Common App Problems

College Essays
1

I’ve finished my main Common App personal statement, the specific college supplements, et cetera. However, I’ve been having two problems with the Common App itself and was wondering if anyone here has/had the same problems or knows how to fix them.

First off, the Common App does not acknowledge that I try to put a space in between my paragraphs. As it currently is, it looks like I have a few huge paragraphs that are supposed to be broken down into smaller sized ones.

Second, for one of my supplement essays, I copied and pasted everything into the text box on Common App. However, as soon as I finish with it, the Common App italicizes the whole essay. None of the other supplements for the others schools I’m applying to have randomly italicized everything, so I’m not sure what to do there.

I will call Common App soon to see if anyone over there can help me with it, but I thought it was worth it to see if anyone here might know something about these issues too.

2

I had the spacing problem too, and did not really come up with a solution other than add a space in between paragraphs. Have never had my whole paragraphs italicized, however. The text editing on common app really sucks, good luck and let us know what you find out.

3

click on the Preview button on the top of the page to see what the actual printed page will look like. Sometimes it looks wrong in the box, but correct on the actual document.
Also, it is difficult, if not impossible to “call” the CA. Instead, you can live chat with a representative. I believe that you can click on the help icon (I may be wrong about that). But you can definitely live chat and they are very helpful. Just be as specific as possible.

4

I ended up emailing Common App through the ‘Help’ page - they got back to me within a few hours. They fixed the italicizing problem on their end.

@jozuko Thanks for pointing out the Preview button! I hadn’t noticed it before.

5

Yes, you can preview and even print each section before you get to the submit page. This is a new feature this year. Previously, you could only preview right before you submitted. You can also preview your individual college pages just before you submit by generating the pdf. Don’t be afraid to click on this. You can still go back and make changes if you need to.