<p>Is there any truth to this rumor at all?</p>
<p>By agreeing to be part of the common app, they agree not to discriminate as well. They differentiate themselves with supplements :)</p>
<p>Agree with -Lurker-. Go ahead and use the Common App if you want.</p>
<p>I don’t think you will have any problem with the Common App per se, but you should be aware of any supplemental sections that any given school might request. Specifically some schools have an “optional” essay. I remember a rep from Johns Hopkins saying that they <em>really</em> liked their essay question, but that you were free to use one of the Common App ones if you wished.</p>
<p>After DS was rejected by JHU based on the common app (his only non-acceptance) we looked at their main app. It was really different enough that he feels it made a difference. Wish we’d thought of looking at it before applying. Another lesson-learned.</p>
<p>Some schools would rather have you fill out their own application because they have a supplement or an essay question that is not on the Common App. You can usually figure it out on the school’s website or you can e-mail someone in the admission office.</p>
<p>don’t some colleges require both the common app and the supplement?</p>
<p>^^ Many, many schools which give the option of their app or the common app will also require supplements. Check each school’s app requirements carefully on their web site. My daughter’s school had two supplements; my son’s school required none. Both allowed common app or school’s own app.</p>
<p>Well, if you have looked at the Common Application web site, you’ll see that it provides links to the supplemental information that the top tier schools (and some others) are looking for, including those additional essays. Granted, since it’s just July, the info is not yet up there for all school for the 2010 applicants but when it’s not, they often hint when it will be.</p>
<p>Our reason for using the school’s app was so that our kids could focus solely on one school at a time and give each application the attention it deserved. I know you can submit different versions of the common app, but doing separate school apps really made the kids think about the individual colleges. The school’s own app can also help you get a feel for what the school values in the applicant, so read it even if your S plans to use the common app. Check both and see which shows your student in a better light.</p>
<p>Indiana-- was that this year for 2009? I think it would be unethical of the univ to descriminate – why be part of the common app process? (just to take app fee$ and boost their #s??) </p>
<p>And why not just put their own prefered essay question as a required supplemental part of common app? Nuances like this are enough to make you crazy! </p>
<p>Also I am going to post another thread addressing the question of sending in additional material. I thought it was taboo-- the admissions offices do not want anything more than exactly what is requested. But recently I’ve read in books that are a couple of years old that kids should send in newspaper articles, resumes, etc… Is this outdated info? I would like to hear from admissions people. BTW - for my S apps- we sent in bare bones…now I am wondering about some of the W/L & rejects!</p>
<p>^^ Good point, my-3-sons. And let’s not even talk about those students who submit the common app to School B after submitting it to School A, but forget to change the name of the school to “B” in their common app essay!</p>
<p>“Yes, Tulane has everything I’m looking for in a school”, submitted to Emory, thank you very much. ;)</p>
<p>Some schools are exclusive users of the Common App. They don’t have any other app, just the Common App and their supplement. I have a special warm place in my heart for those schools…</p>
<p>All of DS’s schools took the Common App. Made life so easy! DD wants to apply to 7 schools, and only 4 take the Common App. Ugh. I wish everyone would just use the Common App and be done with it.</p>
<p>I do not believe there is any need to use the school’s own app if they take the common app - any additional questions they want answered or essay questions they have will be on the supplement. You should do any “optional” essay they list on the supplement. Even though they say it is optional, this is one more opportunity to sell yourself - don’t pass it up. My son applied to and was accepted at Wake Forest using the common app. They e-mailed him a special “priority” app, but since he had already completed the common app, he just went with that and was accepted. He did do a great job on their supplement, which was the most interesting of any supplement we have seen. He was also accepted at William & Mary - again using the common app, but taking the time to do their “optional” essay in a very thoughtful manner. So, basically, common app - yes, but really concentrate also on the supplement, don’t just race through it as if it was not all that important.</p>
<p>Just got back to this thread – For DS with JHU, I’m sure he wasn’t discriminated against for using the Common App instead of their app, he just would have stood out more, I think, if he’d taken advantage of the things offered by their app instead of the common app with JHU’s supplement.</p>
<p>For example, their app encouraged two teacher references. He had two, but the common app had him select just one. Also, their app had a really interesting essay question, and the applicants were encouraged to go beyond the traditional essay in responding. I imagine that his typical 500-word essay, while good, didn’t stand out when compared with, say, an interpretive dance 
I know that he could have sent all this in anyway, but he didn’t even check out their app until after he was rejected. It’s another lesson-learned that I will use with the next kid.</p>
<p>ETA: The common app was fine for the other schools that accepted it. I think that JHU was a special case.</p>
<p>My daughter did not want to do the common app although most of her schools accepted it. She wanted to focus on each school individually and didn’t trust the the computer to send her applications; she preferred to mail each application herself.</p>
<p>I do think there are schools where their paper application might show a bit more about the applicant. I think I would look at the paper application and decide if one might cast a better light than the other.</p>
<p>Now, as my daughter is applying for jobs, she still does not like the companies that want you to email your resume and cover letter; she find it impersonal. Maybe she should work for USPS as she seems to like to keep them in business!</p>
<p>This was a very timely question for me. D is working on the Common App now, which is going to be accepted by three of her schools. I wanted her to do each school’s application separately. </p>
<p>D’s GC has suggested that she include a copy of a magazine article that she wrote (her picture was on the cover of the magazine too) with her apps. I’m not sure how she’d submit this with the Common App, or whether it would even make a difference since she’s applying to large public universities.</p>
<p>Last kid! And the questions never stop…</p>
<p>^^^^^ You can print out the Common App and mail it in. You don’t have to submit it electronically.</p>
<p>I don’t get the point of this discussion. Colleges that agree to join the Common App agree to accept it equally with their own app. I would think that if a college had a lower acceptance rate from Common App kids than from their own app, that would be a warning flag to CommonApp.org .</p>
<p>Lafalum,</p>
<p>I wonder if anyone even tracks acceptance rates of kids using one kind of app. versus another. And even if a college agrees to “accept it equally”…they may prefer their own essay questions. In some of the old time college books, they used to recommend that people not use the common app.</p>
<p>That’s the point of this thread. </p>
<p>RTR</p>
<p>My D has decided not to use the common app because her choice of major isn’t listed there and she wants her schools to be able to really tie her application together.</p>