Application Attachment Question Forum

[hos9903]

Hey all,

So I am putting my applications together and for one school I have a supplemental essay that I want to include. There is an "optional essay" question in the application, but it only allows for 1000 characters and does not take attachments.

I am thinking of writing in that box something along the lines of "attached at end of application"

The resume section, the last part on the application, allows for more than one attachment so I was thinking of attaching the supplemental essay there.

Sorry if I'm being neurotic/paranoid, but is that how people normally handle this? Just want to make sure I'm not going to be pissing any adcomm off by attaching a non-resume in the "resume" section. (in the .pdf application preview, it just looks like an additional page after the resume).

Thanks for any advice, I appreciate it.

[NapoleonXV]

You most definitely should NOT do this.

If it is only a box allowing 1000 characters, then the adcomm only expects to see 1000 characters for this question. Attaching a longer essay will appear to the adcomm that you are unable to express your ideas concisely.

[armysgt]

You most definitely should NOT do this.

[hos9903]

Thanks for the responses.

Just to be clear, it's a 1000 character (not word) maximum. My diversity statement is less than 300 words (doesn't even fill an entire page double spaced) but still the 1000 character limit is only half of that.

I guess I'm just confused because because that seems like an unreasonable limit for a diversity statement.

It's a T30 school, if that matters. Thanks again for the responses....I've been working on these apps for awhile and definitely got a little thrown off once it actually came time to fill them out.

[McGruff]

Thanks for the responses.

Just to be clear, it's a 1000 character (not word) maximum. My diversity statement is less than 300 words (doesn't even fill an entire page double spaced) but still the 1000 character limit is only half of that.

I guess I'm just confused because because that seems like an unreasonable limit for a diversity statement.

It's a T30 school, if that matters. Thanks again for the responses....I've been working on these apps for awhile and definitely got a little thrown off once it actually came time to fill them out.

The folks who end up reading hundreds of these things don't think it's an unreasonable limit. Keep the person for whom you're writing in mind, and imagine how many diversity statements they read every day. It wasn't some accident, where they meant to make it a 1000 word limit but they accidentally checked the 'character limit' box, I promise.

The limit is also, as posters above have said, to make you express yourself concisely. It's not just because they don't want to slog through pages of DS, it's because you should be able to succinct. Go through each sentence and ask yourself, "Do I really need this in here?" and you'll find a bunch of stuff you can cut out.

[alicejoseph]

I am writing a short essay about Love (LinkRemoved) for my English class. My teacher said that the first and foremost quality you'll want your essay topic to have is relevance. Another quality that all good essay topics possess is a certain challenging nature. In addition to being challenging, your essay topic should also be unique. n the quest to create a challenging and unique essay topic, many students default to employing flowery and unspecific language. One final quality that all good essay topics have is the ability to be supported by fact.

[midwest17]

I am writing a short essay about Love for my English class. My teacher said that the first and foremost quality you'll want your essay topic to have is relevance. Another quality that all good essay topics possess is a certain challenging nature. In addition to being challenging, your essay topic should also be unique. n the quest to create a challenging and unique essay topic, many students default to employing flowery and unspecific language. One final quality that all good essay topics have is the ability to be supported by fact.

What did I just read.