Over the past several years or so, the college admissions process has seen a revolution. Paper applications have essentially been extinct for some time, and it now appears that unique applications or applications that only serve one institution are headed in the same direction. At the forefront of this revolution is the Common App which now serves over 900 institutions. According to Forbes Magazine, Common App applications increased 11% between the 19-20 and 20-21 school year. This number is expected to grow which is likely to increase the number of participating schools which should increase applications in turn. The cycle is likely to continue.
The prevalence and growth of Common App is a good thing for high school seniors. Its beauty lies in its efficiency. As the name implies, it is a generic college admissions application that is accepted at many colleges. So, students can complete one application and simply check off which subscribing institutions they want their application sent to.
This is one of the initial steps of the College App, students should have an idea of which colleges they intend to apply to before they get to. They will have to pay an application fee to each college they send the Common App to, so this step should be approached with some discrimination.
Next, you’ll get into the meat of the application. Here, you’ll include some academic information but also your activities and awards. You should think of activities as anything you’ve participated in like clubs and sports, including ones outside of school. You can think of awards as anything you might have won as a result of those activities. This is your chance to demonstrate a lot about your personality and the kinds of things you’re into which is very important to the colleges. Spend some time prior to completing the application dwelling on this. You don’t want to leave things out that might not come to mind in the moment you’re working on your application.
Following that, students will need to write their essay. The Common App provides six prompts from which to choose. This is where students can express their voice to the colleges and tell their story. Numbers and grades are just data. This is where students become humans and my advice here is to be honest. Don’t try to say something you think the colleges want to hear or come up with some off-the-wall gimmicky essay you hope will make you stand out. Admission reps have to read thousands of these essays and they’ll sniff these things out in a heartbeat. Instead, use the essay to express who you are with substance and conviction, perhaps by sharing what important things led to the development of You.
Finally, there are recommendation letters. Not every school will require these and if you can’t figure out how to add them to your application, the colleges you’re applying to don’t want them. Ultimately, when rec letters can be submitted, you’ll just add an email address of the people you’ve chosen as a recommender and they’ll get an email directing them to log-in to the Common App themselves and add their recommendation.
Once you get all that done, you should be close to hitting submit. There could be some other caveats and requirements from individual colleges so be sure to monitor your Common App and emails from colleges closely.
