What Is The Common App

  The Common App (short for Common Application) just might be the most prevalent way to apply to college these days. The entity is a non-profit that started in 1975. It has slowly grown and is now used by over 1000 institutions. This number has doubled in the past 10 years which is indicative of how powerful The Common App has become in the college admissions world.

What’s so great about the Common App is how much easier it makes the college application process. When college applications were first introduced over 100 years ago, each institution produced its own application. So, if a student wanted to apply to ten different colleges, they had to complete ten different applications. The Common App allows a student to complete one application and then send that to as many of the subscribing institutions as they desire. There is a separate application fee for each institution, so it’s not practical for students to just apply to every school they find on the Common App. 

While most of the application is uniform, there are some customizations subscribing institutions can add for themselves. For example, some schools have supplemental prompts, essays, or personal statements they require. Some schools might require counselor recommendations or recommendations from teachers and other people who are familiar with the student. In these instances, the student simply needs to add this person’s email address in the designated place within Common App. Common App will send that person an email, inviting them to create or log in to their Common App account and submit the recommendation there directly. 

For transcripts, a designated school employee like a registrar or counselor will receive a request to upload a transcript directly in the Common App system. The student doesn’t need to have an additional transcript sent. However, some colleges will require students to separately report their academic history. In Florida, for example, most of the state colleges ask students to use the Self-Reported Student Academic Record or SSAR. This is an online device where students are really entering the same information they find on their transcripts (courses and grades) themselves. 

Finally, some colleges will require a mid-year report. This is where a school official needs to provide Common App with an indication of how a student is performing at the conclusion of their first term of senior year–basically their first semester grades. This is not something all colleges require.

Whatever is required by any post-secondary institution on the Common App should be clearly spelled out on the application. Students must pay their application fee or have their fee waived (which can be done under some circumstances) before a college will review their application. Students need to follow the directions they see there closely and monitor emails from colleges that might include further instructions. There are a couple of other aggregate application services besides The Common App students may encounter, and many colleges are still operating the “old-fashioned” way with their own exclusive applications that will be available on their websites.