Using the Common App Additional Information Section for Grading Gaps
By Muntasir Minhaz • Published Aug 19, 2026
Use the Common App Additional Information section only for a specific, dated academic anomaly, like a cancelled exam or a change in your grading scale, in 300 words or fewer for the 2026-27 cycle. Put hardship, like lost income or housing loss, in the separate Challenges and Circumstances section instead.
📩 Additional Information is capped at 300 words for the 2026-27 cycle
⏱️ Use it for a specific, dated academic disruption, not a general statement
🎓 Your school profile already covers general grading scale and school-wide disruptions
✅ Leave it blank if your record is already consistent and explained
🏠 Hardship like housing or income loss goes in Challenges and Circumstances instead
Where grading disruptions belong on the Common App
The Common App splits context away from your essay into two optional sections. Additional Information, capped at 300 words for the 2026-27 cycle, covers academic anomalies such as a school closure, a cancelled exam series, or a change in your grading scale College Transitions . A separate Challenges and Circumstances section, capped at 250 words, covers hardship such as lost income, housing instability, or a family emergency.
If your school closed or your national exam board cancelled or changed grading for a purely academic reason, use Additional Information. If the disruption also caused you or your family hardship, put that fact in Challenges and Circumstances instead. Use both sections if each covers a distinct fact.
What belongs in Additional Information
Keep the entry short, factual, and specific. Name the disruption, the dates it covered, and exactly how it changed your record: a cancelled national exam series, a term with no grades issued, or a switch from letter grades to pass or fail.
Skip generic statements like your school going online or grading being affected in general, since admissions officers already know entire regions were disrupted in past years. Write only what is specific to your school or country and not already covered by your school profile.
Your school profile already carries some of this
Your counselor's school profile, submitted alongside your transcript, usually explains your school's general grading scale, curriculum, and any school-wide disruption for the year. Read it when it is available, since repeating what the profile already states adds nothing and eats into your 300-word limit.
Use Additional Information for what the profile cannot cover: something specific to you, like an illness that caused you to miss a single exam sitting, or a grading appeal that changed one of your marks after your transcript was issued.
An example entry
A strong entry states the fact and the effect: the national exam board cancelled the term two mathematics and physics exams for your district due to flooding, and your school issued predicted grades from coursework instead, which appear on your transcript as estimated marks for those two subjects only. That is specific, dated, and limited to what changed.
A weak entry restates general disruption without a specific effect, saying only that your last two years of school were difficult because of changes to the education system. That gives an admissions officer nothing to weigh against your transcript.
Common causes worth naming specifically
Grading gaps come from more than one source, and vague labels help nobody. A natural disaster that closed your school for weeks, a teacher strike that cancelled a term of instruction, a national exam board technical failure, or a sudden switch in your country's grading scale are all specific enough to state plainly. Name the actual cause rather than a general word like disruption.
If your national exam results arrive after your application deadline, that is a timing issue, not a grading gap, and most colleges have a separate process for pending or predicted results. Check your target college's international admissions FAQ page for how it wants pending results reported, since that is usually a different field or process than Additional Information.
Common mistakes to avoid
Writing a vague entry with no date, no subject, and no measurable effect on your transcript.
Repeating information your school profile already states.
Using the space for a second personal essay instead of a factual note.
Explaining a single low grade that your transcript already makes clear without added context.
Waiting until the deadline to check whether your counselor's school profile already covers the disruption.
When to leave the section blank
Leave it blank if your grades are consistent and your school profile already explains any national or system-wide grading pattern. Leave the section blank unless your application would be incomplete without it InGenius Prep .
A blank Additional Information section does not hurt your application. Padding it with unrelated achievements or a second personal essay does.
Talk to your counselor before you submit
Ask your school counselor what their school profile already says about grading disruptions before you draft your own entry. Counselors update the profile for the current application cycle, and yours might already state the exact facts you were about to write, in which case your best move is to leave Additional Information for something the profile does not cover instead of repeating it.
If your counselor is unsure whether the school profile mentions a disruption, ask them to check or update it before your file is submitted. A clear school profile helps every student who applies from your school in the same cycle, not only you.
How to write the entry
State the fact: what happened, when, and to which grades or exams.
State the effect: which score, term, or subject it changed on your transcript.
Stop there. Do not add a personal reflection or repeat your essay.
Check your school profile first so you are not duplicating what your counselor already reports.
If the disruption also caused hardship, put that part in Challenges and Circumstances instead.