Beyond the primary essay, the Common Application includes two additional writing questions that often cause significant anxiety for students and families. These prompts can feel daunting, especially when they ask about sensitive topics like mental health, family challenges, or learning differences.
Today, I want to address these questions directly and help you understand when and how to approach them strategically.
The Two Additional Questions
After completing the main essay, students encounter two additional prompts that often create more stress than they should. These questions serve important purposes in the application process, but understanding their intent is crucial for deciding how to respond.
Question 1: Challenges and Circumstances
The first question reads:
“Sometimes, a student’s application and achievements may be impacted by challenges or other circumstances. This could involve access to a safe and quiet study space, access to reliable technology and internet, family disruptions such as divorce, incarceration, job loss, health, loss of a family member, addiction, etc., family or other obligations such as caretaking or financial support, natural disasters, physical health and mental wellbeing. If you’re comfortable sharing, this information can help colleges better understand the context of your application.”
The extensive list of examples demonstrates just how many different circumstances can impact a student’s high school experience. But here’s the crucial point: it’s perfectly okay if none of these apply to you.
Question 2: Additional Information
The second question essentially asks: “Is there anything else you feel we should know about you?” This open-ended prompt serves as a final opportunity to share important context that doesn’t fit elsewhere in your application.
The Key Question: Has This Actually Happened to You?
When students see the first question, my initial response is always: “Has any of this actually happened to you?” The answer might be no, and that’s completely fine. These circumstances aren’t pleasant, and we hope students haven’t experienced them.
However, if you have been significantly impacted by:
- Loss of a family member
- Personal physical or mental health challenges
- Working extra jobs to support your family
- Daily caregiving responsibilities for siblings
- Family disruptions that affected your stability
- Limited access to educational resources
Then this question provides valuable context that colleges need to understand your achievements and circumstances.
The Power of Context
Without providing this information, colleges will never know your circumstances. This is the fundamental point many families miss. Admissions officers evaluate applications based on the information provided. If significant challenges impacted your grades, attendance, or extracurricular participation, but you don’t explain this context, they have no way to understand the full picture of your achievements.
For example:
- If mental health challenges affected your ability to attend school regularly, explaining this helps colleges understand transcript patterns
- If you work 25+ hours weekly to support your family, this context explains limited extracurricular involvement
- If you care for younger siblings every day after school, colleges understand why you couldn’t participate in sports or clubs
The Mental Health Consideration
The most frequent conversations I have about these questions center on mental health. This is understandably sensitive territory, and there are varying opinions about disclosure each year.
My guidance centers on these key questions:
- Does sharing this information help explain something else in your application? If mental health challenges affected your grades, attendance, or participation, providing context can be beneficial.
- Are you ready to discuss this openly? If you don’t feel you’ve completely overcome the challenge or aren’t comfortable acknowledging your progress, you might not be ready to share this information.
- Will this information help admissions officers better understand your transcript or achievements? Context that explains dips in performance or gaps in involvement can be valuable.
The decision ultimately depends on your specific circumstances and comfort level with disclosure.
Learning Differences and Diagnoses
Students often ask about discussing learning differences or late diagnoses. While some try to fit these into the first question’s mental health category, I typically recommend addressing them in the second, more open-ended question.
Late diagnoses are particularly worth addressing. I’ve worked with students who received ADHD diagnoses junior or senior year, or even more significant processing disorder diagnoses. The second question provides an excellent opportunity to explain:
- When the diagnosis occurred
- How it affected previous academic performance
- What changes occurred after diagnosis and appropriate support
This context helps admissions officers understand why academic performance may have improved significantly in later high school years.
Beyond Challenges: Other Uses for Additional Information
The second question isn’t limited to challenges or difficulties. It can also highlight:
Significant extracurricular involvement that you couldn’t fully describe elsewhere in the application.
Hobbies or interests that don’t fit neatly into the activities section but reveal important aspects of your character.
Creative projects or achievements like websites, social media platforms with educational content, or independent research projects.
Additional context about your background, interests, or goals that enhances your overall application narrative.
I’ve had students include links to websites they’ve created or social media platforms where they share educational content. While colleges may or may not explore these links, providing the information gives them additional context about the student’s interests and initiative.
Strategic Decision-Making
The key to approaching these questions is strategic thinking rather than anxiety. Consider:
- Relevance: Does the information help explain or contextualize other parts of your application?
- Readiness: Are you comfortable sharing this information and discussing how you’ve grown from these experiences?
- Impact: Will this information help admissions officers better understand your achievements, challenges, or character?
- Completeness: Is there important information about you that isn’t captured elsewhere in your application?
When NOT to Answer
It’s important to understand that these questions are truly optional. You shouldn’t feel pressured to manufacture challenges or invent additional information if it doesn’t apply to your situation.
Don’t answer if:
- You haven’t experienced significant challenges that impacted your academic or extracurricular performance
- You’re not comfortable discussing personal topics
- The information doesn’t add meaningful context to your application
- You feel the rest of your application already tells your complete story
Working Through the Decision
As with every aspect of the application process, the decision about whether and how to answer these questions depends on individual circumstances. We work with students through each step, helping them determine collectively what makes sense to share and what doesn’t.
The goal isn’t to overshare or create sympathy, but to provide context that helps admissions officers understand your achievements within your specific circumstances.
The Bottom Line
These additional questions exist to help colleges understand the full context of your application. They’re opportunities, not obligations. When used strategically, they can provide valuable context that enhances an admissions officer’s understanding of your achievements and character.
Whether you’re addressing significant challenges, explaining circumstances that affected your performance, or sharing additional information about your interests and achievements, approach these questions thoughtfully and authentically.
Remember: admissions officers want to understand who you are as a complete person. Sometimes that includes understanding the obstacles you’ve overcome or the unique circumstances that have shaped your high school experience.
Need guidance on navigating these sensitive application questions? Our team helps students make strategic decisions about what to share and how to present their stories authentically and effectively. Book a call here for personalized support through the application process, or attend our one of our workshops to help you master the process with less stress!
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