<p>Tony, and how did it turn out for the two of you? well, i hope</p>
<p>Well I got in, but she got deferred later rejected, a shock no doubt to all teacher but students expected it from her hostile personality, but oh well I wish her luck nonetheless :D.</p>
<p>congratulations! where did the girl end up?</p>
<p>Oh well she got into Columbia, but turned it down for Stevens on the claim that she had applied to wrong school and would not be guaranteed transfer to the engineering program.</p>
<p>Jimmy@Killarney:
You know you're only allowed to apply to either Oxford or Cambridge but not both (unless you play the organ and want to be an organ scholar!?). For a UK university you have to apply to a specific course. If you're interested in politics/international relations there will be a decent choice at LSE. The closest course match at Oxford is PPE (Philosophy, Politics & Economics) which is a popular and high powered course. There is also Modern History & Economics which may be of interest. I don't know about Cambridge, but statistics suggest that it is probably the most difficult school for an American to get into as an undergraduate. For all UK universities academic record is an essential factor; at Oxbridge the interview is also crucial but you need the academic record to get that far. They will generally be looking for a number of APs in relevant subjects at grade 4 or preferably 5; either you have have them or they will offer a place conditional on achieving them.</p>
<p>Is anyone here handwriting apps? So far I'm not...</p>
<p>I can't believe this thread is on the third page!</p>
<p>Well I handwrote all of my apps last year, what a pain.</p>
<p>what are the advantages to handwriting apps?</p>
<p>I really, after doing them, don't think there was any advantage. I personally did it because for some reason I trust mail much more than the internet [call me traditional], though I guess the only difference is the physical effort you put into writing the apps which shows that you care, but even I'm not buying this reason, so yeah I don't think there's anything really attractive about handwritten apps.</p>
<p>what about typing an app, printing it, and then mailing it?</p>
<p>That works fine, though just hope that it's an editable PDF [which I know that the common app is] or else you're pretty much stuck handwriting it, though I hear that Acrobat reader can make PDF's editable though i'm not sure about this.</p>
<p>The Common App website version has editable fields, and the Princeton website has options of editable or non-editable fields for both its supplement and its application.</p>
<p>there really isn't any difference between typing your stuff on PDF and doing the app online. Both would look the same. I am also quite perplexed about this situation: which method should I use? (for my ED school). I am thinking that it'd be better to at least use the school's own app. for your ED school (online or hand write) and do all the others using online common app. I know for a fact that when one's presented with a choice of the school app. and the common application, admissions officers would, in most cases, prefer to see their own applications being used (since everyone knows that one could easily apply to like 15 schools by filling out just one common app).</p>
<p>1) How do you know that for a fact, Jimmy?</p>
<p>2) It's part of the Common Application agreement that schools cannot hold a bias against people who use the Common App over their own app.</p>
<p>3) Honestly, do you think the adcoms even know which one you use? Everything is computerized these days. The office usually enters your information on a computer and prints out summary sheets for adcoms to look at more efficiently.</p>
<p>4) The fact that you can apply to 15 schools with the same applicaiton is the very fundamental objective of the Common App - not an unanticipated consequence. Schools want you to spend less time worrying about answering the same things over and over again and more time putting more effort into fewer tasks.</p>
<p>I really don't see why you wouldn't apply online. Some colleges have even said that they would prefer online because it's easier to process (although either way will not affect your decision...students get paranoid over the littlest things these days). Applying online is just easier, and I really do not remember hearing any college prefering handwritten apps to online apps.</p>
<p>SO, compared with the other kids your age that you know, would you say that you are more, less, or equally preoccupied with college thinking. What about prep? (People here obviously are really preparing, but I also wonder how much most kids are concerned about it at all...)</p>
<p>Is that clear as mud?</p>
<p>Yeah, I presume admission officers aren't prejudiced against applicants using the commom app. Lots of schools had even abadoned their own app forms ( Dartmouth, just to name one) </p>
<p>Still, how can you write on the PDF files ? For my part, there're lots of financial aid forms to fill and mail ( plus a couple of supp forms of schools who don't let applicants submit them online ). Thus, hand-writing is out of question :D. Thanks in advance :)</p>
<p>Pygmalion, there are programs or Adobe updates that can allow you to write over a PDF. If you look on download.com, you can find some decently priced ones ($10-$40) as opposed to a $100-$200 Adobe update. I really like PDFill, but that's me.</p>
<p>If you download the PDF from the Common App website, you can type in answers, unless if you have a really old version of Adobe (but the newest version is available for free anyway).</p>