Should I send these updates to colleges (Ivies and others)?

Applying to College
1

I’m wondering about sending updates to the following schools:
Yale
UPenn
Brandeis
NYU
GWU

After I submitted applications, I found out that the literary magazine that I was the Editor-in-Chief of at school received a national award. The new award is slightly lower than last year’s award, which was on the applications. Should I still send in the recent award?

Also, I graduated last month. At graduation, I received an award for my commitment to a subject. This involvement is also demonstrated in my extracurricular activities, so I was thinking the award would emphasize my commitment. My teacher wrote a nice description of my dedication to the subject, so I was thinking of including some of the description if I sent an update. I also received an award for my involvement in a separate, minor extracurricular that appeared on my applications. Should I notify schools about both of these awards? Should I include the description my teacher wrote?

On the one hand, these awards would show that my school recognized my involvement and that I successfully ran the lit mag, but on the other hand, I know schools discourage sending more info than necessary. In fact, Yale’s website says to send only “critical” information. I assume the other schools have the same attitude.

2

I think you answered your own question

3

General rule; unless it’s a national international rule, don’t send. While your first example is national, you have a more prestigious award from last year, so I would not bother.

4

February/March is the busiest time of their entire, annual admissions cycle. IF – and this is a big “if” – you have something(s) to report that meets the difficult threshold of true “admissions significant,” send an e-mail. If your updates do not meet this criteria (and that’s likely), consider that being perceived as a thoughtless pest – remember, these folks have likely been working 80+ hour weeks for over a month and will continue to until approximately 1 April – may not be the wisest thing during the very period when your dossier is likely to come before the Admissions Committee.

From your description, I rather doubt that you surpassed the “admissions significant” threshold.

5

Thanks everyone. But I’m still confused about why my college counselor (who is a former director of admissions) encouraged me to send these updates.

6

@TopTier‌

Although I have no information to send, I’m asking just out of curiosity.

If OP sends it, will it harm him or will the admissions simply delete the mail?

Like, is it morally wrong (because he would be pestering them) to send these updates or is it practically wrong (they will write a negative report about him)?

7

@determined2300‌ (re post#5):

It’s both. However, in my opinion, it will likely not harm the OP, because most admissions personnel are decent people, who want to help kids, and who have considerable tolerance for such unnecessary and pesky annoyances. HOWEVER, that does not mean ALL admissions staffers, under ALL circumstances, will have such understanding and forbearance – therein is the risk.

To illustrate, have you ever been really annoyed and frustrated in heavy traffic, on a brutally hot afternoon, after a difficult day’s work, when some fool intentionally cuts you off to gain a five-second advantage, or jumps ahead of others by using the breakdown lane, or doesn’t alternately merge, and so forth? I suspect all of us have been, because it violates commonsense and common-civility AND because it’s plain selfish. That’s not too far removed from the OP’s potential situation.

For example, an admissions staffer receives and e-mail or a telephone call that expresses continued and ardent interest (duh, no kidding) and relates some not-evauation-significant accomplishment. However, this staffer has worked constant 80 hour weeks since mid-January, has a sick child at home, is tired and cranky, didn’t take a break for lunch, and thoroughly understands how absurd many of these “twenty-third hour” communications really are to admissions’s February/March core effort: evaluation leading to accepting, waitlisting, or denying applicants. Further, the staffer thinks: “What a jerk, so self-centered and so self-interested, he doesn’t even consider how busy we are, he squanders time we don’t have with utter nonsens just to have one more “contact” with X University. We don’t want thoughtless fools like him at X, and I’ll see to it he won’t matriculate here.”

Does this ever happen? Who knows. Could it occur? Certainly. Therefore, why take the risk when the potential gain is essentially nonexistent?

8

@TopTier‌

True. I understand what you mean.

So I guess we should simply leave it to OP to decide whether the achievement is significant enough.

Also, if the OP has already sent something before or contacted the staff regarding some other queries, then he/she should rather not send it. Demonstrating over interest is harmful, as TopTier clearly explained.