@MamaBear2001 congratulations to your son on Questbridge!
For the common app essay, should it be double spaced? Single spaced? Does it matter? Should paragraphs be indented by tapping space bar 6 times or so? Or should new paragraphs just begin after hitting return (and not indent)?
My daughterâs essay comes out double spaced in the preview, even though it doesnât look like it inside the entry box on the Common App. We thought it looked best to indent by spacing in 5 spaces for each paragraph. Ymmv.
@silverpurple The Common App formats the essay once you put it into the box. It automatically adds a space in between paragraphs. It also does not allow tabbing, so you must have block paragraphs. I think theyâve done this so the writer does not need to make style decisions given so many formatting variations.
CA formatting would be the least of my worries. ?
Actually, the Common App formatting (at least for us) seemed to make the essays or short answers look really bad. Maybe we are too nitpicky. However, we did multiple previews and printouts and modified our own formatting to make everything look right before we submitted anything. We thought the Common App way of just double spacing between paragraphs (the only way to make it look right without indentation) looked weird and distracting. Again, ymmv.
I am not so sure if college receives the PDF and using the PDF. I have to think they use some systematic way to download the data set. The essay would be a blob of text as part of the download. The college probably loads everything into their own system. After that, anything can happen. Maybe they will create a complete packet from everything (adding in transcripts, school reports, recommendations etc). Or they will have some work flows, such as having staffers preview all the information and assign some code/scores/summary/notes, and then create a packet with summary information for AO. This makes me think whether one try to format the text or not might not make any difference.
Perhaps youâre right. Who knows? But given the preview option is availableâŠwe decided to make sure it looked right to us.
Our GC (who used to be a admission officer) said that they use/receive the PDF. They do have systems that gather all the submitted data like test scores, number of visits, analysis of interest based on site visits, etc into a profile, but she doesnât think they load in the essay or activities. They read that from the common app PDF.
Not sure if anyone else can confirm.
@ildro thank you! ?
S20 has always been a researcher, looking at colleges for the past 6 years at least! Itâs too bad all his googling âhappiest students" and "best party schoolsâ wonât show up as demonstrated interest!
Title to common app essay? Wondering what others have done.
Mine used a title.
Thanks @silverpurple
The Coalition App essay word limit ârecommendsâ 500-550, any thoughts if you can push it to 600 or so? Daughter would like to use her common app essay (which she already need to trim a bit) but does not want to have to do much editing. Any input is greatly appreciatedâŠthis is our first rodeo.
@ildro Same issue here - two colleges only on coalition. An admissionâs office from one said, âTry to get it as close to 550 as possible.â I think the coalition app allows for greater than 550 but not sure.
@Octagon Iâve heard of kids doing titles before, so certainly wouldnât be odd. Most donât have them. If your K20 can come up with a witty or interesting one I would go for it. If not, I guess I would suggest donât sweat it and leave it off.
@bigmacbeth Thanks so much for the advice. I thought it would be odd if his was one of the few without a title. I will tell him to relax about it.
Mine didnât put a title
How right you were! They even said they were overwhelmed. We were there for a CSE focused visit (as was 80% of the people there) and our tour guide was an Early Childhood Education major and knew nothing about the CSE side. We didnât even get to go through any of those halls on the tour, so that was pretty disappointing. The one dorm they took us through was the brand new one so of course it was pretty swanky. They said all the others âwerenât that nice and rooms werenât that bigâ, but thatâs the only one we got to see. Still we considered it a good visit. Neither DS or I had any idea what the place was like and now we have something to go on anyhow. Iâm still nervous about the enormity of the place, but he seemed comfortable with the campus and it wasnât nearly as crowded with people as I was expecting.
Weâre in a hotel in Ames tonight and going to visit Iowa State tomorrow.