<p>Hello,</p>
<p>I am the parent of a high school junior, I am trying to get a general idea of how the Common App works. Apart from general information (such as address, phone number etc.), what part of the Common App is really common to all the colleges that one applies to through it ? What advantages, if any, does a student gain by using it ? </p>
<p>Do letters of recommendation from teachers, for example, have to be submitted online ? Does the LOR from each recommender then get forwarded to each college that the student is applying to through the Common App, or can it be a different one for each college (even if the recommender is the same person) ? Same question for the essay component. Can you tailor it (I am not talking about the college specific supplement here) for each college that you are applying to ?</p>
<p>Any information is appreciated.</p>
<p>The common app has 2 parts</p>
<p>the main application
the supplement (only for SOME schools)</p>
<p>Once you choose colleges, you fill out the main and then you submit them to ALL your colleges. This is the common app, you can fill it out once and send it to as many as you want to! (you can have different versions for school specific information. You can learn more about this later (or on their help FAQ). </p>
<p>Once you get a letter of rec from a teacher, you can submit it to as many colleges you want to on your common app. If its by mail, they have to send it to every school individually (this is why online is preferred). You can have 5 recomenders, and only choose 2-3 for each colleges individually. </p>
<p>in the supplement (school specific additions you have to fill out), there might be extra essays you have to write (the stanford supplement has 3 extra essays, harvard has none!). </p>
<p>Like i said above, you can change your main essay since you can have multiple application versions. No school has the same supplement (usually unless its really basic).</p>
<p>Goodluck</p>