Early Action: snail mail the Boston College Common App

Colleges & Universities A-Z Boston College
1

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

<p>I have posted this under Fordham, too - the same set of issues apply there. </p>

<p>Don’t worry, I’m not going to post this under every college - just Fordham and BC!</p>

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

<p>1) Boston College uses the Common Application.</p>

<p>2) Early Action: Students who would like to have their Boston College application reviewed early may submit an application by November 1.
Reference:<br>
<a href=“http://www.bc.edu/admission/undergrad/process/e-applications.html[/url]”>http://www.bc.edu/admission/undergrad/process/e-applications.html</a></p>

<p>3) Once you have electronically submitted your Common App to BC (or any college), 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[/url]”>https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/Instructions.aspx</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 BC in late October, you are stuck with exactly what is on that October edition of the Common App for Princeton, Penn, every January 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 BC. Print out a .pdf of the Common App and BC supplement, 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 an early action school Nov 1 and other schools om January, but surely that is a lot of people.)</p>

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<p>I don't have a solution for you, but my son reached the same conclusion you did and is going to submit a paper application.</p>

3

<p>...I don't get your dilemma? You can print out a blank Common App and use a pen or pencil to fill in the blanks. You can type out the essay and attach that to the application? What's so complicated about that? That's how I applied EA to BC.</p>

4

<p>It's not a dilemma, it's just that it completely defies the supposed convenience of the brilliant CommonApp.</p>

<p>It's actually not new awards or EC additions during fall of senior year that is the biggest caveat. It's the fact that you can't change your essay!</p>

5

<p>Actually, wanting to change the application (including the essay) for various schools is what defeats the convenience of the Common App! It's a "once then done" system. Or so they claim.</p>

<p>(I actually liked that changes could be made last year.)</p>

6

<p>Hi, big bump but does this advice still apply to this year?</p>

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<p>You can make multiple versions of the Common App so that you can add accomplishments/make changes after you have already submitted it to a school.</p>

<p><a href=“https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/Docs/AlternateVersionTechnologyFAQ.pdf[/url]”>https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/Docs/AlternateVersionTechnologyFAQ.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

8

<p>Hey thanks a bunch Eagles, glad to know I can do that.</p>

9

<p>You can make a different version of your common application. It is very easy and that way you can include new honors and test scores from the fall.</p>