<p>Common app for 2007 will soon be online. Does anyone know of ANY schools that prefer their own app over the common app? That is - any schools give preference to own app? In "Acing the College Application" Michele Hernandez says that using schools own app (if school has one - many only use common app) sends a signal to them that you are serious and can give you an edge. I think her info is a bit outdated. After all, she left the Admissions Dept of Dartmouth over 10 years ago and a lot has changed since then. What do you all think?</p>
<p>Also, every common app. school has a supplemental. They are all in PDF format and therefore you cannot type directly on the downoad. Therefore you download and print it. Then there is a choice of handwriting the supp or finding a typewriter (remember those archaic machines). Are there any other ways to complete supp?</p>
<p>Use the school's app if you think that it would do a better job of presenting you to the admissions committee. Otherwise, anecdotal evidence of past applicants does not bear out the idea that using the school's app "gives you an edge."</p>
<p>Go to the school site to download any supplement. You can get school specific instructions on application procedures, which you should be reading anyway. For example, did you know that Harvard has a School Report Supplement that the GC has to fill out? You wouldn't find out about it unless you went on the website or looked at a paper application packet.</p>
<p>And it may be possible that the school site has a form that you can directly type on and then print.</p>
<p>How to type on a PDF form: this topic comes up every fall and you should be able to find a past thread discussing this topic in great detail.</p>
<p>I can think of three ways:</p>
<p>You could purchase Adobe Acrobat Pro (expensive), but it has a great feature whereby you can type on a PDF document. </p>
<p>Some kids have mentioned that they scan the doc through Adobe Photoshop and then can type on the form using the text function.</p>
<p>A new thing that I discovered recently is a free program called FoxitReader. It is a PDF reading program that also has a "typewriter" function. You can probably google Foxitreader and find out how to download it. I haven't used it for typing on application forms, but it might fit your bill. And it is FREE!</p>
<p>I agree that her info is likely outdated. Because S was at Tulane,and his program was phased out after Katrina, we had to go through the app process two years in a row. I saw a DRAMATIC difference in how schools want the application. Some schools are not even printing hard copy apps any more. Almost all made STRONG statements of preference for online submission. He did everything online this time around except for the one lone Luddite school which only has a hard cc app (for transfers; even this school had online submission and preferred it for freshmen). We had to track down the archaic typewriter from a friend for that one. Grrr.</p>
<p>I will say that for transfers, few schools use the common app (even if they use it for freshmen). However, the most selective school where he was accepted did offer common app or their own app as options. He did the common app online, completed the supplement (I think online, maybe downloaded; I know it didn't involve that #<em>@</em>! typewriter) and was accepted. One point: this school accepted the common app essay even though it was different from the prompt on their own app; for the common app, they offered two optional essays in addition and S did do one of those.</p>
<p>The year of his freshmen apps there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth on this site about whether to do apps online, print them out so you could control fonts, layout etc. etc. I worried about which was better too. I think that is a bygone era. Schools want online submissions - that was the clear message I got for 2006 vs. 2005.</p>
<p>S was accepted 8 of 9 places-online all the way.
Footnote: with the right version of Adobe, you can fill out PDF forms on the computer, so no typewriter needed. It's expensive, but there is a 30-day free trial version; so good timing is important! There is other free software for doing this and calmom gave me online instructions for using on called "cute ....", but I was never successful.</p>
<p>Remember the big picture: Schools want (1) the right class made up of the best students (2) students whose stats will make them look good in the rankings. They're not going to nix a student who fills those needs based on the format of their app (imo). Finally, at many schools, info from the app is transcribed onto different forms by clerical staff anyway. So the original way it came in is immaterial.</p>
<p>Here's one method to fill out paper applications using a computer.</p>
<p>1) Scan the application on any standard scanner.
2) Open Word. Under format, background, watermark, set the scanned sheet as a picture watermark. Set the watermark scale to 100% and uncheck the washout box.
3) On page setup, set all margins, including the header and footer margins on the layout tab, to zero.
4) Type wherever you like.<br>
5) Print. The result will look just like you typed the page on a typewriter. You'll have the added benefit of being able to use italics, different fonts, etc. that typewriters can't manage - plus you don't have to worry about typing errors.</p>
<p>Note: Be sure your printer will print to the edge of the page. Some will not, but most will.</p>
<p>EllenF - I had heard the watermark idea before and tried it unsuccessfully. Your instructions are very detailed, so now I am hopeful :D. I, too, am going to try it and report back.</p>
<p>Thank you all. I was looking at the site <a href="http://www.commonapp.org%5B/url%5D">www.commonapp.org</a> and for those schools that you apply on line with common app. a window will open to complete supplemental on line. Anybody know of this?</p>
<p>Smiles - Yes. Some of the supplements you can complete online. Not all (or at least not all of the transfer app schools we were considering).</p>
<p>EllenF - It worked! I had to fool with font size a bit to get things to line up. I'm hereby nominating you for Instructor of the Year. Too bad I didn't figure this out when helping S with the aforementioned Luddite transfer app.</p>
<p>ellem's first paragraph is key -- use whatever app will allow you to present yourself the best. </p>
<p>Emory accepts the CA + supplemental (why emory?) or their own app. But, they make clear that the essays to their own app "average" 1-2 pages; in contrast, the CA has a 500 word guideline. If you can present yourself well in ~500 words, excellent. If not, use thier app which allows space for more length.</p>
<p>Agree with bluebayou's highlighting of ellemenope's point - Use whatever app will allow you to present yourself the best.</p>
<p>In the case where S used the common app and supplement for a highly selective school, the common app essay prompt and the supplement's choice of one of two optional essays worked better for him than the school's own app - for whatever reason, it was more limiting as to the essay prompt.</p>