<p>Hi,</p>
<p>How should I format and write my resume of extracurriculars? And can I attach it to an online Common App? </p>
<p>Thanks :).</p>
<p>If there is a place for you to attach a r</p>
<p>Thanks! I’m homeschooled, btw, so I’m not sure what the typical high-school student would do. Can I include things like projects/research as well as extracurricular activities? How much detail is too much detail for any one activity?</p>
<p>And should I include a resume (or at least updates on my extracurriculars) with my Mid-Year-Report, too?</p>
<p>huh? is there a need for resume/CV?
an application usually consists of lots of forms, essays, score transcripts, recommendation letters…</p>
<p>Many students do choose to submit a r</p>
<p>The resume isn’t NEEDED though. I know one of the schools I was applying to said that if they got any thigns outside the commonapp itself, they’d throw it out. But there is a section where, if the commonapp didn’t leave you enough room to elaborate on something you found REALLY important, you can list some mroe things or explain something. Like studying 10 languages. Or if you’re a professional musician, explaining how that works. But everything you’d put on aresume should come out in the commonapp itself. If it doesn’t you’re doing something wrong.</p>
<p>You’re not doing anything “wrong” if all of your achievements won’t fit on your CommonApp. What if you’re one of those wonder kids that really has been involved in thirty organizations actively for all four years? You shouldn’t short-sheet yourself just because the standard, uniform college application is not accommodating to such an overachiever as yourself.</p>
<p>Some colleges do suggest sending in a r</p>
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<p>There have been some family circumstances which’ve definitely affected me… but they’re events of a fairly serious nature - bad stuff, not sad stuff. I’m probably going to write about how I got through one of those times and what I learned from it in my Common App essay, but there isn’t enough space to really cover the topic fully. How do I mention this in the best way possible here (i.e. not too trivially that it sounds like I’m making excuses, but not too bluntly that it completely shocks the adcom?) </p>
<p>Also, presumably, I have to write this part myself, as for the other stuff in the app?</p>
<p>Yes, everything on your application has to be written by you.</p>
<p>As for this kind of stuff, I would cover it in one place or another: either the special circumstances box OR the essay. Repetition is effective only in some cases, and I don’t think this would be one of them.</p>
<p>Also, you have to be really careful if you write an essay about horrible circumstances in your life. You must know that admissions officers get hundreds of “pity-me” essays. You don’t want your essay to be a “pity-me” essay.
I’ll tell you what I did to avoid this trap:
My father died when I was almost 15…he had AIDS. I needed a way to write about this. The trick is not to write about the tragedy itself, but to write about its impact on you and how you’ve dealt with it; however, if you’re still at a point where you can’t go five minutes without thinking about the tragedy, you need to come up with another essay topic. They probably don’t want to hear that you’re super depressed all the time. That’ll sound like a call for pity, for sure.
So, I wrote about a presentation I gave to my high school my junior year on AIDS Awareness to honor World AIDS Day. I focused on feelings and reactions…how I’d never been nervous to get up before a crowd before until that day…how some classmates glared and some cried… I was descriptive of the scenery in a symbolic way, noting how the lights were raised when I finished speaking, casting light all over the crowd. And then I described the great sense of relief I felt when I returned to my seat with the audience.</p>
<p>My essay won 4th in the Newsweek My Turn Contest :-)</p>
<p>That is one effective way of handling a tragic issue. I show the impact of the tragedy on me, how I’m coping with it, and how I became an AIDS activist as a result. They like activism and service stuff.</p>
<p>^ Exactly. I feel amost cliche because my essay will be about coming out in a catholic family in the south. Sure, it was tragic at the time, but I turned it around and became a great person out of it, going to to create our school’s Gay-Straight Alliance. I will emphasize the latter information, because those were my achievements, while using the coming out exprience as the catalyst. :)</p>
<p>but do you have to provide any evidence to confirm that what we write in the CV is true? Like certificates…???</p>
<p>And I have a question: Since for every activity, we only have 1 certificate, how do we send it to many schools? photocopy? fax?</p>
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<p>Thanks - so it’s more about focusing on yourself than focusing on outside circumstances? How much show-don’t-tell is too much show-don’t-tell (e.g. is it OK to say things like “I felt happy,” instead of “I grinned from ear to ear,” in order to save space)? Also, is it worth using any books specifically on the subject? (I bought two, but I’m not sure how much to follow their advice).</p>
<p>(Apologies for the late reply btw, I’m moving house and we had to dismantle our desktop.)</p>