Guide for seniors finishing the Common App
The Common App Additional Information Section
What belongs in the 300 words, what doesn't, when to use the separate Challenges and circumstances question instead, and short examples of each.
The Common App additional information section is an optional box in the Writing section for facts a college needs and can't find anywhere else in your application. For first-year applicants it holds 300 words at most, down from 650 since August 1, 2025. Use it for context, such as a grade dip, a school change or an activity that needs more than the activities list's 150 characters. If nothing in your application needs explaining, leave it blank.
Hardships now have their own place. The separate, optional Challenges and circumstances question allows 250 words and asks about things like family obligations, housing or health. This guide covers what goes in each box, what to leave out, and short examples you can model.
What belongs in additional information
Common App's help center describes the box as a place to share relevant information that isn't captured elsewhere in the application. In practice, that means facts that change how a reader understands your grades, your activities or your school. Write it plainly, in the third person if you like, and lead with the fact.
Good uses of the 300 words
| Situation | What to write | Rough length |
|---|---|---|
| A grade dip | What happened, when, and what your grades did after | 50 to 100 words |
| A school change | When you moved, and anything odd it left on your transcript, such as a missing course or a different grading scale | 40 to 80 words |
| An activity that needs more room | The work behind it, in numbers, when 150 characters can't hold it | 60 to 120 words |
| Work or research with a link | One line on what it is, and the link | 20 to 50 words |
| A gap or an unusual schedule | Dates and the reason, such as a gap year or online school | 30 to 60 words |
Lead with the fact
Write the first sentence so a reader skimming at speed still gets the point, such as "My grades fell in spring of 10th grade because I missed seven weeks of school after surgery." Explanation comes after.
What doesn't belong there
- A second essay. If it reads like a story with a theme, it belongs in a supplemental essay, or nowhere.
- Your activities list again. Add only what the list couldn't hold.
- A résumé, unless a college asks for one elsewhere.
- A single B or C with nothing behind it. Explain a pattern or a cause, not every grade.
- Complaints about a teacher or a school. Give the facts and let them stand.
- Hardships that fit Challenges and circumstances better. Put them there, so you don't tell the same story twice.
Additional information or Challenges and circumstances?
Since August 1, 2025, Common App splits the optional writing into two questions. Challenges and circumstances replaced the old Community disruption question and keeps its 250-word limit. Its list of examples includes access to a quiet study space and reliable internet, family disruptions, family obligations, housing instability, military deployment, natural disasters, and physical health and mental well-being (Common App). For 2026–27, Common App changed "care-taking" in that list to "caregiving" (what's new for 2026–27).
| Challenges and circumstances | Additional information | |
|---|---|---|
| Limit | 250 words | 300 words |
| Use it for | Hardships that affected your schoolwork or activities | Everything else a college needs: transcript context, extra activities, links |
| Examples | Caring for a sibling after school, losing housing, a long illness | Changing schools, a new grading scale, a research project with a link |
| Common App's stated purpose | Colleges "may use this information to provide you and your fellow students with support and resources" | Information not captured elsewhere in the application |
Quoted from Common App's announcement and its help center. Checked October 7, 2026.
If a hardship also left a mark on your transcript, describe the hardship once in Challenges and circumstances, and use a sentence in Additional information only for the transcript detail it doesn't cover.
Common App additional information examples
Each example below was written for this guide by a made-up student to show length and tone. None is a real applicant's entry.
In February of 10th grade I had appendix surgery with complications and missed seven weeks of school. I made up the work over the summer, but my spring grades in Chemistry (C+) and Spanish II (B-) reflect the weeks I missed. In 11th grade I took AP Chemistry and earned an A both semesters, and my teacher is writing one of my recommendations.
- What it does. Fact first, dates and grades named, then evidence the dip was temporary. No adjectives about how hard it was.
My family moved from Ohio to Arizona in the summer before 11th grade. My new school doesn't offer Honors English 11, so my transcript shows standard English that year. It also uses a 4.0 scale without weighting, while my Ohio school weighted honors classes on a 5.0 scale.
- What it does. It answers the questions a reader would have about the transcript, and nothing more.
Activity 2, Family restaurant: Since 9th grade I have worked about 20 hours a week at my parents' restaurant, more during summers. I open on Saturdays, place the weekly produce order, and trained the two newest servers. In 2025 I moved our menu and reservations online, and weekend takeout orders roughly doubled. This is why I couldn't join after-school clubs that meet before 6 p.m.
- What it does. It points to the activity number, adds the numbers the 150-character box couldn't hold, and explains a gap a reader might otherwise wonder about.
Before you submit
- Every sentence is a fact a college can't find anywhere else in your application.
- It's 300 words or fewer, and short entries are fine.
- Hardships are in Challenges and circumstances, told once.
- Grades, dates and numbers match your transcript and activities list.
- Any link opens without a login and goes to your own work.
- A counselor who knows your situation has read it, if it explains something sensitive.
The Common App final check reads your whole application PDF and flags repeated stories, numbers that don't match and answers over their limits, including this one.