Guidance Please For Common App- Interested In 2 Majors

[crazed]

My son is interested in Engineering or Computer Science. I suspect he will be applying to schools that have both and those that just have computer science.
Obviously, he can not list engineering as a major at a school that does not have it.
Question is.... Once you complete the common app and hit send, you can no longer change any portion of it so he can't send out two different batches.
From the common app website:
"Once you have submitted your Common App to any institution, your application will be locked and you will not be able to make any changes to it."
What do you do? Make two lists basedon major and use common app for the majority and fill out each schools own app on their website for the remainder?
Thanks for your help. Just trying to make this as easy as possible. I am pretty certain my son will not have an overwhelming feeling toward one of the majors by the time the apps have to be sent.
(I will likely be back on CC for help in college suggestions for engineering schools. I know how tough it is and want him to think about safties/matches for that.)

[interesteddad]

Print and mail separately.

[FauxNom]

If you want to do this online:
I'm sorry that I can't remember the details, but there's a way to do an "alternate version" of the common app once you've submitted the first one. That way, you can change the essay or major choice so that it's tailored to a particular school. You can search the common app website FAQs, looking for alternate version or something along those lines, for instructions.

[Consolation]

Last year one was able to make different versions of the Common App to send to different schools and still send them online.

[Marian]

This is a bit outside of the focus of your thread, but if your son is interested in either engineering or computer science, perhaps he should only be applying to schools that offer both majors.

[crazed]

Marion
I agree with you, however, many of the smaller to midsized schools do not have engineering and may be a good fit for him. Seems like every school has CS. If we could find a mid sized-5-6000 up to 10-12000 students on a real campus in a suburb it would be great. For engineering, I'd like him in the top or better of the stats of that group. If he really wants engineering (and I see that this is probably a good choice for him) I want him to succeed. A school like RIT may be too techie for him. I (and I suspect he) wants to have a decent, though not wild, social life.

[alamode]

yeah i'm a bit confused on this but I read somewhere on the site about some sort of way to may a "copy/alternate" version of your application after sending it to one school. its confusing, i didn't fully understand it, but its on the site somewhere

[b@r!um]

Two years ago we could manage several alternate applications in one account. Once an application was submitted, it was locked and you couldn't change it. However, it only took one click to make an editable copy of a locked application, where you were able to change every single field before submitting that copy to another college.

CommonApp locks applications only so that you know exactly what information you have submitted to which college. (Similar to a history, just implemented differently.) They do not want to hinder you to submit different information to different colleges.

[crazed]

What starting me thinking about this is that I read on another CC thread (a while ago so I can't locate it) was that starting this year you can't change the essay. That's why I went on the commonapp site to find the info which I quoted above, taken from their Freq Asked Questions section.
Again, I wrote form their site:
"Once you have submitted your Common App to any institution, your application will be locked and you will not be able to make any changes to it."
My son is a computer wiz, so maybe he can figure out how to make the "alternate app" stated by alamode and fauxnom. I'll try to find it by googling the cc thread for info. If I find any, I'll post it here.
Thanks all for your help.

[b@r!um]

Alternate application versions can be used in the event an applicant chooses to provide slightly different information to one institution from another institution. Below are the steps necessary to create an alternate version.

Step1: You must submit the Common Application to at least one institution first. You cannot create an alternate version until this has occurred.

Step 2: Click on the Common Application link in the left-hand menu. You will see information about the application you have already submitted (named ‘Original’). You should click on the ‘Replicate’ link to make an alternate version of your submitted application. When this is complete, a second version will be visible on your screen and a special drop down list that will appear in the upper right corner of your application. You can use this drop down to move between application versions.

All data from your original version of your Common Application will be transferred to your alternate version, with the exception of any documents that you uploaded. You may edit any of this information before you submit it to another institution.

Additional application versions can be made by going to the ‘Common Application’ section within your original Common Application and using the ‘Replicate’ link. You may make up to 10 versions, including the original version. You only need your original User Name and Password to access all versions.

You will have a separate My Colleges page for each application version. Each institution can only be on the My Colleges list of one application version. You can move an institution from one version to a different version at any time prior to submitting the Common App to that institution.

You can find this information in the instructions section accessible from your CommonApp account profile. I hope this settles the debate.

[crazed]

b@r!um- What a great find and thanks so much for going to the trouble of searching for this information!!!!