College Application Tips: #2 – The Common Application Form
On November 1st, the majority of early action and early decision college applications are due. For the next nine weeks I will share college application tips that will make the whole process run smoothly. (Read last week’s tips about logistics.)
If you’re hoping to attend college in the United States, you are most likely going to submit the majority of your applications through the Common Application Form. The intricacies of the common app (as it’s known in the biz) can be confusing. (I will write about the core essay, the supplemental essays, and the activity and honors sections in upcoming posts.)
- Before you start filling out the common app, take a look at all of the required components, and gather the materials and information that you need. (This will save you time and frustration.)
- You will need to answer questions about your family and your background, list your senior year classes, report your grades, and choose which standardized tests (if any) you want the schools to consider.
- It’s important to be accurate. For instance, did you know that colleges need to be notified if you drop or change classes senior year? They make admissions decisions based on the schedule that you share with them, and they can rescind offers if you make material changes. (Especially if you drop a tough class or a core subject.)
- It’s also frowned upon to round up your GPA or to guess about class rank (if your school reports it.) Any discrepancy risks raising a flag with the reviewer, who might assume that you were exaggerating on purpose.
- Furthermore, you need to understand what information is transmitted to the colleges. For instance, any test score that you list in the application form is seen by ALL of your schools, so if you want to go test optional to some colleges, DON’T list your test results here. (You can send scores directly to schools that you are choosing to report to.)
- The typical student will need to ask their guidance counselor a lot of questions, so schedule an appointment early in the school year. (What “level” are your classes, what’s the school’s grading metric, how do you request recommendations, and more.)
- Your school counselor can also tell you and your parent or guardian how to waive your FERPA rights, so that the school can release your transcript and recommendations to the schools.
- As with every aspect of your applications, the earlier you do all of this the better!
- Bonus tip: Unless your high school requires you to use your school email, create your common app account using gmail or another outside email provider. This will let you access your information after you graduate from high school. (You might want to use your activity descriptions and essays for a resume, job or scholarship application, and if you decide to transfer colleges you don’t want to recreate this form!)
Next Friday, more college application tips – how to optimize the activity and honors and awards sections.
