<p>The website warns strongly against sending additional materials. By that, does it mean additional info (per the "additional info" section on the Common App) or supplementary materials (e.g. music recordings, research abstracts, a third recommendation)?</p>
<p>I would like to attach an additional list of awards won + summer activities, but would this list fall under the category of additional materials that Stanford hates to see?</p>
<p>Any current students/Stanford-application veterans, please share what you did! Thank you.</p>
<p>Can’t you put that with the common app? I would try and squeeze that in. Otherwise, when my S applied the feeling we got was that they strongly discouraged any additional information being sent to them. We had a CD that we sent to all the schools but not to Stanford. They just got the app, transcripts and required number of letters of rec.</p>
<p>How we did include his 4 page resume in the common app. </p>
<p>I applied last year, and emailed them regarding this. I wanted to send some of my research abstracts. However, they do not accept any additional documents you mail to them other than the ones they specified (additional recommendation, arts or music supplement only if I’m not wrong). They did say that I can chuck the rest under “Additional Information” in Commonapp. In the end, I mailed them the additional recommendation and put the other materials in the Commonapp.</p>
<p>I sent a four page long document with an activity sheet, awards list, and additional classes taken outside of school in the extra info area of the common app. I got in.</p>
<p>Supplementary materials like music recordings if you are applying to be a music major are totally different than ‘laundry list of everything I’ve ever done in my life.’ There are so, so, so few 17 year olds who actually require a 4 page resume. Ask yourself, if I honestly couldn’t fit these awards and activities on the standard application, are they really important, or am I diluting my application?</p>
<p>They probably do hate it, but I can’t imagine it would hurt you, although they may ignore it.</p>
<p>On their website it says that they don’t like it when you send extra material that wasn’t asked for or suggested, the optional recommendation letter and stuff like that you can still send without a problem but if you want to send an additional list of awards won and summer activities just squeeze it in under additional information and you should be all right :)</p>
<p>This has been a recurrent question for applicants for years now, and it still isn’t completely clear. To give some perspective, before Stanford switched to the Common App (in 2007 or 2008), it had its own application that explicitly said not to attach additional resumes, lists of ECs, etc. and to use the space on the application itself. When Stanford switched to the Common App, this “embargo” was de-facto lifted: the additional info section on the Common App can’t be removed by a participating university, and Stanford never indicated to applicants that they should not attach resumes in the additional info. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>It might seem obvious, but don’t repeat anything in the additional info that is found elsewhere on the application. Some treat it as a place to put the full resume, which you can do, but certainly don’t rehash anything said before. It’s “additional info” for a reason. This advice is straight from the horse’s mouth (an admissions officer said this a few years ago).</p></li>
<li><p>Don’t do a laundry-list dump of accomplishments and positions and awards; this is a frequent piece advice from admissions officers and college counselors alike. IMO this has greater potential to harm you if it isn’t focused and makes you look like a “serial joiner” (a student who joins lots of clubs for the explicit purpose of college applications). My advice is to include only the items that add to the cohesion of the whole application. So, for example, if you had FIRST robotics among your ECs, and you wrote an essay about a research project you did, and all the space in the ‘awards’ section were taken up by science fair awards, but you also did well in AIME - then that’d be something to include in the additional info, since it’s thematically related to other areas of the application. Throwing in that you were in NHS or volunteered at the old folks’ home probably won’t help and would only distract from items that matter.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I submitted a resume that included what was already on common app as well as some extrapolation & explanation as i felt necessary. Resume was about 2 pages long single spaced (bulleted). Only included what I thought was important. </p>
<p>In general, most admissions counselors wouldn’t “understand” your arts supplements anyway. They’re not art or music connoisseurs. I read a book where this one admissions counselor was saying how the office would have a party with all the music submitted by students.</p>
@ivyhopeful94 So you put the 4 page document all in the additional information section on the common app? I have so many activities that I do not have space to include in the common app activities section and I already wrote my essays about my other activities. If I have some information that is not included anywhere but really adds to me as a student, should I put it in the extra comments section? Because they said anything you sent to them outside the common app, they will not read.