<p>We know that this year's (for the Fall 2006 freshmen) Common Application is online. BUT DD has checked three of her school websites and while they accept the Common Ap, the sites state clearly that they are NOT accepting applications at this time. It seems that since this is stated, she should wait to submit her applications to these schools...any opinions?</p>
<p>The schools probably are not ready to accept applications . They probably have a staff of students and other people who process incoming applications and put them into files that will not start working till the school year starts.</p>
<p>thumper1, Would she need to wait until school starts for the teacher and gc recs, official hs transcript anyway? I would not think that they will look at it until the file is complete, but I do not know.</p>
<p>Doesn't she need to write her essays? She certainly should wait. Unless a college has rolling admissions, it does not help her chances of getting in by submitting early. She can always tweak the application, revise list of ECs for example, and improve the essays. I also think that the fewer pieces are sent separately the fewer chances of their getting misfiled.
Ask the GC if s/he prefers to send the whole application package or is happy to let students send the application themselves while the GC sends transcripts, teachers' recs, school profile, etc...</p>
<p>Actually she is really all set to send her applications in. Essay is pretty complete (needs some tweaking). She gave letters of recommendation requests (addresses and colleges) to the teachers in June. Her plan is to have it all set for the first week or two of school. She will send the applications (probably online) and the GC will send the rest. We do realize now, however, that she will need to give the teachers and GC the common ap forms for their reports. Marite, yes one school has rolling admissions and that is one that she wants to have done as soon as she can. The other two are EA applications. The GC has already said that if she gets these done in early Sept she will be ahead of the wave of thing he will be doing later. That is her plan. </p>
<p>Another question...is there any advantage to doing the college specific application rather than the common ap?</p>
<p>Thumper:</p>
<p>I cannot address your last query, but I just want to clarify that, while it may not help sending in an application early except for rolling admissions, it certainly help asking GCs and teachers to write recs as early in the school year as possible. Perhaps your D's teachers have already written theirs, but perhaps not.
I would suggest giving teachers and GC a copy of the draft application and of the resume, if she has not done so already. She can still tweak her essays and the way she chooses to present her ECs until the last minute.</p>
<p>In answer to your question about college specific app vs. common app., our gc says it makes no difference in her experience. I still wonder about that.</p>
<p>As part of the Common App Agreement, colleges agree</a> to "guarantee equal treatment in the selection process and express no preference for submission of institutional applications over the Common Application</p>
<p>My advice: get the apps ready early, mail the rolling admissions one as soon as feasible, then put the others in an envelope to check a week or so before they're due to go off---your D may want to change the essay or some of the answers.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>it certainly help asking GCs and teachers to write recs as early in the school year as possible. Perhaps your D's teachers have already written theirs, but perhaps not. >></p> </blockquote>
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<p>This is done. She gave the resume and activity sheets to her recommendation teachers and GC in June. They said they would be complete for her by the start of school. Thanks for all the info. She'll just get it all ready and be prepared to submit it when school begins (and when the colleges say they are accepting applications). She also will be asking her English teacher and the English teacher who is writing her recommendation (two different people) to review her essay.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>Another question...is there any advantage to doing the college specific application rather than the common ap?<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>You may feel that the specific school app is more conducive to letting you explain who you are. That is the only reason to do it instead of the common app. </p>
<p>Common app is only of some help for students (but a lot of help to teachers). Many schools have a school specific common app supplement you are required to fill out. And at least one of the schools that my D applied to had a school specific school report supplement you had to download.</p>
<p>Thumper1,
give your D a thumb's up from me for being so organized :-)</p>
<p>I would recommend including stamped return reply cards with all the separate pieces of the application. The colleges will usually date stamp and return then. My son's included a 'thank-you' on the back to the admissions staff. They should be coded: TRJ =Teacher Rec Jones, for example.</p>
<p>ohiomom, Did you have 1 card for the whole app or 1 card for ie: teacher rec, 1 for transcript, 1 for gc rec, 1 for school profile, 1 for sat scores, etc.? Those would be a lot of cards/ school.</p>
<p>The thank you went on the back of the post card?</p>
<p>This is very helpful information.</p>
<p>Thumper,
Have your daughter look at the actual college applications and the common application supplements for each school. In most cases, you will end up with pretty much the same application if you use the supplement. However, in one case - her first choice school - my daughter noticed that two questions on the college's own application were not included in either the common application or the supplement for that school. Since she feels that both of these questions provide important information about herself , she's decided to go ahead and do that school's regular application. She'll use the common application for the other schools.</p>
<p>My S has decided to use college's own app over common app plus supplement for his top choices. For others he will use common app if available. Problem with common app is that he wants to major or double major in music except at schools with music conservatories in which cases he will take courses, lessons, and audition to play in ensembles. But he can't always check off music as intended major on common app going to schools with conservatories or schools of music.
This seems pretty confusing.</p>
<p>Thanks Carolyn. Yes, we have checked both applications. For DD the differences are minimal. Her only thought is that the college specific application (for her first choice school) might be better than the common application. At this point, however, the school application is not yet available for Sept 2006 admissions...so she will be patient and wait. In the meantime, another college sent her the common ap, and she will pencil in the answers so that she can review the answers and then enter them for online submission when the time comes. We have all the supplements (for this school year...just to see what they had on them) and she will complete those as well. She is printing out the recommendation forms for the teachers who have already written letters. One teacher said she would complete the form and attach her letter in the area for the teachers narrative about the student. DD liked that idea because these letters are addressed specifically to the schools.</p>
<p>Thumper:</p>
<p>Kudoes from me to your D, too, for being so well organized.
If your D is going to use the Common App, she can fill out as much of it as she wishes now, as she goes along, and only send it when she is ready, either online or in printed form. Much of it is basic information, eg. address, names of parents, of school, etc... It's rather tedious and invariably takes more time than one thinks. She just has to save whatever she writes.</p>
<p>My S used the Common App but printed it out and sent it along with his essays (on a separate sheet of paper--he wrote in See Attached in the boxes), and supplemental materials plus application fee. This was his way of cutting down on different pieces of the application being sent separately. His GC sent in a separate packet containing school profile, recs, transcript.
It's great that the teachers are taking the trouble to tailor their recs to specific schools. Most write a generic one. They must like your D a lot!</p>
<p>Marite, I think your son's idea was excellent and I am going to suggest doing it your son's way to my son. Did you also include a postcard that they would send back to confirm that they received all of the pcs.? How did this effect notification for admission? Some kids last year who sent their apps online were notified of their acceptance online, and seemed to get earlier notification.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>It's great that the teachers are taking the trouble to tailor their recs to specific schools. Most write a generic one. They must like your D a lot!>></p> </blockquote>
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<p>Perhaps they like her a lot (hope they can convey that in their letters...). But I think it's because she asked them in JUNE...didn't wait until the last minute. She gave them the names and addresses of all the schools, and address labels and envelopes also. They all told her she could pick them up the first day of school. Of course NOW she will be handing them the common ap portion to do as well. The GC says she will be way ahead of the game as most kids won't really be bringing "stuff" into school to be mailed until October or November.</p>
<p>NEmom:</p>
<p>S did not send notification card; perhaps he should have. It was a bit frustrating because, although he could check online whether various pieces of his application had been received, he could not check on the status of non-traditional pieces, eg. Extension School transcript, supplemental materials. So I called the Extension School to make sure the transcript had been sent. He did include a cover letter listing all the pieces he was sending and the pieces that should be coming from other sources (eg, SAT scores, recs, etc...)</p>