<p>I agree with all that but I was really asking more about procedures … what tests the student has to take, what forms he has to fill out, how it all gets submitted, etc. Thanks.</p>
<p>One rather small but important change is that I noticed many college deadlines had gotten earlier. Colleges that my son applied to in 2001 with Feb. 1 application deadlines had Jan. 15th deadlines in 2006, for example; a Jan. 15th deadline might have turned into a Jan. 1st deadline. This wasn’t for all colleges, of course – but the point is – don’t rely on memory about app deadlines if your second child is considering some of the same colleges as the 1st. </p>
<p>And application fees have gone up, pretty much across the board. If it cost $40 to apply 5 years ago, then it probably costs $55 for the same college now. Though most of the colleges that offered free online apps probably still do</p>
<p>Not only are more kids applying online, but more schools are <em>strongly</em> encouraging it, to the point that some are phasing out hard copy applications. We noticed this change in just the one year between S’s Freshman apps and his transfer apps.</p>
<p>For the 2009 app season, many parents and students anguished over whether it wouldn’t be better to use hard copy, be able to customize fonts, make sure it looked as pretty as possible etc. My impression, in the 2010 season (transfer season for us) is that this issue is ancient history. OTOH, many online apps now allow uploading your word doc for essays, so you can “format away” on that part of it. Also possible, I guess, for “Additional Info” if you want to format a nice resume/EC list which doesn’t present so nicely in the grids offered in the main app.</p>