Its strange that college downloaded app without the app fee and student agreement (if I am correct, common app has a feature to ask candidate that they have checked the app and ready to submit). It would be like Amazon going ahead and completing my saved cart 
For DS - he sent his SAT scores to a few colleges thinking he would apply - he later dropped the idea. The colleges keep sending reminder emails - one of the colleges went to the extent to waive the application fee - so there is a positive side of it
S20 has a school cued up on the CA and clearly they know bc they send reminder emails. He has since decided not to apply and we havenāt sent test scores or anything else. They only way they could know is from the CA or Naviance.
Edited to add:
I just checked and one of the subject lines of their emails says, āDonāt forget to click submit on your Common Application!ā
Thatās an actual cut/paste.
Do you think CA notifies or tags them?
@bgbg4us Colleges cannot see an entire app before it is submitted. The CA provides information on this topic:
I have also wondered how much information the colleges can obtain through Naviance. Honestly, it seems as if the amount of digital information the colleges are able to collect on potential applicants surreptitiously is somewhat alarming.
Agree that schools market to students once colleges are added to the common app. My S20 got an e-mail from a school the day after he entered it on the common app. It discussed three areas of interest and what the college had to offer- the same he had listed on his common app.
"If you permit schools to communicate with you prior to submitting an application, they will also have access to:
ā¢ Permanent Home Address, Alternate Phone, Cell Phone, Alternate Phone, Email, and SSN"
Is this referring to permissions granted via testing? Or is there another part of the Common App that asks for permission to give colleges access to contact information prior to submitting an application?
@amsnunshine I seem to remember a question when setting up a Common App account on CB that asked for this permission, but itās been a while. Since itās related to Common App data, Iām sure they donāt ask during PSAT/SAT registration. Thatās a different way they market you, and why the email starts before the kids start their Common App.
I seem to remember some questions about certain schools fudging their numbers, by counting every started common app as a real application, thereby lowering their acceptance rate. Not sure how it turned out, if it was even true, but I remember some discussion
Hi. Any advice on how to get them through essay slump? My DD applied to all of her schools EA or rolling but now is knee-deep in scholarship and honors college essays. She is completely burnt out and I have no idea how to help her. I keep reminding her Thanksgiving break is coming up and she will have more time then but with a Dec 1st deadline for most of them, she is really struggling.
@MBNC1755 Are there any she can drop? My S was in that same spot a week or two ago. He made the decision to drop one schoolās application, and the Honors app for another. It made the remaining apps seem so much more manageable. He was able to power through, and submitted much better work than if heād been stretched thinner.
I think this is great advice! We were in a similar spot and asked our son to prioritize what he had left that is due by 12/1. He also ended up dropping one app along with the scholarship app because it was not a place he could see himself going to. He just doesnāt have enough left in the tank to just do it anyway because it would take hours to write the unique scholarship essays. I bet we will end up doing the same thing for the RD apps - but Iām ok with it. I do have to say that even applying to 8 schools is so much work. Iām so glad he had his common app essay done early but all of the other stuff- short answers, scholarship and honors essays are more time consuming than I realized.
Hang in there everybody!
I agree totally with prioritizing. One app slipped to RD, and one special program that required more essays were dropped. Weāll see how the next couple weeks play out. Iād rather my D20 submit great material for ones that she really loves than spread herself too thin.
Hmm. My dd doesnāt recall answering any question authorizing CA to release her contact info to colleges before submitting her app.
It does seem like that would be a very strange question to ask ā why would anyone want their contact info released to any college prior to submitting an application?
I know some colleges explicitly state that they only use completed apps in their numbers. This is to clarify that they are not counting ones that students donāt send in all required docs (testing scores, transcripts, LOR, etc) since those app are not even looked at seriously .
I donāt see how a school can count apps that someone simply started on Common App, because any non student could start multiple app.
If that is true, I definitely would not want to have anything to do with those schools. To me that is beyond āfudgingā numbers.
I have a question, but I canāt remember if Iāve already asked it! All of this is getting a little scary now, so Iām a bit nervous.
Do you think it is a good or bad thing if a lot of students from your high school go to a particular school? Iām asking because S20 loves Wisconsin, but it seems like all of NYC loves Wisconsin right now. All the big midwestern schools are extremely popular in our neighborhood. On the one hand, Wisconsin is familiar with our school, and naviance looks good. On the other hand, they canāt let the whole school in. Nervous!
Why would a college need a studentās SSN at that stage in the process? For marketing? I just wonder how it would be used pre-application to ācommunicateā with them.
@Darcy123 I totally agree with prioritization to eliminate some of the workload and presumably improve the material. DS removed 5 (but also added 1). Now the remaining apps are spread out between now and early January. Heāll then have auditions later in January that heāll need to focus on.
When creating the CommonApp account, two boxes appear directly under where the student enters contact information. The first says this:
āThe Common Application may share my contact information with colleges that I am considering applying to so they may communicate with me prior to the submission of my application (you can change the response later within your account settings).ā
The student checksāor really unchecks the box. The next box is a question about giving Common App permission to contact the student with questions about the account. This is the very first screen encountered when creating the account so students are probably just ready to get the account started. It sounds pretty innocuous. But it looks like the settings can be changed so if a student wants to change the permission then he or she can.
And yes, I got that far in creating a dummy student account. ? I vaguely remember my daughter saying yes but couldnāt remember when it asked permission. I had to satisfy my curiosity.
My daughter got a nice letter from a school saying they saw it was on her dashboard and it looked forward to reading her application. Sheās since removed it but they continue to market the school. And she got a fee waiver from a school on her dashboard as well.
But I really didnāt think a school could download an application before the student specifically submits and answers those questions about it being their own work, etc. Thatās strange, unless the school doesnāt require the essay and considers that first part the āapplication.ā
@Driverof3 Ha! I started to create a dummy account before I read your post just to find what you have already posted. And, I seriously doubt any school can download the app before itās submitted. They only have access to the information described.
@amsunshine People would want to leave that box for the very reason described by Driverof3. His D got a fee waiver and was āshowing interesteā in the school. Itās actually a good way to show interest early. I had my D load up on schools in her dashboard, several of which she did not end up applying to.
@NYC2018nyc - I think it will work out OK with Wisconsin being popular with your crew - remember, they had that huge set of budget cuts and they will relish being able to attract OOS (no/little FA) students. We had a similar thing with U-Mich being popular here in Massachusetts a while ago.
That said, I have heard that for private colleges (e.g. Harvard hahaha) - they are unlikely to take dozens of kids from the same school. This is a change from the olden days when it was more randomized who saw your app, so in theory, independent groups of admissions people or faculty reviewers could be letting in a whole bunch of kids from one school if they were all excellent. Now I think itās universal to have regional admissions officers doing the work (so everyone from School X gets reviewed by the same group of people).
Itās marketing. Think how difficult it would be to convince a NYC student to go to Wisconsināfor 4 years. The midwest schools are thinking if they admit a chunk of city kids these admits will have each other to rely on, to share stories āback homeā, etc. If naviance shows your child is a solid pick, theyāre a solid pick. Good luck!