<p>When you submit your common app essay to your first application online, does the Common App lock in your essay so that you have to use the same essay for each and every college you apply to?</p>
<p>I'm not talking about supplements, I'm talking about the comm app essay.</p>
<p>If anyone has nan answer, please let me know, I need to start getting some of these applications out soon.</p>
<p>yeah seriously I need to know soon too</p>
<p>Yeah it does</p>
<p>but then what about kids who handwrite their essays and then mail them to the schools themselves. they wouldn't have it locked then, right?</p>
<p>Thanks ramen, </p>
<p>I don't understand why they do that. It makes sense why students may want to specialize an essay towards a specific school. It doesn't help colleges either.</p>
<p>well i guess if you do a paper app, then you can send different common app essays.</p>
<p>Crap, I was planning on using different common app essays for different schools. Try removing all the colleges from your list on the CA, then adding one, submitting, then adding another.</p>
<p>Read the Common Application FAQ.</p>
<p>You can use a different essay for every school you apply to using the common application. After you submit it to ONE school, an option will appear to make alternate copies of your application. You can make one for every college you are applying to and customize the essay and other information.</p>
<p>This question has been answered several times, including links to the pdf instructions, on the common app thread at the top of this forum. Try going to that thread and search for "alternate versions" or "custom" or...</p>
<p>one addition to the comment above: i think there's a maximum of 10 copies overall...so it's not really EVERY school if people are applying to 10+</p>