Any disadvantages to using Common App?

DeskPotato
Sat, 10 Jul 2010 13:24:29 +0000

My daughter’s application list is very short–just five schools, and one doesn’t take the Common Application anyway. Three of the others, as far as I can tell, give you the option to use their own application or the Common App.

I can see there are advantages to filling out some information just once for those schools that take the Common App, but are there disadvantages? For example, an inflexible format that makes it hard to tell your story if it doesn’t fit into a neat box?

I thought, when I glanced at it, that the way they have the section for extracurricular activities set up looked like it might be hard to convey what she’s spent her time on.

I also read that if you use the Common App supplement for a particular school on her list, it has a hard character limit on one of the essays, whereas if you use their own application, that doesn’t happen. They don’t want you to go on forever, but they don’t cut you off after a certain character limit.

With a list this short, might it be better just to use the individual applications?