<p>I'm just about done with my essays and ready to click 'submit' on my Yale EA app, but my heart won't let me do so without asking: how much Additional Information is too much? I'm considering attaching an extra Word doc to my app that includes 75-word mini-short answers for each of the activities I haven't treated in my essays. Like a resume, but more in detailed paragraphs. Sort of like 'speed dating' through my ECs.</p>
<p>Writing about each of these activities and experiences, I think, would strengthen my application and give Yale a better idea about me. I'm worried that it might be seen as unnecessary information. The thing is, the only real thing I bring to the table are my activities and experiences, many of which are tied closely to my family background that I'm already writing about for my essays, but still distinct in themselves (each even work as Common App essays of their own).</p>
<p>How common are attachments like this? I know that the challenge to writing college essays is that you need to condense your life's experiences into two pages worth of text. But would an extra document (say, 1 1/2 pages) really be all that bad? Would appreciate any replies. Thanks a lot guys!</p>
<p>I have the same question. My approach has been to take the challenge of reducing my EC’s to the few characters they give you. My reasoning for this is that they give you 150 words to elaborate on one EC - so they probably don’t want you to do so for all of them.</p>
<p>The OP’s resume sounds like too much to me. Try to provide the same amt of info but change the structure so it’s easier to read quickly. Maybe a table. Fragments instead of sentences. Crisp headings. Lots of white space on the page.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses guys. Wouldn’t that readability come at the expense of personalizing this bit of the application though? For as much as fragments might be easier to read, I was thinking that having mini-short answers would allow applicants another opportunity to put forward their creative side.</p>
<p>Also, would it make more sense to just objectively enumerate accomplishments, the things you’ve <em>done</em>? Could it be more of a reflective what it means to you type of thing, like the short answer? Or have they gotten enough of that?</p>
<p>There is a high-priced private college counselor that caters to students trying to get into Ivy and other elite colleges. Her name is Michelle Hernandez. She advocates presenting an activity list that does just what you propose–offers a bit more detail about the meaningful nature of your participation in these various activities. </p>
<p>If you Google her name + college admission + activity list, I believe you will get hits to a prose piece she writes about her philosophy. I do not think you will get her suggested form for the list–you have to buy her book to get that! However, if you keep looking at the hits, you will find other examples of an activity list that are helpful. The one I saw was in table format.</p>
<p>I don’t think there’s anything wrong with doing what the OP described. I’m thinking of doing the same thing myself. There was actually a recent thread about attaching activity lists, and it seems that some of the kids who did so were successful.</p>
<p>If the reader doesn’t want to drill down further (i.e. if they already understand exactly what a 2nd chair violinist does in a small town symphony orchestra), then they’ll move to the next EC.</p>