OFFICIAL Common Application Questions Thread

<p>The Common App asks to self-report ACT scores. Since ACT allows students to report their top score only, does one only have to fill in their top score?</p>

<p>Note this was a friend of mine last years. Cities name were changed to the valley my cousin lives in. I was just giving an example.</p>

<p>If I am an active member of a club (NFL) and contribute a lot of my time to it, though not necessarily every week, what should I write in the hr/wk section?
For example, some weeks, I wil go without having a tournament or meeting. And other weeks I have 6-10 hours because of preparation or because of a tournament. Should I only write how many weeks I participate and leave out the hours because of the inconsistency? Or should I write approx hours....even though it's not quite true....? </p>

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<p>I'd say write the average of the hours, if that's something that's not too hard to guess at.</p>

<p>Does it look bad to leave summer programs blank? I've done lots of volunteering + internships over summer, and attended enriching one week workshops and such, but I haven't done any "official" school programs for college credit. Also, where do I list all the summer work I've done--I don't want to waste the 7 main activities lines on my summer work, I'd rather use them for my year-round activities.</p>

<p>Can we go over the 150 word limit on the activity essay?</p>

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Can we go over the 150 word limit on the activity essay?

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<p>Hmmmm...
yes, but it would be best not to, I mean it's one thing to be around 160/170 words, but when you're hitting 200+ I would be wary about such a decision. Furthermore, realize that the limit is there because: (a) the readers are on such a tight schedule and (b) a failure to keep with the limit could be interpreted as a failure to follow rules in general. But seriously, just don't get too far past the limit.</p>

<p>what about the 500 word limit? I've heard people have gone 600+</p>

<p>Could someone give an example of entering in a non-school summer program into the Other Secondary schools box?</p>

<p>I can't find this 'special skills' thing.</p>

<p>the 500 word limit is just a suggestion. try cutting it down to absolutely close to that unitl you feel that the quality of the message you are trying to send would be damaged by cutting any more words down. I would say 600 is acceptable, but anything beyond 600 is really pushing it.</p>

<p>If I'll be self studying some APs this coming year, where should I include that info?</p>

<p>I think in the additional info?</p>

<p>Should you mention things like scheduling conflicts in the additional info section? Or should you leave that entirely to the guidance cousnelor?</p>

<p>I wouldn't bother, I mean when I did my apps I didn't mention it, nor do I think my guidance counselor mentioned it, but if anything scheduling conflicts are just unfortunate.</p>

<p>Even if it prevented me from taking four years of a foreign language? Or taking only biology and chemistry as opposed to bio, chem, and physics? :/</p>

<p>Hmmm, well if you couldn't take four years of a language nor physics, it seems to be a reflection of your school's scheduling system, because personally, I just tried to take AP Gov junior and senior and was blocked out (even though I had two periods of study both years)</p>

<p>If I participated in a summer camp, can I write it under "Other Secondary School " ? or is it just nothing?</p>

<p>There's only 7 spots for ECs...is there anyway to increase this? Or should I just apply on paper and attach an extra sheet with my list?</p>

<p>Chuck here, from the Common App support team. I've noticed a few questions asked a couple times on this thread as well as submitted to our support desk, so I thought I would jump in and provide some clarification on those common topics.</p>

<p>Issue/Question: Unable to login or getting errors trying to login
Response: There are two things to note about this. First, accounts from last year will not work anymore; a new account must be created. Second, some of the pages from last year's Common App are still "cached" by Google or your own browser if you visited in June. If you go directly to <a href="https://app.commonapp.org/%5B/url%5D"&gt;https://app.commonapp.org/&lt;/a> you should be ok.</p>

<p>Issue/Question: You participate in more than 7 activities or have more than 6 previous jobs. Where should you enter additional activities?
Response: There is an Additional Info area in the Writing Samples section of the Common App for this purpose (or to capture other information that would not fit in the main Common App fields). If you have just a small amount of additional information to provide, use the short answer text field. If you have a lot of additional content, use the Upload Document button to upload a file (e.g., a Word document, a PDF file, an RTF file).</p>

<p>Issue/Question: Can you submit a different personal essay to different schools?
Response: You cannot submit a different personal essay to different schools. The document you upload in response to the personal statement question will be the same for all submitted applications. Note: for those schools that have an online supplement and additional essay questions, you can, of course, provide school-specific responses to those topics.</p>

<p>Issue/Question: What to do if you indicate the use of a NACAC/College Board fee waiver incorrectly.
Response: If you indicate that you will be applying for a NACAC or College Board fee waiver for one of your applications by mistake, you will need to contact technical support by clicking on one of the 3 "Help" links located within the Common App Online. We can then remove this indication for you as that is not something you can accomplish through the website at this time.</p>

<p>Best of luck to everyone in the college application process! If we can be of help to you as you work through the Common App, please don't hesitate to contact us.</p>

<p>If you're sending your common app in online how do you send your resume with it? and ...if you want additional reccomendations from people other then teachers, how would you go about doing that?
thanks!</p>