What is It?
The Common Application, or Common App, was designed by a group of 15 schools nearly 5 decades ago. It’s purpose? To simplify and streamline the college application process by adhering to a single, common application that is shared by multiple schools. The idea was for students to be able to enter all of the common questions one time and then submit the application to each of the schools they apply to.
Over time, Common App has grown to become the dominant application platform from the handful of smaller options that have sprung up in its wake. Today, Common App is comprised of almost 900 member institutions. Last year alone over one million students submitted at least 1 college application through Common App.
How can you access the Common App? First, visit the Common App website and create an account using your email address. Then, you’ll also be able to create a username and password so you can log in and out, saving your process each time. This is good as the application is larger than you’d want to complete in one sitting!
Once you have an account, you’ll see tabs for your main application, a college search option, and a tab to add colleges to which you plan to apply. Your home page upon log-in will show a dashboard that details your application progress and deadlines.
Common Application Vocabulary Lesson
Common App includes some new terms you may want to know about before diving in. The application website has a multi-page glossary for many of the terms. The short list of terms below are some that have stumped students in the past.
- Supplement: an additional, school-specific application that accompanies the main, common part of the application
- Did you know: Supplements often include a handful of other school-specific questions and often additional essay questions. The supplement section is also where students will submit their completed Common App, to individual colleges, when they are ready.
- The Common App Essay: (aka “The essay,” “Personal Essay”) the second to last section in the main or common portion of the application. The essay is to be in response to one of the prompts provided and to be within the 250-650 word limit.
- School Report: The name for the grouping of supporting documents submitted on the student’s behalf by the secondary school, most often the school counselor. This overall report, sometimes called SSR or secondary school report, includes students’ official transcript, a evaluation form completed by the counselor and a recommendation completed by the counselor.
- FERPA Waiver: FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, states that families have legal right to access and view their educational records. In the colleges’ supplements, students will be asked to waive these rights for parts of their college applications, by answering with a simple “yes” or “no.”
- Common App Exclusive: the term for a school whose only application is the Common App (Many member schools accept the Common App in addition to their own, institutional application. These schools agree to give no favor or benefit to one application type or the other.)
In Part 2 of this post, you’ll learn a few, simple tips for completing your Common App. Stay tuned!
Interested in working together for college search or admissions preparation? Let’s chat.
CommonApp research from https://www.commonapp.org/about and https://www.commonapp.org/plan