The Common Application = A Lot of Work!
A common misperception of high school students and their parents is that the Common Application makes the application process very simple. On the one hand, filling out one application that is sent to numerous schools does make the process a bit less tedious—far fewer times you have to fill in your name, address, etc. However, to us at College Insights, the Common Application actually signifies that a lot more work needs to be done. This is true for four main reasons: 1) the Common Application requires a lot of writing, 2) schools accepting the Common Application will often offer or require interviews, 3) many of these schools also require additional standardized testing, and finally 4) application deadlines for these schools are often earlier.
Lots of Writing
For Common Application schools, we want to be sure that students and parents realize that on the Common Application there are lots of essays that need to be completed. The primary writing section is the “personal statement”. For this section you will have to pick one of the provided questions and write about it. Typically the Common Application comes out on August 1st. So on August 1st after the junior year, you can look at the Common Application and see what essay topics are given for that particular year. You want to take your time and pick your topic carefully. This essay gets sent with every Common Application you submit.
It is very important to note, however, that schools are provided with the opportunity to add supplemental essays on top of the personal statement. Usually, this will consist of another writing sample or two on a question provided by the individual schools. These can be long answers or short answers at the discretion of the school. These are very important to go through as well, because these schools are asking the supplemental questions for a reason—they want to see how well you write and they want to see how you address the questions they have put in front of you—questions that the school believes are important to its admissions process.
The Interview Process
This is not something that will be seen right on the Common Application. However, the schools that use the Common Application often want to have or require an interview. The first thing you want to see is whether the interview is optional or if it is required. In our opinion, even if the interviews are optional, students should take advantage of the process. All of these schools are getting thousands of applications from students, many of which look very similar. Interviews are a way in which you can distinguish yourself from the masses—putting a face and personality to a name. To get the most out of this process you need to prepare through a mock interview process. Just realize that all of this needs to be addressed sooner rather than later, so be on top of the interview requirements for each school you are interested in.
Deadlines
The last point in regards to the Common Application process is that many of the schools using the Common Application have application deadlines that come sooner than some other schools (like a public university). Some schools, including many public universities, may utilize rolling admissions or have a application deadline around March 1st of senior year. On the other hand, many of the Common Application schools have their standard ( or “regular”) admissions deadline as early as January 1st! (And if you decide to apply “early decision”, “early action”, etc. this deadline could be much earlier — as early as October 1st!). This means that everything must be to the school by January 1st—transcripts, essays, the Common Application, test scores, interviews, etc. So you just need to make yourself aware of what the deadlines are and what must be submitted by that date.
Conclusion
The key point to understand is that if you are looking at schools that utilize the Common Application be prepared for lots of work. You want to be diligent in checking with each school to see what their admissions and application requirements are and what the deadlines are for these requirements. Be sure that you inventory all the requirements ensuring that everything is completed by the appropriate deadline. The sooner you start working on this the more effective you will be and the more attractive your admissions package will look.
