Is anyone else frustrated with using the Common App as a homeschooling family? My son is enrolled in a diploma program (a weird thing here in PA). They keep a transcript for him. They tried to upload the transcript to the COmmon App, and got the message that the file is too big.
I have also just generally found the site to not be wildly intuitive. I know the world won’t conform to the needs of homeschoolers. But it’s frustrating to not be able to easily figure out how to assign the different counselor/recommenders.
I’ll be glad when this process is over…
DS did it last year for one school (GT).
It is unwieldy imho.
I had to use smallpdf.com to reduce my file sizes to upload. It took just a couple of mins to convert and upload the compressed file.
This is my second time through the CA and I far prefer it to schools usin self-reporting academic records bc nothing about our homeschool easily translates to a drop down menu.
Thanks for the feedback, everyone! We did figure out to compress the file and it was uploaded. However, the emailing back and forth with the CA people was clunky. In addition to the file size issue, we had several other issues with them being unclear about what is required from whom. Although as @Mom2aphysicsgeek said, it probably is a better solution than what used to happen. The reality is, though, that it could be SO much better.
@AnitaMarch I wasn’t referring to what used to happen, unfortunately. I was referring to what is becoming more common. More schools are switching to Self-Reporting Academic Records which have very limited options for course selection from annoying drop down menus. B/c the courses are classified by “rigor” (AP, DE, honors, college prep, general), I suspect it generates an automated point system for classifying students and filtering applications.
^^yes, not a fan of the self-reporting trend either (SSAR here in Florida at certain universities - not all have adopted it).
Oh. I’ve never heard of SSAR. So this is where the applications limit the student to inputting only “restricted” options as a way of doing a “first pass” across an application? I swear, I am going to start a web site that exposes all the college application nonsense. There has been so much about this process that has been unnecessarily irritating and even obstructionist. Part of it is because we are homeschoolers. But a lot of it has to do with the technology, and dealing with admissions officials. They are typically helpful, but not friendly.
