I’m a transfer student hoping to return to university after a multi-year hiatus. Three weeks ago I decided I would apply to a few colleges for the upcoming semester. Slim chance at that point in time, but that’s what I wanted to do. CommonApp shut down their website for renovations on July 24. I fired off a few applications just a day prior. The website would not allow me to send an application to one particular school (a favorite) because of an undeclared deadline. I called admissions and they recommended I wait until August 1st and apply for the spring semester. Today I logged into CollegeApp to submit that application. Although the list of “My Colleges” remains in tact, all the respective applications which were previously completed, are now wiped of their data. This includes my personal statements and academic recommenders. For someone who has not attended college in two plus years, and never developed any semblance of a close relationship with a professor, finding someone willing to write a recommendation was no gratifying task. Before the site update, the recommender information was stored and could be used for any new application. That is now seemingly gone. I am almost certain my recommender does not keep copies of such trivial things, and is not willing to conjure the same words twice.