Maximize Your Common Application: Tips for the Additional Information Section

What should you include in the Additional Information Section of the Common Application? Read more here for tips to keep you moving forward!

Utilizing all of the opportunities available to you in the Common Application to provide important context about your life, to give insight into your academic journey, and to differentiate you from other talented applicants just makes good sense.

So how can you utilize the open ended “Additional Information” section to make that happen?

Let’s start with some quick “what not to include in the Additional Information section” tips: 

What Not to Include in the Additional Information Section

• Information already present somewhere else in your application.

• Explanations for things that just are not important, i.e. You made one B+ in 9th grade and need to explain that non-A grade.

• Excuses or blame spreading, i.e. writing that your grade in English is low because you didn’t like the teacher. Don’t do it here or in any other part of your application for that matter. 

• Specific messages or information meant for just ONE university on your list. Remember:  this section will be seen by all universities you apply to with the Common Application. 

Here are some suggestions for really good uses of the Additional Information section. 

Best Ways to Use the Additional Information Section

Helping to further differentiate you from other competitive applicants by:

• Sharing specific information about an independent research project, your IB Extended Essay research, your AP Seminar Topic

• Special awards or certificates you have earned that might not be well known or well understood by other outside of your community

• Greater detail or context about an important extracurricular activity, hobby, talent, or skill

Providing important context about your academic environment/academic journey like:

• Attending a boarding school away from home and support of your family

• Moving throughout high school and having to acclimate to new academics and course scheduling

• Grading systems or grading philosophies that might be unique to your high school’s environment

• Unique aspects of your high school’s education system like outdoor education, project-based learning, etc.

• Important information about the rigor of your courses in high school, especially if the course titles don’t make it clear 

Addressing weaknesses in your application: 

This is tricky for one common reason – the weakness you are addressing has to actually be a weakness.

While this may seem obvious, the best advice to give here is to not try and manufacture weaknesses or focus on miniscule elements of your profile making them into bigger problems than they are. If you made one B+ in Chemistry, don’t use this section to explain why it isn’t an A. If you're someone who tends to be a little too hard on yourself, don't let that tendency take over here and make a mountain out of a mole hill. Makes sense, right?

Still having trouble coming up with something to include in the Additional Information section? 

That’s OK!

Look, the truth is most students don’t complete this section of the application.

If you review the content of your application and feel like all of the most important stories and details about your life and academic journey are already being shared, then you may not need to utilize this section. Leave it blank and move forward confidently! 

Want more help navigating your college application process?