<p>How does the common application works? I assume that you need to create an account. Do teachers, who write your evaluation, need access your account to write the evaluation? Thanks.</p>
<p>You do need to create an account to use the Common Application. However, there are Teacher Recommendation forms that you can print out to give to the teacher. </p>
<p>Alternatively, there is also a Word template for the Teacher Recommendation form that you can download and e-mail to the teacher, who can then complete the form on the computer, print it out and mail it in. If your teacher isn't tech-savvy (and lots of them aren't!), this is probably not a good idea. But it makes for a neater presentation since it isn't handwritten, avoids the need for a typewriter and allows for onscreen editing.</p>
<p>Go to <a href="http://www.commonapp.org%5B/url%5D">www.commonapp.org</a> and read the instructions and FAQ. The 2007-2008 application should be up in a week or so.</p>
<p>patsmom,
Does that mean the teachers need to send the form to each college that you are apply? That's a lot works if I apply 10 colleges. Thanks.</p>
<p>Yes, teachers need to send the form to each college to which you apply.</p>
<p>You can facilitate this by providing each teacher with the forms, a copy of your resume, and addressed stamped envelopes. Also, make sure the teacher knows the deadline for each recommendation (at my daughter's school, students are told to put the deadline on the inside of the envelope flap).</p>
<p>Your teachers are probably going to send essentially the same recommendation to most of your schools, so it isn't as much work as it seems.</p>
<p>At the info sessions D and I have attended they all say the applications need to be totally on-line (paperless) or totally hard copy (paper). Does this mean the GC eval and the teacher recs need to be paperless if you select to do the on-line app format?</p>
<p>
[quote]
Does this mean the GC eval and the teacher recs need to be paperless if you select to do the on-line app format?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>As of last year, no.</p>
<p>Re the teacher recommendations, check with your hs guidance office. In our district the teachers do NOT send their recommendations directly to the college. Rather they submit them to the guidance office and each guidance counselor sends copies of the teacher recommendations to the colleges together with the student transcripts and hs profile report.</p>
<p>This is much more efficient in that teachers do not have to write more than one letter for any one student and do not have to be depended on to mail them to multiple colleges.</p>
<p>It also allows the guidance couselors to choose those letters which they feel would benefit the student best. And yes, the letters are not shown to the students by the gc. The best our son got from his gc was that one teachers LofR was going to be included in every application he prepared.</p>
<p>At D high school, a common application counts as one letter(s) of recommendation, there is a limit to how many letters of recommendation they will send. Base on this I don't think the teachers send directly to colleges, I think it goes directly to the counselor.</p>
<p>The common app makes it easy for teacher recommendations. The teacher fills out one recommendation and just makes copies of that recommendation to send to each of your schools. It will be up to you to supply the addressed envelope/stamps of course. </p>
<p>(At our school, teachers/counselors send their recommendations directly to the schools. Some schools collect the whole package and then send the whole package to the schools.)</p>
<p>Once the student starts mesing around with it, it becomes really clear. My suggestion (i just graduated high school, will be attending nyu) is to create the account and get started! It makes a lot more sense then.</p>
<p>Notice how many of these comments are referring to paperwork going through the high school guidance office.</p>
<p>This takes time.</p>
<p>Because it takes time, your high school may set deadlines for college applications that are much earlier than the deadlines set by the colleges themselves. At the high schools my kids attended, the high school's deadline for receiving college application paperwork was one month before the college's deadline at most times of year, but for applications due January 1, it was before Thanksgiving.</p>
<p>Also, teacher recommenders may set their own deadlines. My daughter, who applied Early Decision, went to see the teachers from whom she wanted to get recommendations in early September. They both said yes and said that they would need the forms a month before they were due (this was October 1 for a November 1 ED deadline). One of them, however, insisted on receiving ALL the forms for ALL the colleges that my daughter intended to apply to -- both ED and RD -- at that time. We were blindsided by this, and my daughter had to make up her final RD application list in much more of a hurry than I would have liked.</p>
<p>If you want to take a look at the Common App for 2008 admissions, it is posted here: <a href="http://www.amherst.edu/admission/2008_applications/FirstYearApp2012.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.amherst.edu/admission/2008_applications/FirstYearApp2012.pdf</a></p>
<p>There is now also a Universal College Application (<a href="https://www.universalcollegeapp.com%5B/url%5D">https://www.universalcollegeapp.com</a>)
that can be used for the following colleges: </p>
<p>Clark University
Drew University
Drexel University
Duke University
Guilford College
Harvard College
Johns Hopkins University
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Seattle University
University of Maine Farmington
Villa Julie College
Washington University in St. Louis
WPI (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)</p>
<p>If a student is interested in 5 schools should she submit the first 4 pages along w/ app payments first and complete the essay, school supplement, etc later or wait until everything is complete before submitting the 5 applications?</p>
<p>You can't submit the Common App without the essay or the short answer. The system won't let you. You must complete all common app requirements before submitting it.</p>
<p>Some schools require that the supplement be submitted at the same time as the Common App. These "hand-in-hand" schools are clearly identified on the Common App website, and when you add them to your "My Schools" list, it again tells you if "hand-in-hand" is required. If the school allows you to submit the Common App and supplement at different times, then you can do the App first and the supplement second (or vice versa). My d did that for several of the schools she got into, including the one she'll be attending.</p>
<p>I have a question. My son added 7 activities and then it stopped allowing any more. Does anyone know how to get additional activities boxes or does it only allow for 7?</p>
<p>curlygirl61, I wonder this too!</p>
<p>Put the remainder in the "Additional Info" box. The ones in the list should be the ones that are most important.</p>
<p>The seven lines is frustrating -- and there is so little space to actually explain what the activity is! My son has a lot of ECs he is passionate about. They tell you they look at your ECs as a factor, and then they give you the tiniest space imaginable to write about it. Can volunteer employment go under employment -- e.g. my son worked at a hospital but wasn't paid, was a camp counselor but wasn't paid. That would help free up some space.</p>
<p>Yes, volunteer employment can go under Employment - I don't think it matters one bit.</p>
<p>Many kids have a "resume" type of document that they then "cut & paste" into the additional information box, to describe their activities. Just remember that it will lose all formatting (that's a limitation of the Web).</p>