With the expansion of The Common Application to more colleges, the number of colleges which do not require The Common Application essay increases. For example, Arizona State University does not require an essay, even though it accepts The Common Application: First-year admission requirements | Admission | ASU
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Yes, but I don’t understand why this is an issue. The schools that don’t require essays don’t use them, but for ASU as the example you use you would already have the info they do need entered, whereas if you use the ASU app you have to enter the bio info and grades and courses all over again in their app rather than just submitting via the common app.
I guess I don’t understand the purpose of the post - but if one didn’t use Common, they’d be limiting their school list a bit.
Speaking of Common, I wish employers would allow a similar thing - where you can store all your personal and work history in some depository that was good with their employment websites so these kids wouldn’t have to fill in the same info hundreds of times on job apps. Of course, companies wouldn’t like that - they’d get 20 times more apps - but it’d be nice.
Even if just one school on your list requires the Common App, you might as well use it for all the other schools that accept it. I don’t see any reason not to.
As far as I know, no school treats its direct application (if offered) any differently from the Common or Coalition Application.
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Don’t LinkedIn and indeed do this? and I believe employers that use workday do save your info, but I don’t know if it can be easily transferred between employers.
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I suspect OP may be wondering whether using a college’s own app platform confers an advantage as an indication of demonstrated interest. My answer would be no, not that I am aware of.
The ease of school document submission for counselor and teachers is important. Who wants to ask a teacher to submit to 10+ portals when they typically only submit to Common App for a particular student and only occasionally some additional platform.
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The few schools that C26 is interested in that also have their own applications all stress that there is no advantage (from an admissions perspective) to using one over the other.
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If colleges advantaged their app over the other (and the info is the exact same)…but if they provided advantage, they’d have a lot less applicants and likely students.
If you are applying to a few public schools, it may be quicker to apply directly through the school (if they have their own app). Many less selective schools don’t require essays or LOR anyway. For LOR specifically, our school uses School Links–a 3rd party platform–so teachers only upload it once, I believe. I’d recommend starting with a list to see what those schools want. Maybe they won’t need to do the common app.
Your other posts indicate interest in colleges like CWRU, WUStL, Rice, JHU, WLU, SMU, Emory, and Notre Dame.
These colleges appear to accept only shared applications and do not have their own school-specific applications. All of them accept The Common Application, and most of them accept Apply Coalition by Scoir. Those in QuestBridge accept that application from eligible applicants. SMU also accepts ApplyTexas.
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No - they will have just turned 17. We are paying for it so we will guide.
Thank you. I keep hearing examples of quicker response to direct apps. That said - what is St. Andrews?
Good points.
Presumably means University of St. Andrews, Scotland, UK. It accepts the UCAS (a shared application for up to 5 UK universities), The Common Application, or its own direct application. Note that applying there with The Common Application or its own direct application counts as 1 of the 5 UK universities an applicant can apply to.
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Thank you!
Might I ask what you perceive to be the cons to the common app? I’m still not clear on that, so maybe others are unclear as well, and it might be easier to offer advice if we know what the problem is. If there’s no advantage for admission with school-specific apps (and if some schools only accept Common App/Coalition and the like), then what’s the benefit?
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Presumably only applies to rolling apps. Maybe if you gave an indication of the schools you’re applying to it might help people judge the veracity of this?
Sure. I am likening the common app to applying for a job. It seems very impersonal to fill out one form for everyone. I am seeing various examples of direct apps not requiring what the common app is asking you to do and the common app actually asking you to do things that are not required by the school. The response time seems like a major difference - that you can get a quicker response applying direct. Also, we are applying for need-based aid (and merit) and I want to do exactly what the school wants. We are primarily looking at private schools where need-based aid is more generous. If I were applying only to public universities I would not question common app being the best option.
Not the case. Whether using common or direct it would not impact the number of schools. Yes it woukd be a hassle but that’s ok.
I agree we don’t want to burden them.