USING THE COMMON APP TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

If you are applying to a handful of different colleges then there’s a good chance that one or more of them will ask you to submit your application through the Common App, or Common Application. At its core, the Common App is a standard application form that is accepted by schools that are members of its association. That means, through the app, you can apply to multiple schools without reentering a lot of the same information.

If your prospective colleges use the Common App (over 900 schools do), then you will have the opportunity to count yourself among the more than one million students who apply through the system each year. First and foremost, that can save you a lot of time. However, there are other advantages too, such as a handy dashboard to organize the different schools you’re looking at, the various requirements for each of them, and the progress you’ve made in satisfying those requirements.

Common, but not ubiquitous

Before diving in on the Common App, it’s important to clarify that there are other platforms for college submissions too. Perhaps the most common place for submitting an application is on a school’s own website.

Many schools will accept applications through a combination of channels. Generally, the best option is whichever one you’re most comfortable with. Also – in case you were wondering – the schools themselves do not have a preference of one application method over another.

Get set up

Simply opening a Common App account and browsing around on the platform is a huge step toward figuring out how it will factor into your application process. You will find out which schools you are applying to are on the app, and you might even use the app to discover other schools you should add to your list. There are a number of metrics on the app that will help you track down schools that meet various criteria, so be sure to spend some time exploring the layout and playing with the sorting options.

The new edition of the Common App usually comes out on August 1 of each year, but you can start setting up your account whenever you like (and simply transfer the information over to the new edition when it comes out).

When you start filling out the basic info, you’ll want to have some documents on hand. These include your entrance exam scores, activities resume, parent / legal guardian information, and information on your high school grades and current courses. All of these prompts will be clearly marked and defined once you get on the app.

Pick your schools

As you compile a list of the schools you’re planning to apply to, the Common App will organize all of the necessary items that need to be completed for each college. In case you’re planning to cast a very wide net for potential colleges, it’s worth noting that the maximum number of schools you can pick is 20.