Should I use the additional information section on CommonApp?

Hi @tatiana,

Thanks for your question. I'm certain that many future applicants in HS are wondering the same thing as you. How much is too much and what is the right amount of writing and description for ECs, honors, and awards?

Let me take a step back and inform you that if you are applying to top colleges say T50 schools which include the Ivys, Elites, top Publics, and top Liberal arts colleges, on average a college admissions reader allocates about 10-15 minutes per application. Some will give themselves 7-8 minutes. This is to read your entire file, your transcripts your recommendations, your essay, your supplemental essays, scan any portfolios or videos, all your short answers, use the internet to fact-check your work if there is a yellow flag/red flag, and take notes and score you.

So what does this tell you? It tells me that they are under tremendous pressure to process as many applications as possible and often do not give themselves enough time to fully understand an applicant. Therefore, it's of paramount importance that whatever you present in your file is accurate, compelling, impressive, memorable, thought-provoking, and a genuine representation of you without going into detailed specifics of what each role and responsibility entailed.

If you won an Olympic Gold Medal, that's impressive enough. You don't have to give a historical chronology of every award you won leading up to the Gold Medal in Freestyle Skiing. You can say I've been an expert skier for 10 years and traveled the world for the most prestigious competitions where I often placed in the top 5.

If you use the Coalition App, versus the Common App, they have a "locker feature" that allows you to upload anything you want the admissions officers to see. That can be .pdfs, links to web content, videos, or docs. etc etc. Look into it.

https://blog.collegevine.com/how-to-use-the-coalition-caas-locker-in-9th-through-11th-grade/

Think of a 10-15 minute interview. You can't really tell your entire life story in that time frame so you have to focus on sharing the most important aspects of your academic and extracurricular narratives without boring the reader. Use your words carefully and remember you are trying to use this limited format to showcase your best version of yourself at this snapshot of time. Use your essays and short answers to help the admissions officers connect the dots and fill the blanks.

Good luck.

The EC descriptions on the Common App are short on purpose. You should be able to describe what you did succinctly. Anything that merits additional words (for example, any outstanding things you achieved as president) can be addressed in your personal statement or supplementals. The additional information section should be used very sparingly, if at all. Usually, this is where students can discuss something significant that has impacted their highschool career if it hasn't been discussed elsewhere, like health issues, potential application "red flags", unusual grading, extenuating circumstances, etc.