<p>I just checked the application I sent to my early decision college today on the CommonApp's Web site. When I looked at my essay (which I copy-and-pasted from Microsoft Word to their form), I noticed that all the paragraph formatting was lost. It looked just like one humongous block of text.</p>
<p>Is this how my college receives the essay? If so, should I send them a print copy of my essay to make the reading a bit easier on the eyes?</p>
<p>I didn't stump the CC board, did I?</p>
<p>Did you look at the print preview? The formatting is lost when you access your plain old common app, but don't panic unless your print preview is also messed up</p>
<p>No, it happens all the time.</p>
<p>That is why one should "print/preview" before pushing the submit button.</p>
<p>I had the same problem, but adjusting the formatting in the text box didn't help.</p>
<p>yeah......that's why the directions say "make sure you print/preview your app"</p>
<p>plus before you sent it, didn't it ask you if you previewed your app?</p>
<p>anyways, no i don't think you should send the college a copy of your essay with the correct formatting because i doubt it is that big of a deal</p>
<p>Good advice for me as well as anyone else using the online Common App: print preview and look carefully at the formatting in the essays.</p>
<p>I did print preview when I submitted my app because it said it was required, but I didn't look that closely at it. I think I looked at my essays to make sure it looked all right, but I don't remember. I think I would have at least noticed if there were no paragraph breaks.</p>
<p>The same thing happened to me, but I didn't use the Common App. I used the school's regular online application, and whenever I would leave the page of my essays, it would bring up an image of them and it looked like the formatting was perfect. Otherwise there was no option to preview the application (at least that I know of, I could have been mistaken.) After I submitted it and I had the opportunity to look at the finished product as a PDF, I saw that the essays looked like a giant block of text. After consulting my guidance counselor, she said it wasn't a big deal and I shouldn't worry about it.</p>
<p>Honestly, although it may be frustrating to an admissions officer, I doubt they'd disregard your essay because of it.</p>
<p>The common app warns you several times that formatting won't work. when you copy/paste you should take out the indents in the paragraphs, and it will put an empty line between each paragraph. (if it doesn't you can do it yourself).</p>
<p>but they do say to print preview and that what you see is exactly what colleges will see.</p>