer and from PC to MAC. So the only way to guarantee a preserved layout is to export your document to a pdf file and then upload the pdf to the supplement. Keep in mind that your upload cannot exceed 500kb, so you might need to compress the pdf file if it’s too large: http://smallpdf.com/compress-pdf
I guess it depends on how relevant the photos/pictures are to your essay and application. One of my daughter’s extracurricular activities was cheerleading. She was the “flyer” for her high school team and had won numerous awards. So, she uploaded a one page pdf document to her supplement of several cheerleading stunts – like her doing a pirouette in the palm of a man’s raised hand, that kind of thing – so an AO could see the level of talent. In my daughter’s case, I think the photos reinforced her EC list and was obviously viewed positively by Admissions, as she was admitted. I can imagine a different scenario though where a student’s photos/pictures are not relevant to a student’s application or the actual essay, so the presentation falls flat and detracts from the overall application.
Thank you for your reply!
Say I wrote my essay like a newspaper article and wanted to make the formatting match (without detracting from legibility of course), would that be relevant?
I talked a bit about my hobby of doing graphics/layout design in the essay, so I thought it might be a good way to demonstrate this.
Why don’t you run it by a trusted adult, like one of your recommendation writers and see what they say.