<p>Hello class of 2008! finally we are seniors, and now it's time for the lovely, yet tedious college hunting time.....</p>
<p>so I am confused? Why do colleges have their own application and at the same time use the "Common application"? </p>
<p>For example, Johns hopkins allows both appliacations-common app,and Hopkins app.
so do colleges prefer their own application form users to Common Application users? </p>
<p>Would my acceptance rate be higher if I choose to use college's own application instead of Common App? </p>
<p>unless Im' totally confused (lol) most schools don't have their own apps anymore, they use the common app. and their own "supplement" which I guess you could describe as a college-specific "mini-app"</p>
<p>I know that "most" school don't have own app anymore since they use common app, but are there reasons why some school -like Johns Hopkins- still have both own collage app and common app?</p>
<p>Some schools hang onto their own apps for a while after going to the common app. There can be several reasons - they want to give people flexibilty, sentimental, etc. To offer the CA, a school has to promise not to discriminate against students that use it, and why would they?</p>
<p>BTW, my son is applying EA to two schools, one which only offers the CA, and one that does not offer it at all. He is a very strong candidate, and has a good chance of being accepted at one or both, early action. If he does, he will not apply anywhere else. This means he is going to fill out the common app for exactly one school. If the CA school had their own form, he might opt for that!</p>
<p>Unfortunately not! Sorry, I wanted to do it also, but I understood it's impossible. Btw, this is an advantage of the school's application: if you want, you can write an essay just for that school.</p>
<p>Starling - Relax! this is not rocket science, and for many parts of the app process there is no right/wrong way. Do what seems right. Common sense goes a long way. </p>
<p>Regarding this quandary...</p>
<p>List the schools you are likely to apply. How many of them use the common app. How many use the common app exclusively. Then look how many use the supplement, and have an extra essay there.</p>
<p>You will save time by using the common app, if more than one of your schools uses it (which is likely). Come up with a good solid common essay. The schools know you are submitting that essay to multiple schools and are ok with it. If they want a more directed essay then they will have a supplemental essay.</p>
<p>BTW, as of now, only 2 of my son's 7 schools have their common app supplement on the site. Several of them have the supplements on their websites. I assume they will make it over to the common app site soon. </p>
<p>So, I vote for the common app. It just makes more sense.</p>
<p>When I mentioned an advantage for school's application, I meant you can write a specific essay, so the advantage is for you, not for the school. Of course, if you want to write less essays, this thing becomes a disadvantage, so go for the common application.</p>
<p>My D applied to 7 schools, all took the CA. She used the CA and did the supplements for the schools that requested them. She was accepted to every school she applied to.</p>
<p>
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I got a question: Can you write different essays when using the common app for different schools?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yes, you just send your applications one at a time instead of sending them as a group.</p>
<p>So if you are applying to schools A, B, C, & D and you want to send a different essay to school B, you just copy paste your essay in and send to School B. You can always come back and do the other schools and change your essay.</p>
<p>sybbie: I do not or understand why, but this year, once you send in your first application, your essay is lock. The edit button goes away. Somewhere in the common app thread, that is confirmed (but not explained) by someone who works for them. </p>
<p>To screwitlah - this may have been true at one point (or not...), but now is just plain silly. Do you know how many schools only want the CA, or strongly encourage it? What do you think? it is a trap? I can see the adcoms... "oh, yeah, lets weed out a large amount of our applicant pool by offering the CA!"</p>
<p>Schools that only want the CA are of course not the issue, and just because other schools want only the CA doesn't mean that schools that are still holding out and offering both CA and their own apps are obliged to feel the same way. please. all the schools have had the same amount of time to change and implement CA-only admissions. </p>
<p>in the schools that haven't changed, at the level of the application reader, it doesn't matter whether or not the school is practicing active discrimination between CA and non-CA. after reading perhaps hundreds of CAs, you'd feel something for the one non-CA app that comes along. i urge you to use your common sense.</p>
<p>it really doesn't matter which you use. if they offer both, and it was your first choice school, then use the school's, just to show that the school is worth completing a seperate app. i think it's an unconcious preference to adcoms, but they really can't discriminate.</p>
<p>most schools have supplements anyways, and if you show a lot of interest and use the school's app, they probably will count it as a plus. no matter what they tell us.</p>