Can someone explain the Common-App process in detail once app is submitted?

Applying to College Common and Coalition Application
1

<p>My son applied to 3 colleges via the Common App. We are monitoring their status thru the Common App website, and appear to be down to just getting 1 more teacher recommendation in thru the system before all 3 are "complete"......... or so we hope..</p>

<p>Right now, we are able to look at individual school websites as well for 2 of the 3 schools vs looking thru the C-A website. The 3rd school, however, says we cannot do so until they send us out a school user ID, which cannot be done until AFTER they receive a completed application.</p>

<p>That brings me to my main question..... WHO controls the various pieces of the application (Common App, Suppl. Apps, Payment, & "School Forms") once the applications are submitted? Is everything "held" by the Common App service until all pieces are complete & only then released to the individual schools, or does everything go off to each individual school's control from the start?</p>

<p>I can't understand why the 3rd school is saying they don't have a submitted/completed app yet when all that's missing is one teacher recommendation. All other schools have their own tracking websites set up basically as soon as the app itself is submitted, and then update status as forms, scores, etc flow in.</p>

<p>If anyone knows the intricate details of the post-submittal process for the Common-App, I'd sure appreciate hearing exactly how it works, so we know how best to truly track our status.</p>

<p>Also, if anyone knows what the various terms mean in the "School Forms" section ("In-Progress" vs "Complete" vs "Downloaded" for the section itself, and "invited" vs "submitted" vs "downloaded" for each counselor/recommender), and when we know everything is actually "final & complete" in their (or the school's) eyes, I'd appreciate help there, too!</p>

<p>Thanks in advance!</p>

<p>Dave</p>

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<p>My son submitted last year so I don’t know how the changes are for this year. However, think of the common app a a BIG folder that holds documents. </p>

<p>I believe the common app does not actively send documents to the colleges, the college logs in and pull the document info out. </p>

<p>The common app does send the emails to invite teachers and counselor but your son essentially asked them to send. The common app is simply the portal.</p>

<p>The HS uploads recs, mid year reports, transcripts and any additional documents. The assigned Guidance counselor has the ability to send those documents to the common app. and does so on his/her own schedule. </p>

<p>The documents sit in the common app. Then college A asks the common app to send ALL the documents that are marked for their school to them. If you have already paid your fee for that school and hit submit then your son’s will be in the next group to go. </p>

<p>Colleges must enter some school code I would imagine to gain access. Every school uploads or downloads (if you prefer that term) on some schedule. It seemed like every day based on when my son’s went. </p>

<p>THEN those wonderful documents sit at the school in their database waiting for someone from admissions to retrieve them. Again, every school does it on a different time schedule.</p>

<p>So you can see how the delays are not really coming from the common app, it starts when the GC actually sends the info to the common app and when the college uploads it from the common app and then when the school’s own database full of common app documents are uploaded into their admissions system. </p>

<p>I can’t remember which terms went with teachers/counselor or colleges. When it says downloaded or I seem to remember it said uploaded to simply means sent and received. It means that the forms are at the school but still may not have made it to the admission part yet. They are sitting in the school’s computer. </p>

<p>To make matters worse, colleges may only update those admission pages that you are looking at with those ID number once a week! So even if admissions put your son’s forms into his actual admission folder, you may not see it until they update those screens. </p>

<p>Hope this helps :)</p>