10.  SHORT AND LONG ESSAYS
The subject of short and long essays is important enough to deserve a chapter of its own. See Guide 12, Writing Admissions Essays: How To Be More Than Your GPA and Test Scores.

11.  SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS
Some admissions offices welcome supplemental materials that testify to a student’s talent. Other colleges don’t. Examples of submitted materials include music or dance tapes, videotaped drama pieces, artwork including photography, scientific research projects, or writing and poetry samples.

Before you go to the trouble of pulling together supplemental materials, first make sure that a college will accept them; second, follow application directions for how to submit them; and third, think twice before submitting anything that is less than stellar.

While the invitation to submit supplemental materials is a real opportunity for students to show some special talent, the operative word here is “special.” Be careful about sending along random musings or journal entries, loose drawings, even an ordinary paper for which you may have received an A. If you send anything, make sure that it is the best representative of what you are able to produce. Particularly if supplemental materials are in the arts and scientific arenas, admissions people, themselves, probably won’t look at them. They will send submissions on to college departments who have the expertise to understand and evaluate them.

FAQ #5: My friends tell me that one way of getting an admissions office to pay attention to me is to send them cookies or something a little weird or very creative. What do you think?

ANSWER: If you want to know what doesn’t work in admissions, the answer is gimmicks such as fancy cakes and tins of cookies decorated with the name of an applicant. These attention grabbers often have quite the opposite effect. Don’t do it.

12.  RECOMMENDATION FORMS
Except for the large public universities, most college applications include a Secondary School Report form, a Teacher Evaluation form and sometimes an Optional and/or Peer Reference form. See Guide 13, Letters of Recommendation, for a thorough explanation of what to do about these forms.

When students give their counselor, teachers and others the Secondary School Report, Teacher Reference, and Optional Reference forms, we urge them to waive their right to see the recommendations. If the right is not waived, college admissions offices might not treat the recommendation with the same weight as when it is waived.