<p>My D is slowly working her way through this Common Ap. process She intends to send it hard copy to nine Early Action colleges. My question is; Once everything is put in the computer electronicaly are you able to print out the stuff in hard copy format and send it via snail mail or are you forced to send it electronically? My nightmare is she will press the wrong button and everything will be obliterated. As I say she is saving the work and filling stuff in slowly. Final question: The supplements for each particular college... how and when do you access them? I just read about a girl who accidently (wrong button) sent her essay before it was completed. This is very stressful stuff.. I'm not looking foward to the FAFSA or Profile.</p>
<p>My D has the same general questions, Nightingale. I do think that kids have a choice of either printing out the Common App and sending it snail mail or sending it electronically to a number of schools, either all at once, or individually (one by one.) I did read on another thread, however, that once the application is finished electronically and has been sent electronically, a kid cannot go in and change in. (Someone elsewhere asked, for instance, if he could go in and do different essays for different schools.) I am particularly interested in having a Common App vet talk about the individual schools' supplements. I am told that they are online at the CA site, and that they must be done ONLINE if a kid is sending the CA ONLINE. Help, someone!!</p>
<p>-You can definitely send in different essays for different colleges. You just have to start up a new app. Not a huge deal.
-It's pretty hard to send in an app if you don't want to, ie make a mistake. I think they ask you about 3 times - "Are you sure? Are you really sure?? You can't change this now, so are you really, really sure?"
- Most colleges that my s applied to wanted it sent email. They also wanted it sent one way or the other - either all hard copy or all email. I remember that he sent in supplements and fees way ahead of time - over the summer.
PS - The schools will indicate on your college list on the CA site when the supplement was received, when the $ was received and when the main app was received. Many school also have their own applicant site where you can check as to what's missing and what's not.<br>
PPS We were living and breathing this crap last year---now it's just a vgue memory!</p>
<p>Woody,
there seem to be many other threads where people state that you can no longer just "start a new app."</p>
<p>Nightengale:</p>
<p>I think it would take some hard work to obliterate everything if she is saving as she goes.</p>
<p>Just curious as to why she wants to use snail mail, as some of the data will have to be entered on the other end, and mistakes can be made.</p>
<p>
This apparently has changed as of this year; once submitted to the first college, the app cannot be amended or revised, and you can't create a 2nd account with the same name & other identifying information.</p>
<p>To Nightingale: There is a way to get the common app saved to a PDF -- rather than taking a risk that data will be lost or irretrievable on the common app site, I would suggest that your daughter download the forms and then use a program that allows her to enter information directly onto the PDF. If you have the full version of Acrobat, you can do this -- if not you can download an evaluation (free) copy of CutePDF Professional and enter data from there. The evaluation copy does not allow saves of the changes, but it does allow the "save as" a new file -- which probably makes more sense for a set of slightly individualized college apps anyway. So she could fill out the form on her computer, "save as" "amherst-app.pdf" -- then after that was done, and she wanted to make changes, save her next copy as "bates-app.pdf", then on to "colgate-app.pdf" -- etc. </p>
<p>My daughter did send in a printed version and I tried to get her to use this, but she just opted to fill in everything by hand & attach the essays (printed in Word) separately. She has very neat and presentable handwriting, so that worked for her.</p>
<p>She had a 100% admit rate on the colleges receiving paper apps with handwritten forms, so no regrets. She only did a few -- most apps were submitted online using formats other than the common app, such as the college's own web site or an alternative on line system. For example, Princeton Review offers online apps to hundreds of colleges - <a href="http://www.princetonreview.com/college/apply/acememb.asp%5B/url%5D">http://www.princetonreview.com/college/apply/acememb.asp</a></p>
<p>Another service is CollegeNet:
<a href="http://cnsearch.collegenet.com/cgi-bin/APPLY/index%5B/url%5D">http://cnsearch.collegenet.com/cgi-bin/APPLY/index</a></p>
<p>You really don't have to be tied to the Common App.</p>
<p>I had the impression that after everything was completed electronically you could print it out hard copy in PDF format, attach your essay and supplements and mail it to the particular college. Anyone know how to get to the PDF forms off the CA site? We'd just as soon fill it all in longhand, application, supplements, essay, everything, and send it via registered mail. I can't believe there isn't a phone number you can call for help. Many people seem to be struggling with this.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The supplements for each particular college... how and when do you access them?
[/quote]
Nightingale, your d should be able to find the supplements by clicking on the "Supplements" tab on the left hand side of the screen once she's logged in to commonapp.org. All the supplements for the colleges she's selected under "My Colleges" should be there. If she can't find them, perhaps she hasn't yet saved a list of selected colleges?</p>
<p>Great post #6, calmom - thanks for the helpful info!</p>
<p>Warning bell to all who write the Common App. I mention this to everybody like a repeat record, so excuse me if you've heard it from last year.</p>
<p>As you work, always print out some hard copies. We live where there are regional power failures (weather-related). Last year one happened near an important deadline, lasting a week! S was okay and I do take credit: I always walk around saying, "Did you save? Did you hard-copy that draft?"</p>
<p>If your kid is counting on having those final days to polish an essay, you don't want all the drafts stuck inside your computer in a dark, dark house.</p>
<p>Yeah I'm the OP. I found the PDF forms to apply and I printed them out. D will do it longhand, attach what is needed, (supplements) and send it away.
I just wish we had not wasted the time with the electronic process. I'm not trusting this to a computer. To many frightening things can happen. Call me a dinasuar... thank you all...</p>
<p>Nightingale -- show your daughter what I wrote about the CutePDF program -- it might sound like techno-babble to you, but possibly make more sense to her. The point is that there is a way to fill out the forms on the home computer & print them out if she wants... though as I noted, my daughter seemed to manage o.k. with a pen.</p>
<p>If you want to print out a copy of your electronically-submitted application and send it snail mail, by all means do so, but it's really just a dinasaur-gratification-moment. I'm one of them, so no offense intended, but the online stuff really does work.</p>
<p>I remember our S hitting the "submit" button and expecting the earth to move. It didn't, but he was accepted and has, thus far, lived happily ever after. I'm a little wobbly about how to download teacher recs and mid-year report forms for S #2 but am keeping a brave face on....</p>
<p>All that said, I think there is a place for Luddite U...</p>
<p>So I think I have carefully read all the posts in this thread, but I am still not sure how a student can use the common app, but submit updated information to a RD school vs. an EA school. Is it true that once you submit that first app to that first school ................. nothing can be changed?????</p>
<p>Thanks calmom. I will mention it to her. She gets exasperated with my lack of computer skills. But.... she is busy with the eassys, a varsity sport, 3 honors and 2 AP classes, band, a part time job, not to mention what little time she has for her social life. We have not even applied yet and between the PSAT, the SAT, SATII's. AP Tests, FAFSA, PROFILE, and visits I've about had it. What a grind....</p>
<p>RatedPG,
It says that once the app is submitted to any school, it will be "locked", so you can't make any changes, just submit it to any other schools "as is". It doesn't make any sense IMHO, especially since it used to be that you could edit stuff later until this year... But they make the rules.</p>
<p>So, I would recommend printing out and submitting the EA one on paper, if your EA school accepts paper apps. That way you "reserve your right" to make changes untill the next deadline...</p>
<p>Post # 15, Thanks great advice to all.</p>
<p>The supplements can be worked on after the common app is sent but the common app itself cannot be altered. We asked tech support and that was the answer.</p>
<p>I just read on one of the threads that when you print out the completed common app, it has "applicant's copy" stamp across it. Has anyone tried it? Is that true?</p>
<p>If anyone has read this far, you probably also know that the Common App people have listened to the criticism and will now allow changes to be made even after it's already been sent out to an EA/ED school. Several threads are addressing this, so I won't bore you with the details!</p>