<p>If you want to send supplementary materials, such as essays or recs, and they are bad (as in for selective college's standards), will they negatively impact your application? Is it better then to not send the materials? I guess overall i am just trying to find out whether supplementary materials can hurt your application in any way? Or can it only help and not hurt? B/c if it can't hurt, i might just as well include them.</p>
<p>Adcoms are just humans too, and if you send in e.g. an extra essay and they read it and think "that's about the worst essay I've read this year", of course it will hurt you.</p>
<p>So you think I should not bother with it at all? And anyways, how much will a good supplementary essay or rec. help you? Anyone else agree with b@r!um?</p>
<p>i agree.. its like sending extra bad scores... if you do all your courses well and then send in an extra AP unrelated to your major with a F in it, ur as good as dead</p>
<p>anyone else?</p>
<p>send it in if it helps... since it's supplementary, adcoms will be looking for something that adds on and strengthens your app, so make sure it's something good</p>
<p>Think about it this way... is the thing you are sending them telling them something good about you that they can't see elsewhere in your application? If so, send it. If it's not telling them anything they don't know (ex: if you get an additional teacher rec. that, althoug positive, says the same things your other teacher recs said), then don't send it.</p>
<p>Personally, I am sending a music supplement because, since I haven't entered any competitions for voice, I don't have any awards, so there is nothing on my application that can show my talent in a "quantifiable" way.</p>
<p>There is a saying that IN GENERAL, the thicker the app, the thicker the student (meaning, students who aren't strong candidates may try to "pad" their app with extra stuff that doesn't really make the app any stronger).</p>
<p>Our HS counselor said that unless the supplemental material adds something very important, Us have enough to do to review the regular app materials & really don't like extras.</p>