<p>I attended COSMOS, and I’m wondering whether or not I’ll need to explain what it is in my essay? I’m over the word limit, so I think I’ll take it out, but then again, I know my readers won’t necessarily be familiar with it.</p>
<p>Thoughts?</p>
<p>You could explain COSMOS in the description fields of your extracurricular activities or classes.</p>
<p>If your personal statement is about your COSMOS experience and what you got out of it, then you should go into further detail. If not, and you still want to explain COSMOS, you could always put in a blurb at the end of the application (in the section informally called “Personal Statement 3”), in which you can put in anything that you have not yet said but would like to say in the application.</p>