Flipping the calendar from July to August marks the kickoff to an important season in a high school senior’s life! Aren’t you all so excited about college football training camp?!
Wait, you aren’t thrilled? I might have gotten high school seniors confused with my husband…who loves football passionately. He’s counting down to August 24 with great anticipation. But he’s actually way more pumped about August for another reason: it’s the unofficial start of college application season!
The Common App for 2019-2020 opened today. Other applications are opening soon, if they haven’t already.
Wondering where to start?
We recommend reading the Common App’s Application Guide for First-Time Students. The Common App also just released a video series walking applicants through every section of their portal. This new and helpful tool can answer many of your questions as you make your way through your application.
Then, creating your account is an easy but significant beginning to the coming adventure. Be sure to follow the Common App’s guidelines on using your full legal name and supplying an email address you check frequently. Also double check all of your information before you submit. Typos for your birth date, SSN if required, phone number, address, etc can be unnecessarily complicated to sort out later. These are important details to avoid crossed wires with communication or with pairing your app and test scores/school documents.
As you begin your application, we highly recommend that you use Google docs to type out ANY answers that require careful wording. For essays, you can upload straight to the Common App by clicking on the Google Drive icon in the Essays section. For everything else, you can copy and paste, but be sure to check the formatting of both the font and text. The automatic save feature of Google docs ensures you won’t lose any of your hard work. This is especially important for essays. It can also be useful for additional information, activities, awards, as you make the most of the limited character count. Note that Common App does autosave every 90 seconds and before any document upload. However, you could still lose a skillfully crafted phrase in that time period. Clicking “Continue” also save your work. Some other application portals don’t automatically save, so using Google docs is a beneficial habit.
Other items to note:
- Each application section contains a link to the video tutorials referenced above – a great place to start if you have questions. You are also welcome to email us or post questions in the comments section.
- The Common App Fee Waiver is located at the bottom of the Profile section. If you applying to college is a financial burden and you meet any of the eight indicators of economic need, the fee waiver can substantially reduce the cost of college applications.
- The application portal sends an invitation for a teacher/counselor/other recommendation when you assign the recommender to a college. Don’t do this until you have personally asked for a letter of recommendation.
