Hi,
I was wondering how supplementary materials could be sent to the adcom. I mailed some of the schools and they said that "We do not recommend that you submit materials that are not required."

Should I go ahead and mail the documents? I seriously think that these additional materials will add a positive spin to my application.

Is it appropriate to send updates? I got a promotion and cool new work responsibilities a couple days after I turned in my INSEAD application. Does it ever make sense to send updates, or should I just let it be?

Only the 3rd post in this thread and already.... hijacked.

My bad. I guess it fell under the umbrella of "is it ok to send anything besides the requested information?" questions. But you're right...its sort of off-topic.

I've sent an update to my schools when I got a promotion. I think it's totally reasonable to do so.

Let see what others say, but I'd venture that sending in a quick email to inform them of a promotion after the deadline is one thing, including additional material as part of your package is entirely another.

In fact, I'd argue that sending in newspaper clippings is nothing short of irritating. We could all include extra materials - I could throw in copies of articles I wrote, or sample work, or maybe even a DVD of the work I did for the BBC, but why should the adcom take more time to review my materials? Or put differently, what makes me so special?

They tell you what they ask for, and if they wanted anything supplemental, they'd say to go ahead and send it. For instance, Stern pretty much opens this up with their personal expression part, but they are the only school I
know of that does so.

Personally, I wouldn't do it. I mean, look, you can talk about the newspaper articles in your essays (heck you can even quote a few sentences) - will reading them really be that much more helpful in understanding who you are?

Not only will the articles likely talk about what you've already discussed in your essays - making them less interesting, but also --- if they aren't articles about YOU specifically, they'll probably talk more about your team or your company or whatever, in which case, they would say very little about you as a person.

Even if they are articles about you, as an adcom, would I rather read a story written by the applicant about how he ended up in newspapers, or would I like to read something written by SOMEONE ELSE about the applicant?

Personally, I wouldn't send them in if you paid me. But thats just my view.

Policy regarding submission of additional information including substantial promotions and/or awards after the deadline varies from school to school. Wharton doesn't want an applicant to send any new information after the deadline as they feel it is unfair to the rest of the applicants. Everyone has a "fair" chance to market his/her candidacy by the published deadline. If you won the Nobel after the deadline..too bad !

You can use the essays to highlight your achievements, right ? You can always mention that you were cited in XYZ and interviewed by ABC. The problem with additional materials is that the admissions comm. will be swamped with portfolios and what not if they are to encourage non-essay material.