Many students are in the process of setting up their summer schedules and one of the questions that I get is what sort of information will the student need to provide to colleges about their summer activities.
While a fair question, it also raises a bigger issue that I see each application season and that is: What additional information does a student need to send a college beyond what the college is requesting?
And the answer to that question is almost always, Nothing.
In like manner, there is rarely any information about your summer programs that you will need to provide colleges other than a general description of what you did.
Tufts University has put together a great flowchart of whether you should send something to the admissions office that has not been requested. While this is Tufts specific the same information applies to virtually all colleges.
The flow chart can be summed up by saying if the college asks for something, send it. If they don’t ask for something, you will most often not want to send it. There is an old saying in college admissions, the thicker the file, the thicker the kid. You don’t want to be that “thick” kid.
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