The Common Application can be a college applicant’s best friend, allowing students to use the application to apply to any of over 500 participating colleges and universities in the United States and abroad with the same application. While the application is easy to use, these ten tips will help speed your Common Application on its way to your colleges.
Before you begin your Common Application, check your Internet browser. The Common Application’s tech team recommends using current versions of Chrome or Firefox. Internet Explorer users should use Internet Explorer 10 or higher. If you’re a Safari user, make sure that you have Safari 5.1 or higher installed. Regardless of your browser choice, Javascript and cookies must be enabled and pop-up blockers disabled. Proofreading your application will be easier if you have Adobe Reader 10 or higher.
Keep your password and ID in an easy-to-find place. When you register for your Common Application account, you’ll need to create a password that uses at least one capital letter, a number and a symbol. Since this may mean creating a password that’s different from your customary one, be sure to write down your password and keep it in a place where you can easily find it. After you register and sign in, you’ll be able to find your Common Application ID at the top of the screen. It’s a good idea to record your account ID also and keep it with your password, as you may need it for contacting tech support, for helping a college to track down your application, or for the use of certain high school’s electronic transcript systems.
Take your time and be thoughtful. The Common Application isn’t difficult to use, but that doesn’t mean you should speed through it in 15 minutes. Each section is important, so make sure that the information you provide is correct and thorough.
Read the instructions. In the right hand column of each page of the application, you’ll find instructions and answers to the most common questions about that section. Even if a section seems obvious, it’s smart to read through the instructions before you start to fill it out. Still have questions? Click on the Common Application Help tab to go to the Help Center where you’ll find more detailed answers to common questions. If you still can’t find the answers you need, click on the button that says “My Answer is Not Here” and you’ll be able to contact Tech Support directly. The Help section can be accessed from inside the application while you’re logged in, or from the front page of the application next to the sign-in area.
You may have additional questions and essays to complete for specific colleges. While the Common Application itself is “common” to all of its users, most colleges have extra questions and some have additional essays. You won’t be able to see these supplemental questions and essays until you enter your colleges into your account. Use the Search For Colleges tab to find the colleges you’re applying to and then check the box next to each college’s name. Once you do this, you’ll be able to find each college’s supplement under the My Colleges tab in your account. It’s a good idea to enter all of your colleges early in the process so you can get a sense of how much you’ll need to do to complete your applications.
Extra college-specific essays may be hidden. Many colleges show their extra essays in a section called “writing supplement” under the My Colleges tab. The supplemental essays for some colleges, however, are harder to find. If you don’t see a writing supplement for the college immediately, open the questions section for the college. In some cases, you’ll find extra essays in the “other information” section of the college’s questions.
In other cases, the writing supplement won’t appear until you complete all of the questions. For example, Cornell University’s supplemental essays differ for each of the University’s schools. Once an applicant indicates which Cornell school they’re applying to in the Academic questions for Cornell, the system will automatically show a writing supplement with the question for that school.
The FERPA waiver must be completed before you can invite and assign your recommendation writers. You’ll need to enter into your Common Application account the names and email addresses of the teachers and counselors who’ll be writing your recommendations. Before you can do that, however, you’ll need to enter at least one college into your account and complete the FERPA waiver form in your account. When you enter the first college into your account, you’ll see an item, FERPA and recommenders, appear under the college’s name in My Colleges. Click on that link, and you’ll be taken to a new page where you can sign the FERPA waiver. FERPA is a U.S. Federal law that protects the privacy of student records. You’ll be given the choice of waiving your right to ask colleges for copies of your letters of recommendation or not. Although you have the right to say no to the FERPA waiver, it’s usually best to waive your right, as that assures colleges that recommendation letters are truthful and accurate.
Your Common Application Dashboard helps you stay on top of your application status. Once you’ve entered your colleges into your Common Application account, you’ll see each college listed under your Dashboard tab. Initially, you’ll see yellow icons next to each college’s application and supplement. Once you have successfully completed and submitted your Common Application and the supplement for a college, the icons will turn to green. Once you indicate the term you’re applying for in the colleges’ extra questions sections, you’ll also be able to quickly scan a list of deadlines for all of your colleges.
Proofread carefully. Before you submit your Common Application, you’ll see a print preview of your application. It’s a good idea to actually print this out and proofread the hard copy before you submit your application. Keep the hard copy in a safe place. If you discover a mistake after you submit your application, you won’t be able to correct the application for that school, but you will be able to correct the mistake in your account before you send it to the next school.
Pay, then sign your application. Your application won’t be sent to colleges until you pay your application fee and then sign your application, in that order. Once you pay your application fee, your credit card payment will need to clear the system before you can move to the signature page of the application. In rare cases, it can take up to two days for your payment to clear. If your payment doesn’t immediately go through, you’ll need to return to your account when it does and continue to the signature page before your application can be submitted to that college. Once you’ve signed your application, your Dashboard icons next to the college will both turn to green. You’ll also receive a confirmation email from the Common Application verifying that your application has been successfully submitted. If your Dashboard icons are not green, or you don’t receive the confirmation email, make sure that you have paid, signed your application, and hit the final submit button on the signature page.
