I can’t help but view the common app as less than ideal. Before breaking it to twins that they’ll be directly applying to all their schools, can you please share ANY benefit of using the common app, OTHER THAN doing less paperwork?
Seems a huge thing. Imagine having to enter in identical info 5, 10, 20 times and having to ask teachers to send 5, 10, 20 LORs x each kid asking them. And in many cases less essays.
If there’s a con, I suppose is school’s get more apps due to ease so you have more competition. And some kids apply even if not interested so it’s sort of wasting apps. That’s a pro to the school btw.
I’d embrace it - it’s not a small savings - for many it’s the difference between losing it emotionally vs keeping your composure.
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If this is the pro, I’m not sure what the con is? Less paperwork ftw, always.
Other than the fact that the common app has inflated application rates (but your twins won’t do anything to stem that tide by not using it), I honestly don’t know what the cons are, and colleges expect that applicants will use it, with no advantage to be gained from applying directly.
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Agree that less paperwork is the primary advantage of any shared application arrangement, including The Common Application, if the student’s application list contains multiple colleges using the shared application.
If a college accepts The Common Application but also has its own application, the latter may be better tailored to what the college uses. For example, some colleges do not use The Common Application essays, so an applicant applying to those colleges may write unnecessary essays if they are not careful to note whether they are actually used at each college they are applying to.
Some colleges that accept The Common Application may also accept other shared applications, which may or may not match the student’s application list better. For example, many colleges in Texas accept The Common Application and the Apply Texas application.
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Don’t they get to choose how they do it?
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In some ways Common App can have monopolistic traits. I know some that only selected schools to apply based on common app inclusion.
Note that some colleges only accept some sort of shared application; they do not have their own application specific to their college.
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That’s what I am reading. Direct app is simpler and quicker answer.
No.
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Yes and no. Some, like UMN and School of Mines send ‘preferred kids’ no essay apps. Or some will have no LORs.
Common app is sort of a catch all. Not all common app schools use all the info you submit.
if you’re applying to 3 schools, maybe you can do your own. If you are doing ten, your kid will burn out - even with common. Some simply don’t apply due to difficulty - I suspectt why Gtown has gone to common. UT Austin too. If they have questions not included in common app, each school has its own question section in common so they’re asking the questions they would on their app.
The cons are irrelevant. It’s the pros that matter.
My daughter applied 21 so she did IU on its own app to save a space.
The LORs alone make it worth it. Imagine asking a teacher to send to 7 or 12 places.
I’d say embrace the ease but to each their own.
Good luck.
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UMN switched this year to using just the common app. They no longer have their own Golden Gopher app.
It’s also possible that other schools may switch to exclusive use of the common app by the time the OP’s children are applying to college. Just to pick another school on my D26’s list, UW Seattle also recently switched to using only the common app. Back when my S23 applied, they had their own app as well.
So, it might make more sense for the OP to revisit this question when the twins are closer to applying.
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The common app tells you what each college requires (or doesn’t) in terms of supplemetals. I don’t see how a student would end up writing an unnecessary essay using it? If more than one requires the main common app essay that’s a time saver from copying and pasting. If more than one requires you to self report scores on the application,that is a massive time saver from doing this over and over again -it’s a tedious process that takes at best 20 minutes,I have heard some people take close to an hour to do it. Times 10 apps? Why waste the time?
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Based on my daughter’s experience, the common app tailors to each college’s requirements, including all supplements (extra essays plus arts portfolios, the opportunity to upload extra letters, etc.). The one school she applied to that didn’t take the common app was McGill (she didn’t apply to UCs or some other coalitions that share a different app). For all other schools she applied to, the common app was a little different for each one. But she never ran into a situation where she couldn’t use her common app essay. Supplemental essays on many, yes, but those were in addition, not instead. Even if a school had not taken the common app essay, the essay she wrote would not have been “unnecessary” because she used it on so many other apps.
I would be curious as to which colleges accept the common app but not the common app essays.
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As one example on my D’s list, UW Seattle uses the common app, but doesn’t use the common app personal statement. It has its own essay. From its writing section:
The writing section is a required and important part of your application. The UW requires that you submit your essay below. The Common App personal essay will not be reviewed as part of your application to the UW.
However there’s no choice in this case about whether to use the common app, since UW no longer has its own app.
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OK, there are some, I guess. Strange, in my view, to do it that way and not use supplemental essays in addition to rather than instead of the common app essay. But I suspect that approach is rare.
I’m guessing it is because they moved to the common app recently, and they want to keep most of their process the same. The essay prompt isn’t exactly the same as the common app’s.
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Many schools don’t have their own separate application. So you need to use either the CA or Coalition App.
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It is mostly just for the convenience.
One (minor) counterexample: my S24 applied to St Andrews, and as a US applicant you had the option of applying directly, using the UK’s version of Common App (UCAS), or using the Common App.
We talked to their regional recruiter when he came to our college fair, and he suggested my S24 use the Common App, and on the early side. According to him, that was convenient for St Andrews because it immediately indicated a US applicant, and they flagged those for a sort of expedited review.
And it worked in the sense my S24 got a relatively quick offer. No way of knowing if it was really faster, though.
But again, that is extremely specific to this situation. In general, I think it is just a mutually convenient application mechanism for colleges and applicants.
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I want to reinforce that it is much more straight forward to use the common app for your child’s school to upload transcripts, LORs, and also for test scores. Your child will need to be on top of those things for each individual application if they don’t use the common app. Hounding teachers and counselors is not a great when you are counting them to say nice things about you ; )
And frankly, it’s your kids doing the applying, not you, and they should be the ones deciding which application format makes sense for them.
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Many schools require that you apply through the Common App (or Coalition). Both of my kids’ (I have twins also) schools require that they do the Common App. All the school info, including teacher and counselor recommendations, is uploaded into the Common App. I would look into that, they may have to do it anyway.