<p>Hey all, I wrote a pretty neat program with Java this summer, and I was wondering if there was any way to send it to colleges through the Common App. It seems like there is an additional information section, but it would seem weird to fill it up with code. People must have submitted programs to colleges, and I'm wondering how they did it..... Or I could just write about it... but I really want them to see the algorithms used and stuff like that? Any help would be great!</p>
<p>lol, don’t write out Java code on your application. The readers will have no idea what your saying. Now, can you describe in layman’s terms what it does, and what is unique about the program, how you did it, etc.? This is one route you can take.</p>
<p>Or, you can send a CD with the program which many schools would give to the comp sci department to look at. Or if you have a website you can put it there and write your URL on the application.</p>
<p>Some schools like CalTech and MIT will accept such types of submissions as an additional times and actually have someone look at it. In most schools, a description as suggested by Jogo84 will be sufficient. Check out each school and find out what they accept. Do not put Java code in the common app</p>
<p>My son wrote a program for a teacher and in the additional info section wrote essentially a project summary: She needed the program because _<strong><em>, I did it using tools </em></strong><em>, cute anecdote about how very much it helped her, I learned </em>. He also got a recommendation from that teacher. He thought about posting a link on the internet to the code or to the executable but ended up not doing that. If you wrote a story and at the end posted a link (you can go here to see it in action - <a href=“http://www.mycoolstuff.com%5B/url%5D”>www.mycoolstuff.com</a>) that would likely be sufficient.</p>
<p>It was good enough for Harvey Mudd, Rice, and Caltech (and he didn’t apply anywhere more selective). </p>
<p>Whatever cool thing you wrote probably won’t enthrall the admissions officers - they’re more interested in hearing about you. Your grades and test scores and recommendations and ECs will all show your intelligence and creativity without dumping a bunch of code at them. (Besides, if you wrote it for fun, it probably isn’t commented, isn’t documented, and has hacky stuff in it that you might not want to advertise anyway!)</p>
<p>What is interesting regarding an innovation that you’ve created is whether and how it is used. So for example if you’ve open sourced your Java program and you have hundreds of thousands of users, and you’ve received significant (and documented) input from these users praising the program, and perhaps input from some vendor encouraging you to enhance it in some specific way, and so on … then briefly describe the program (at the most understandable level – e.g. “financial planning for new businesses” or whatever, AND describe the acceptance and praise for your innovation (e.g. – 250,000 current users, Java prize from Oracle, 2 patents pending, or whatever).</p>
<p>If however the program (no matter how cool) is not in use, and there isn’t documented praise, or a pending patent application then skip mentioning it. Think of the analogy – e.g. suppose I’ve just completed a novel about Massachusetts in the 1890s, but it hasn’t been vetted or accepted for publication. Would I submit that?</p>
<p>uh, ok so my program is basically a physics simulation of classical mechanics, and it also has the computer make a small square dodge objects falling while finding the shortest path to get to red dots placed on the screen… there’s no real use for it, but would that be fine for colleges?</p>
<p>I totally disagree with fogcity that it isn’t worth mentioning a disposable toy program (or an unpublished novel). It is not necessary that you have current users or a Java prize. It shows how you spend your time, and shows that you may have just the spark the school is looking for. If you don’t mention it because it’s not important, how can the school distinguish you from someone who took that same amount of time and watched Road Runner cartoons?</p>
<p>Your project sounds very cool, although nobody is using it. It shows your physics and math ability and your love for science and all things geeky. Definitely include it, but definitely not by putting a pile of source code on the common app. </p>
<p>“I love physics and thinking about physics. The idea of gravity fascinates me so much that I wrote a little demonstration program - basically a physics simulation of classical mechanics, and it also has the computer make a small square dodge objects falling while finding the shortest path to get to red dots placed on the screen. I learned from this that programming is a career I could happily pursue, that the difficulty of programming lies in the details of not letting the square fall off the edge of the screen, and that I’d love to create educational software. I hope to modify this program in my spare time to allow it to work for different values of gravity and maybe even to allow the objects the square is dodging to have gravity of their own.”</p>
<p>If you write something like that (a lot better and fitting your own reasons and interests of course), it will show your interest, and what you did and like to do, in a way that makes sense to the reader.</p>
<p>Indeed, geekmom63. A thing for the OP to keep in mind - the chance that those who are reading your application know Java well enough to read through some source code and be impressed is small. The chance that any of those who could, would, is even smaller, given how time-consuming code-reading can be.
Geekmom63’s suggestion is very good - and you could send a copy on a cd, but don’t be surprised if nobody looks at it.</p>
<p>Check out this thread started by one of the counselors on the list. <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/986932-hidden-extracurriculars-what-yours.html?highlight=hidden[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/986932-hidden-extracurriculars-what-yours.html?highlight=hidden</a></p>