Online common app - confused

calmom
Sat, 15 Sep 2007 22:18:18 +0000

I think the point is that it is no longer something that can be done easily.

In past years the common app was theoretically very convenient, because all of the demographic data (name, address, activities list, etc.) could be entered once and reused, but the essays could be tweaked over time or even changed entirely to fit the college. It was simply a matter of opening the file and editing it before resubmitting it.

Now (as I understand it)… that convenience is gone. Yes, its possible that a student could created multiple online accounts, one for each application… but what’s the point then? Might as well use paper.

In any case, my daughter and I both found the old common app site to be poorly designed and hard to work with, so she elected to submit paper apps to any colleges that took the common app only. Many offered the option of using a different online site or one of their own, and in those cases the online submission worked fine.

I seriously think that it is important to tweak applications and tailor them somewhat to each college – all colleges are not the same, and those little tweaks can be the way that the app comes to life for a particular college. The tweaking could be something different than the essay – for example, it could be in the order of listing various activities or a short answer response. Maybe a strong but non-recruitable athlete will emphasize her sports when applying to smaller LACs, but choose to focus more on her literary accomplishments when applying to a Division I college unlikely to be as impressed by the athletics.

Maybe I’m wrong. But I watched my daughter prepare 10 different college applications one at a time, starting each from the beginning as if it were new, beginning in November and ending sometime in mid-January… and I also saw 9 acceptances roll in, including big fat “YES” envelopes from all but one of her reach colleges. I don’t know whether the individual attention to each is what did the trick… but at least she doesn’t have any regrets about what was or was not included in any application.