Sneak Peek: 2009-10 Common Application

Applying to College Common and Coalition Application
1

<p><a href=“https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/Docs/2009-10CommonApp_highlightedUpdates.pdf[/url]”>https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/Docs/2009-10CommonApp_highlightedUpdates.pdf&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>The final version of the 2009-2010 Common Application is scheduled to be posted on July 1st.</p>

2

<p>Do the college supplements change each year, too? Is there no point trying to write college-specific essays, etc. now?</p>

3

<p>Some do and some don’t.</p>

4

<p>On there, I notice the race/ethnicity section seems different. They separate Hispanic from the other designations. </p>

<p>What do Hispanics select for the second demographics question?</p>

5

<p>^I was wondering that, too hahaha…</p>

6

<p>

</p>

<p>Whatever fits, because by the federal definition people of Hispanic ethnicity can be of any race. And any student can choose not to answer either question at all, as the draft form still makes clear.</p>

7

<p>Are those for sure the essays? I think i’m gonna get started soon</p>

8

<p>This common ap. Is it good for all states?? Or are there any states that do not use this?</p>

9

<p>The Common Application is good for member colleges </p>

<p><a href=“https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/Members.aspx[/url]”>https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/Members.aspx&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>that pledge to use a holistic admission process. It CANNOT be used at most state universities.</p>

10

<p>After glancing over that link to the common app, I have a few questions:

  1. for the Honors section, do AIME qualifier/AMC 12 school winner, and other math/science competition awards count? or is it more of the NMSF, National honor society, straight A stuff?
  2. is it common to attach a resume, and would doing so be more helpful? since, I have more activities than the number of spots available on the Extracurricular section. </p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

11

<ol>
<li>Yeah, they count.</li>
<li>Go ahead and attach a resume.</li>
</ol>

12

<p>I noticed there are two teacher evaluation sections. Do we need TWO from teachers? Does the councelor rec satisfy one of them, or is the councelor rec supposed to go in the secondary school report?</p>

13

<p>TWO teacher recommendations is typical at a Common Application college. The part the counselor writes is called the Secondary School Report.</p>

14

<p>And is it preferred/more helpful that one teacher is a humanities teacher, and the other is math/science? Cause my english/history teachers do not know me really well, while my math/science teachers both know me very well.</p>

15

<p>In the part for citizenship: any idea why the US/dual citizenship now asks for the number of years a student lived in the US? and they have removed the “other” category from the demographics…seems odd, there is nothing to put in if you don’t fit one of the pigeon holes…</p>

16

<p>See </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/651345-race-college-admissions-faq-discussion-3-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/651345-race-college-admissions-faq-discussion-3-a.html&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>for the answer to your second question. There is a new federal regulation (written a while ago, just now taking effect) that mandates how ethnicity questions are to be asked by colleges. Students can entirely decline to answer those questions if they like, as has always been the law.</p>

17

<p>But if your last name is obviously a certain ethnicity (for example, Gonzalez), then there would be no point in marking “decline to answer” right? It is my belief that if it were that obvious, admissions officers would know anyways what one’s ethnicity was…
So, if someone was an over-represented minority with an obvious last name, then it wouldn’t help to mark “decline to answer”, since it is pretty obvious what he/she is based on the last name?</p>

18

<p>College admission offices report large numbers of enrolled students as “race unknown” </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1061808252-post4.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1061808252-post4.html&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>and admission officers should be aware that many young people have ethnicities that don’t match their family names (or, in the alternative, have family names that are ambiguous as to ethnicity). I’ve encountered a lot of Norwegian-Americans whose family names (Wang, Lee, etc.) look Chinese.</p>

19

<p>Then a person’s picture + last name combined should be enough to convince the admissions officer, right? Personally, I’m not going to mark “Race unknown” since my picture and last name combined pretty sure say which ethnicity I am. I’m just going to be honest and mark my ethnicity.</p>

20

<p>Why are you sending them your picture?</p>