Common App confusion

<p>Hi, I'm an international student so I'm not very familiar with the common app process and neither are my teachers. So I've got quite a few questions and any help would be greatly appreciated! :)</p>

<p>Initially, I was planning on applying for fall 2013, so I asked my teacher to fill in the 2012-13 Teacher Evaluation form. However, now I've decided to apply for fall 2014 instead....</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Can I still use the 2012-13 Teacher Evaluation form, even though it is only valid for spring and fall 2014? I can't ask my teacher to re-fill the form since I've changed schools and my teacher is no longer in the profession. </p></li>
<li><p>I know that CA4 is coming out in August, but I think it's too much of a rush so I'm asking my teachers to do the teacher recommendation earlier. What do I ask them to fill up for now?</p></li>
<li><p>I've only recently found out that the teacher evaluation is confidential (some "privacy release" ?? can anybody explain this?) but because my teacher gave me the form personally and asked me to check through to see if the form was filled properly (some sections are filled electronically, some manually handwritten - is that ok?), it's not exactly confidential anymore.... Can I still send the teacher evaluation form by mail? And do I ask my school to mail it?</p></li>
<li><p>Do I ask my individual schools (old and current since I changed schools) to mail my transcripts or do I just ask one school to mail all my transcripts?</p></li>
<li><p>How do I go about filling up the common app for future teacher recommendations? I predict that most if not all my teachers will be as confused as me as to how to fill the form electronically.</p></li>
<li><p>Are there any guides to filling up the rest of the common app and is there anything else I should take note of?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Sorry for the long post and thanks for the help in advance! :)</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Email a couple of the schools you are applying to and ask. I think the teacher form stays the same but it will be confusing if the date on top is wrong. Usually, teachers mail their forms themselves. It sounds like you are going to mail them so perhaps you can just cross out the old date and put in the term you want.</p></li>
<li><p>The CA form that comes out in Aug is for 2013-2014, not 2014-2015 which is the period you are applying for. If the schools say it is okay to use the earlier year form, then print them out and have the teachers do them all in print for you to mail. Then wait to mail them until next year. </p></li>
<li><p>The confidentiality is something you either waive or don’t waive. The reason a student usually waves it is so the teacher will write an unbiased recommendation. The schools don’t care if they are waived or not. For your purpose, talk to your school now about whether they would be willing to mail them next year like Sept 2014 maybe along with your transcript. If they will then hold onto them until then. If they say no, then you could do the mailing. It doesn’t matter if some is hand printed and some hand written.</p></li>
<li><p>Each school needs to be asked to mail their transcript. Schools will not want to be responsible for the other schools’s paperwork.</p></li>
<li><p>For next Aug 2014, when the new common ap comes out you have 2 choices. Either you go in and request via email to have the teacher fill out the rec or print the forms and have them done manually. You can go in now and play around with the common app because regardless of what you do, it will all be wiped clean in August. The common app prompts you how to ask a teacher to fill in a rec online and then an email is sent to the teacher giving them the link to your common ap to fill out.</p></li>
<li><p>The common ap has a tutorial you can watch at the site. Watch the tutorial. Then go in an make up an log in and go in and hunt around to see how it works. Come August the account is wiped out for the new one so all the info you put in there will be gone. In Aug 2014, you can open your real account and send real emails to you teachers and fill in the real info. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>Hope this helps. Good luck!</p>

<p>Thanks Lakemom for clearing up all that confusion! Now I have a clearer picture of how to go about doing the common app. :)</p>

<p>Now I just have to email the schools and hope it will still be okay to send the forms because I just found out the new common app has to be done entirely online now. :(</p>

<p>There’s just one more question since I’m not very sure about this!
The 2012-13 form is for spring 2013 and fall 2013 (sorry I had a typo in my earlier post ><), so if I’m applying for fall 2014, I should be sending in my application this year and filling up the 2013-2014 form right?</p>

<p>Thanks for the help! :)</p>

<p>This Aug. '13 the common app form comes out for students who want to attend college in the Fall '14-Spring '15.</p>

<p>So yes, you will fill out the new one that comes out this August. I think I was confused too about the dates when I wrote out things before :)</p>