<p>I have looked at several college websites for instructions on how to submit one--they give detailed instructions for art and music supplements but none for writing. Does anyone have any experience with this? How do we go about preparing one--most of the works included will be photocopies of published articles. </p>
<p>Thank you</p>
<p>Check with the colleges individually. Many of the schools my D is applying to do not accept writing portfolios (too cumbersome to read through). As an alternative, my D has provided a short summary her published work in her activity resume along with the awards she received.</p>
<p>Some of the colleges discourage a resume but seem to be in a grey zone regarding supplemental materials. Where would a student put her list of publications in the application, especially if this is her major achievement? Would it be considered as academic honors?</p>
<p>worried, my son had the same query. The schools he was interested in were very clear about how to submit visual supplements, but not on writing. In his case it was poetry which was easier to slip in than whole articles, but the same principle applied.</p>
<p>For his ED school, he tossed in quite a bit of supplemental material. He was accepted, so we'll never know if they read it and appreciated it or totally disregarded it. </p>
<p>For the other schools, he asked. One, Wesleyan, said please don't send us poetry as we wouldn't have a clue how to judge it. They suggested that he have one of his recommenders mention his poetic achievements instead.</p>
<p>What I'd suggest in your child's case would be to put together a separate activity package for his/her written achievements. This could include examples of the work, a resume outlining accomplishments & awards, a brief personal statement of intent, perhaps a letter of recommendation from a teacher, advisor or publisher who has been involved with the effort. </p>
<p>Many schools ask for a secondary essay along the lines of What EC has meant the most to me? S/he could use writing as the topic of this short essay as well. </p>
<p>You don't mention the subject of the written material. If it has a singular focus and is academically appealing, then this opens up a whole chain of related opportunities to get across his/her passion and interest. Going directly to the specific academic department is another way to gain merit for out of the ordinary achievements. Many admissions departments encourage this route.</p>
<p>I think the individual school's reaction to activity packages, resumes and supplementary information in general is proportionate to the size of the school. This is just my guess and I have no insider information, but I believe that the small LACs and LAC-like universities are staffed to give more attention to background than the schools with 10's of thousands of applicants. If s/he's looking at the smaller schools then I'd be creative in how s/he presents her/his talent in the applicaion.</p>
<p>Thank you momrath for your ideas. The academic department suggestion sounds promising. Would it it be advisable for the student to contact a department even if she wasnt interesting in studying the subject formally in college? Quite likely Stanford would be SCEA school for my daughter but this is also one of the strictest schools with regards to supplements. No resumes allowed either. Would it it be advisable to list the publications with descriptions in the academic honors section to free up the space in activites chart for other ECs that require some explantion too? Also, can the student provide online links to the article(s), if available? This ought to be one of the easiest ECs to showcase oneself, as the publications speak for themselves, but it is proving to be much harder than we thought. There are no other big awards and recognition. For sake of privacy (ironical for a writer's mother, I know!) I cannot give more details here, so forgive me, but I would love to hear from those who have had personal experience with this. Thank you all.</p>
<p>Worried mom-- we heard time and time again, "the thicker the file, the thicker the applicant" so we took the schools at their word. I like the suggestion made above to have the recommender(s) mention writing, and of course, to make sure that the essays reflect a talented writers best effort. My kids GC and one of the teachers both mentioned the writing.... so we weren't too worried about not submitting samples or a portfolio.</p>