Early Action: Fordham Common App should be mailed, not electronic

Colleges & Universities A-Z Fordham University
1

<p>If you are applying Early Action and plan to apply to more colleges later, your Fordham Common App should be mailed in rather than electronically submitted. True? </p>

<p>Here is the logic.</p>

<p>1) Fordham uses the Common Application.</p>

<p>2) Early Action: Students who would like to have their Fordham application reviewed early may submit an application by November 1.
Reference: <a href="http://www.fordham.edu/admissions/entry_requirements/rose_hill__lincoln_c/application_deadline_3603.asp%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.fordham.edu/admissions/entry_requirements/rose_hill__lincoln_c/application_deadline_3603.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>3) Once you have submitted your Common App to Fordham, your application will be locked and you will not be able to make any changes to it.
Reference - Paragraph 8 in:
<a href="https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/Instructions.aspx%5B/url%5D"&gt;https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/Instructions.aspx&lt;/a>
I read on another post that this is something new this year.</p>

<p>4) Other colleges to which you may be applying via the Common App do not all have Early Action options. For example, if you are applying to Princeton or Penn and you don't want to limit yourself by applying early decision, the deadline for the Common App is January 1.</p>

<p>5) People are productive during the fall of Senior Year. You might have something published, finish your Eagle Scout project, win an award, become president or chair of a club or committee, or raise your GPA between Nov 1 and Jan 1.</p>

<p>So, there's the problem. If you electronically submit the Common App to Fordham in late October, you are stuck with exactly what is on that October edition of the Common App for Princeton, Penn, every college you apply to, no matter what wonderful things you do between November 1 and January 1.</p>

<p>The only solution I see is to mail in a paper copy of the Common App for Fordham. Print out a .pdf of the Common App, and then find a typewriter or print as neatly as possible, and send it in though the mail. That way, when you submit the Common App online to colleges with Jan 1 or Jan 15 deadlines, you are able to include everything that you have accomplished through the end of the year. </p>

<p>Does anyone see any other solution? (I know that this is only a problem for people who are using the Common App for Fordham and other schools, but surely that is a lot of people.)</p>

2

<p>your grades are mailed by your GC, so there is no danger of that being locked by the common app.</p>

3

<p>That is not how the common app works. I know that the statement, "Once you have submitted your Common App to any institution, your application will be locked and you will not be able to make any changes to it." should be more clear. However, you can send your application to each college separately, making changes to each app as necessary when you are ready to submit it. That statement is referring to the application after you press the "submit" button. Once it is submitted to a college, it can't be changed for that particular school. But, if you haven't submitted it to another school, the info, essay, etc. can be edited before you send it to the next school/schools you add to your list.</p>

<p>Also, just an FYI, electronic applications are online at the school the next morning, so it is quicker & more efficient to submit online. If you mail the app in, it will have to be manually entered into the system & will have to wait its turn as there will be hundreds ahead of you that need to be manually entered (plus all the electronic applications will be in que before the mailed applications - each application get a folder, filed, matched with transcripts, etc. & sent to the admissions counselor which all takes time).</p>

4

<p>As a follow-up, I just read the following about the common app on the parent's forum. Anyone concerned about amending the Common app may want to post on the parent's forum for updated information or on the admissions forum to find out about any new procedures for the common app for this year.</p>

<p>"This apparently has changed as of this year; once submitted to the first college, the app cannot be amended or revised, and you can't create a 2nd account with the same name & other identifying information."</p>

5

<p>Can you just mail in the Fordham Application that was sent in the mail if you want to apply early? It doesn't say you have to use the Common Application on the link about applying.</p>

6

<p>You can definitely mail in any of the applications, although they are trying to move away from the paper applications. Note though the electronic applications are in que before any paper applications and the paper applications will have to be hand entered. My d got a Fordham Your Choice application today & if you submit electronically, the application fee is waived. Another incentive to submit electronically.</p>

7

<p>^ received that today too. however, the essay is different from the one I would write for the commonapp...</p>

8

<p>Common Application WILL unlock your application ONE Time if you used it for Early Action or Early Decision, by making an email request to Common App technical support. Then a person could make changes for subsequent regular admission applications.
Common App is being inundated by questions about this issue.</p>

9

<p>I don't think it is guaranteed that the Common App people will unlock an application. The Common App web site instructions still say "Once you have submitted your Common App to any institution, your application will be locked and you will not be able to make any changes to it." I think this year's applicants (my daughter included) probably shouldn't risk having their Common App locked so early in the year (at Fordham Early Action Application time) if they will be applying to other Common App schools in January.</p>

<p>Here's the only thing about this that my daughter or I could find on the Common App web page
<a href="https://app.commonapp.org/CommonApp/Instructions.aspx%5B/url%5D"&gt;https://app.commonapp.org/CommonApp/Instructions.aspx&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Here's what it says -</p>

<p>HOW DO I SUBMIT MY COMMON APPLICATION?</p>

<p>Once you have answered all required questions, you may submit your application. Click the 'Submit' button to submit your application - - this button can be found on the 'Sign & Submit' section and the 'My Colleges' section.</p>

<p>You must submit the Common App to each of your selected institutions. This can be done all at one time, or one at a time. After you have submitted your Common App, you may add additional institutions and submit your application to them, as well. Once you have submitted your Common App to any institution, your application will be locked and you will not be able to make any changes to it.</p>

10

<p>This is the only post on this I can find in the Parent's Forum, and it says tech support says the application would be locked as soon as you submit it once?
09-17-2007, 11:02 PM #17<br>
mimk6 Junior Member</p>

<p>Join Date: Aug 2004
Threads: 5
Posts: 119 My son contacted tech support and was told the application is locked after one submission -- this was the decision of the common app members/board/whatever. I think they will get a lot of complaints this year and, hopefully, revisit it next year. My daughter did not use the common app and got into great schools, but I think the supplements still allow a lot of individuality to come out in the process for the kid who wants to really tailor each application. There are tons of questions and essays to write in the supplements each school supplies so I'm not sure the locking is a reason to not use it online. He simply need to use an essay he feels strongly about for the common app and should something happen between EA and RD that is noteworthy, he can contact the schools individually about it.</p>

11

<p>Common App technical support emailed this section of a Common App discussion board to my daughter late last night, so now we understand and have a clear answer to this question. Asterisks added by me. THANKS for everyone's input on this!</p>

<p>=======
Discussion Thread
Response (John M.) 10/10/2007 02:10 PM EDT
Thank you for your message. </p>

<p>It is not possible to "customize" the Common Application this year, and this is a change from past years. The Common Application is run by a Board made up of Deans of Admission and High School Counselors. This year, the Board decided that such customization would not be allowed, though with one important exception. <strong><em>If a student submits an early application (ED, EA, REA) *</em></strong><strong>and is denied,</strong>* and then requests to make one "copy" of their application because they've had more accomplishments they want to add to a Regular Decision application, they can do this if they email technical support and request it.</p>

<p>A student cannot get around this rule by creating a new username and password, as the Common App Online system is set up to prevent this.</p>

<p>The "copying" feature was added a few years ago in an attempt to help Early Decision and Early Action students who were denied admission, but quite unintentionally led some applicants to copy and customize applications for every college to which they applied. This was not the original intent of this feature, and in fact undermined the mission of the <em>Common</em> Application. The Board feels that Supplements remain the best way to provide college-specific information to individual colleges, and we encourage students to submit special essays or special information there. The ED/EA/REA vs RD scenario mentioned above is the only exception to this rule. If this is your case, you will need to request the copy specifically by stating your case to tech support.</p>

<p>To avoid the essay "overlap" issue, it might be a good idea to wait to submit your Common App to colleges until you decide what schools to apply to and review their supplement forms.</p>

<p>Please note that the Common App Online warns a student three times with three checkboxes before submission that The Common App cannot be changed after submission to one college.</p>

<p>Again, thank you for contacting Technical Support. Please contact us again if you need additional assistance with this incident.</p>

<p>Regards,
John M.
AY Technical Support</p>

12

<p>I know this is an old thread, but I thought I would update it. As of October 19th, you can now submit different versions of your common application to different colleges. Log into the common app, click on instructions, and then application versions for instructions.</p>

13

<p>Here is the link to the FAQ on how to make different versions of the Common App. Adobe PDF reader required.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/Docs/AlternateVersionTechnologyFAQ.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/Docs/AlternateVersionTechnologyFAQ.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>