I am currently a junior in high school and would like to create a common app account so that I can write some of the required essays for the colleges that I want to apply to in advance. If I create an account as a first year student right now, would the common app assume that I am a senior, or would it know I’m a junior? Would my account roll over when early admissions applications open for the Class of 2020, or would I have to create a new account? Also, would I be able to see which essays stay the same every year and which essays change? Thanks in advance for taking the time to respond.
You can create a common app account and it will carry over to the next cycle (starts about August 1). No need to create a new account. Also, might want to check with your high school to see if they prefer for you to use your high school email or if you can use a personal email. The common app essays will stay the same for next year (just announced yesterday), but I would suggest saving your work offline in a word doc as I am not sure if essay entries carry over. You can add colleges to your “dashboard” in the common app, and look at the supplemental essays for this cycle, but the supplemental essays and questions often change from year to year for the colleges, so I would not start those. There is no way to know whether the college essays will change, and the colleges themselves often don’t determine this until the summer. Sometimes individual colleges will announce their essays ahead of time so you can check the college admissions site/twitter/FB page/blog for more info. Some colleges don’t even release their essay prompts until late August/early September.
Edited to add, I believe that you enter your graduation year when you create your account.
That’s what we did.
Just a word of advice… The Common App updates their website with the new essay prompts some time mid-late summer. Everything you have already entered will carry over EXCEPT your essays/short answers.