I applied as a financial economics/economics major to Columbia University NYC and UChicago, but I want to add an internship and some other business-related things I hadn’t added in my commonapp because I got these slightly after I turned it in. Here’s what I wanna add:
-leader of a major community service project called ___ in which I am working with professionals to design a website, database, surveys and other marketing tools to connect donors to the children who are receiving the donations. (its actually a nationwide project but idk if i should include that)
helped start and received a paid internship at a startup consulting company. I run payrolls and take phone calls. I also do a lot of marketing work for the company, for which I designed the website, flyers, business cards, and edited/designed their guidelines packet.
created marketing materials such as flyers etc for other consulting companies
invested in stocks and learned a lot about the financial world, which helped me foster greater interest in economics. I constantly keep track of the market’s ups and downs.
recently qualified for and will receive the silver President’s award for volunteer service
I would like to send these updates to them but I don’t know if they’re worthy enough to send. The only thing finance/business related that was on my original commonapp was DECA international finalist and DECA school chapter officer, but I wanna add these too so they know I have more than just DECA. Idk if I should send them to Columbia and uchicago or not. I don’t want them to get annoyed or just think I’m making up fluff.
To me, these updates aren’t significant enough on their own, but a lot of it may depend on what you listed as your ECs previously, and how strong your application was otherwise. If you are a Native American from an under-represented geographic location, with perfect SAT scores and your parents are considering a billion-dollar donation, you might get more attention.
Think about each one of these updates, and try to imagine what the admissions dept would think about them - how much would they make you stand out from the pile of other highly qualified students that also are hoping for that one-in-20 shot.
I don’t mean to discount your updates in any way - because it sounds like you’ve done these for reasons other than fluffing up the application.
Your first and last updates are perhaps IMHO more worthy of sending to them, but I would want to caution you as follows - just playing devil’s advocate here
This depends on how much work you are doing yourself, vs how much the professionals are doing. Also, If this was really so important and meaningul, why was it left off the initial application?
The amount of time/effort here matters - when did you start, and how much do you do? This could be considered fluff to some, but it could be seen as valuable.
Does not seem very impressive on its own- is this something a 5th grader could do?
This could work against you in a big way - showing you come from great privilege and have common interests with millions of other students - you won’t stand out for this.
To me, this is your most impressive accomplishment - but some places a President’s award means 25 hours of community service, and others might require 100, 200, or even 500. So be sure to share the requirements if impressive.
I really don’t mean to be harsh - I just want you to understand what the admissions office would do with this additional information. They only care about stuff that truly makes you stand out. They get bombarded with updates all the time, from nervous kids desperate to convince themselves that they’ve given every best shot.
I remember at one elite school’s admissions info session, in the Q&A portion someone asked what type of information should be sent to them as a supplemental update. She made it very clear that they only wanted information that was not available at the time of the application. She gave the example of being nominated to apply as a Presidential Scholar is worthwhile, many National level awards, etc. are important, but something like getting your driver’s license is not critical to them. She said there were so many kids who sent updates about getting on their school’s High Honor Roll again, and gave the distinct impression that this was just expected of all applicants, so not really a need to submit.
Again, I wish you the very best of luck here, hopefully your HS GC can help more.
Hello! I ended up sending the updates about the major community service project, presidents award (which requires at least 250 hours of community service done in that particular year) and the internship opportunity. I received the internship opportunity after I submitted my application, but I felt that it was important as it’s related to my major. Thank you for the input! @3puppies