<p>Although this information is relevant to all students; I wanted to make sure that those on the Hispanic forum are aware of some common app issues I have run into. I have done a lot of research because my DD's deadlines are within the next 10 days. This post is not intended to panic anyone but rather to make sure applicants this year are aware of some of the glitches which could impact submission of their common application. </p>
<ol>
<li> Be sure to submit your common app at least 5 days before any college's deadline or you run the risk of missing a college's deadline. In the previous version of the CA you could submit your common app- payment and college supplement including writing at the same time and get instantaneous confirmation of everything. Now you must complete the common app and at last one college supplement. At this stage you go through the "submission" steps with first generating a pdf of the application (be sure to save it and print off a copy) after you review it you then go to the payment step. After you pay you will receive confirmation of payment and then you are suppose to be able to given an electronic signature and click four boxes confirming your submission. Instead many students including myself are finding after paying (which generates a receipt that you have indeed paid) you are instructed to click "finish" and instead of getting the signature page you get bounced back to the payment page. As long as you have the confirmed receipt of payment DO NOT PAY AGAIN. Instead the common app sends an email to the student saying " Please allow up to two days for this transaction to be posted to your Common App Online account and for your payment status to be updated."</li>
</ol>
<p>You can't submit and complete the signature page or submit the college's supplement until your payment is posted to your common app online account (which will trigger the green check mark) so if you get kicked back to the payment page you need to constantly monitor your CA account to see when that is finally done. If you have hit the 48 hour point with no payment posted to your account then I recommend sending a "ticket" to the help center with your problem explained. Many students are reporting that the help center was able to get the payment posted faster so they can complete the other stages of submission. </p>
<p>As the most recent update issued by CA indicates the payment problem is the result of CA using a third-party for payment and having their system not up to speed with a faster turnaround. If students wait until the last minute before a deadline to submit they may not get confirmation back in time to submit the college's writing supplement. I have read a lot on this subject and this is a problem that is happening for at least half the students. </p>
<p>2 Be sure to clear your browser's cache before you begin the submission process. Some problems seem to be corrected when that is done before submission. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>If you run into any problems be sure to send the admission counselor for your area from the college an email about it right away. I have heard from admission reps that they are going to be a bit more sympathetic about deadlines but writing to them before the deadline even if just a minute will help in that regard. </p></li>
<li><p>Be sure to finish all parts of the submission process. Many students believe that once they pay they have submitted- this is not true!! You must complete the electronic signature page and submit it. Do not forget to do that step since students are missing that step. </p></li>
<li><p>Write your essay or additional info section in a word processing program like Word or Note and then simply cut and paste it into the boxes. Try not to make any changes to it after you cut and paste it. I found that any changes to formatting that I tried to do made the essay worse so I cut the first version out of the application and went back to my original saved in Word and made changes there and then recut it and pasted it. CA reports they are having problems with font and formatting issues and they do not believe they will have it fixed by the first deadlines that are approaching. </p></li>
<li><p>CA is still making software changes- for example after the NACAC conference two weeks ago CA at the request of everyone changed the button from "submission" to "preview". They are making other changes. </p></li>
<li><p>Make sure you have completed all of the writing supplements. It may appear that a college has not essay but the essay will not appear unless a student has answered a question in a certain way such as Ohio State's which only generates an essay question if the student responds "yes" to interest in the Honors Program. Double check all supplements. </p></li>
<li><p>Be sure to "like" the Common App facebook page. It appears that the most current information is being posted on the CA FB page. Also look at comments since I found helpful tips there. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Good luck to everyone. I am at least thankful that my procrastinator DS who loved to submit his applications at 11:59 pm. was a few years ago since the current CA really needs earlier submissions.</p>