<p>Hey everybody,</p>
<p>My first post here. I am interested in applying to a boarding school for the fall of 2015. At first, I was directed to a website called Gateway which appeared to be a universal form for all schools. Then I learnt about applying through the SSAT.org website. However, the SSAT.org website is not the link that all of the schools directed me to. Do schools care if you use their preferred application portal? I just don't want to annoy teachers more than once for their recommendations. The SSAT website includes all the schools I am applying to.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! :) </p>
<p>I’m curious to hear what others have to say. I’ve been told by our current school’s secondary school placement coordinator that the schools don’t care which app you submit. I’ve been meaning to ask at some of the schools we’re visiting, but haven’t remembered to do that yet. A couple of schools on our list only take their own proprietary app, and that’s very clear on their website, and you won’t find them on either the Gateway or SSAT (aka SAO) sites. Of the others, some of them will take either the Gateway or the SSAT.</p>
<p>The SSAT app is one app for all schools. All the pieces are identical, unless a school has a supplementary form (none on our list do). The advantage to that is that the student only has to write one set of essays that will go to all the schools. The disadvantage is that you can’t tailor your response to a specific school. For example, if you’re interested in a particular signature program at a school, you wouldn’t want to make reference to that program if all the other schools will see it as well.</p>
<p>The Gateway app has a common set of teacher recommendations, but different essays/parts for each school. The advantage of that is that you can customize your response to a specific school. The disadvantage is…a lot more essays to write.</p>
<p>Ok thanks! I didn’t know about the fact that Gateway has unique essays. I will be going the Gateway way then. I just want to bother my teachers less though. Unfortunately one of the schools i am interested in does not have a Gateway, but they are both on SSAT. Are all schools on SSAT also on Gateway? Unfortunately not all schools seem to be on both sites. </p>
<p>No, not all schools take all the common apps. Of the seven schools on our list, 2 have proprietary apps, 5 take the SSAT app, 3 take the Gateway, and 1 takes the TABS app (yet another common app). Obviously, there is overlap. One school on our list takes all 3 common apps. Two others take 2 of the common apps.</p>
<p>Also note that not all schools on the SSAT website take the SSAT app. May be obvious to some, but it took me a while to realize. They have a pretty comprehensive list of schools on their site, but if it has a red x next to “This school accepts the Standard Application Online (SAO)”, then it doesn’t take the SSAT application.</p>
<p>Just want to say, I’m a college professor and do letters of rec all the time. It’s not that hard to post them on more than one site-- it doesn’t mean re-writing the letter. In the old days with snail mail, you had to put different addresses on each one and do all the envelopes, so the number of recommendations mattered more. Now, even if teachers have to post on 2 sites ( Gateway and SSAT), you just cut and paste once. </p>
<p>We asked at all the schools when my daughter was applying. They had no preference and were all Ok with the common app. We used SSAT site plus Gateway for the one school that was not on the SSAT site. It was fine. Some of the schools have addendums to the coomon app and you are easily directed to that when completing the online application. </p>
<p>Thanks everyone! It is just annoying that there is just this one school in my that does not use Gateway. @Daykidmom well great reassurance that I won’t be bothering my teachers too much. I just thought that in the shoes of a teacher it could get really tedious. @cameo43 Do you recommend directly contacting the schools to ask their preference? I just learnt that one school accepts the SSAT common app but it was never stated on their website</p>
<p>For my teachers’ sakes, I wish there were one universal recommendation. #:-S </p>