Common Application Forms --- 3 Questions

Applying to College Common and Coalition Application
1

<p>Q1)May I start filling in essential forms, reccomendations, and counselor reccomendations now? (Soon to be Senior,I want to apply for the 2011 year, apparently the supplements arent available until August 1st) I'm afraid that they might change all the forms (aforementioned) August 1st when the new supplements are released, or are they going to be the same?</p>

<p>I don't know any of my teachers for more than a year since my school history is as follows:
Grades 2-8 : Private elementary school in Hamilton (Ontario considers Gr8 as elementary)
Grade 9: Junior High school in Alberta (Junior high in Alberta is 7-9)
Grade 10: Moved to Senior Highschool in Alberta (Senior High is 10-12)
Grade 11-: At my current school (top private school in Saudi Arabia).. hopefully being the first time I stay longer than one year! leading to Q2:</p>

<p>Q2)Since there is only so much they can write about, would it effect my reccomendation strengths? I only know 1 or 2 teachers that would write an amazing letter of reccomendation even though I just finished my first year there, according to what I've heard at parent-teacher meetings, my chem teacher considers me one of the brightest and best students he has come across in his 30+ year career.</p>

<p>Q3)I have regular style letters of reccomendation that I racked up through the years, only 3 are worth noting (1 from my grade 9 English teacher, 1 from my grade 10 social studies teacher, and 1 from a Financial Management course instructor) and were pretty good. By regular style, I mean I was given 1 open copy to read and 3 sealed and stamped copies. How can colleges see this if they're only using the Common App???</p>

<p>THANKS!!</p>

2

<ol>
<li>I say you should ask the teachers if they would write a Rec for you. Then by August 1st just see if it is any different, which I do not see why the Common App would change</li>
<li>You only need 2 teacher and 1 counselor Rec. So ask those 2 teachers that would write an amazing Rec and have your counselor write one, too. Maybe once the school year starts again, keep bugging your counselor to show him that you care about your future (that is what I am doing, haha!).</li>
<li>Maybe, what I would do, is send those Recs via mail to the school of your choice and then use your other 3 Recs on the Common Application. If you want to send those Recs to all the schools then maybe fax them? I know what I am going to do is send my Recs via mail. Have my counselor mail them to the school. But that is because I am not using the Common App for GWU because I am applying ED and I have to write an essay about why I want to go to GW. I want to make sure that essay does not get sent to any other college because the Common App sends your essays to all the schools or something (don’t want to take my chances). Anyway, good luck. :)</li>
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