Oh The Beloved Common Application...

Applying to College Common and Coalition Application
1

<p>If you didn't detect the sarcasm in the title...well...</p>

<p>Ok, so the common application is literally driving me crazy. I mean, when I first heard of the concept it seemed like a great idea. Only entering your details once and then it gets magically sent to every college? Count me in! But then...well...there's the problems.</p>

<p>Right now my assign recommenders tab reads:</p>

<p>Fee Waiver: Started
School Report: Downloaded</p>

<p>Teacher Evaluations: Not started</p>

<p>So here's the funny thing. I just got an email from one of my colleges saying I'm missing my fee waiver and teacher recommendations. What's even worse is that I have to fax them! WHO USES FAX ANYMORE THESE DAYS?!! So I go check my other application statuses, scared to death that I'll have to fax my stuff in to them as well. But then I find that apparently my fee waiver for another college has been approved. Then another college says I've sent in everything!</p>

<p>The end result is a very confused and frustrated person. Is there anyone else experiencing similar problems? Surely there must be. If not, then I can conclude that someone at common app is messing with me and getting kicks out of seeing me suffer.</p>

<p>Maybe I'm worrying too much. I'm not sure if these issues are due to me, my teachers, common app, or my colleges but I can only hope that things end up sorting themselves out.</p>

2

<p>Have you seen your college counselor yet for help? These issues will not “sort themselves out”. Note that your Common App dashboard is not necessarily the same as what the colleges have successfully downloaded. You will want to double-check your portals for each college to make sure that everything is complete.</p>

3

<p>Check to see if your HS counselor is using Naviance to submit your forms via the Common App. Within Naviance, an official MUST submit each form separately, to each school you select. Unlike the Common App, where they only need to submit once… Sounds like they submitted a form to some schools and not others…</p>