<p>I have some basic questions regarding college admissions. I am so clueless on many things, so guys, I need your help. Please.</p>
<p>First question,</p>
<p>1) Do I use common application or the college website to apply to the college of my choice? Because a counselor my parents hired signed me up for college application. Do I HAVE to use common application to apply to colleges? Or do I use the actual college website? I am confused.</p>
<p>2) For college essays, can I use ONE essay for every college I'm going to apply to? So let's say I'm applying to five colleges and coincedentally, all five colleges have the same/similar college essay question option. Do I have to write different college essays for different colleges (Which means more the colleges you apply to, the more college essays you have to write, which is a pain) or can I just write one college essay and just use that for every college I'm applying to?</p>
<p>3) Around how long does the college application process take? (How long does it take to apply to one college)</p>
<p>4) For a senior, is it too late to take the SAT's in December, or is it fine? What month is too late? </p>
<p>5) When I'm applying to a college, and they ask for my ethnicity, does it hurt at all to leave it blank if you would like? Is it a disadvantage?</p>
<p>That's the five questions I have for now. Thank you so much.</p>
<p>Use whichever you want. I prefer the common app because it’s easier to keep track of everything on one consolidated website. </p>
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<p>Yes you can. This is common, if not the norm.</p>
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<p>What are we defining as the process? To fill out the forms? To write essays? To mail the envelopes? To deal with inevitable logistical problems? To take required tests? To ask for recommendations?</p>
<p>The time varies. A good solid day before the deadline should be good enough for everything. :D</p>
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<p>No that’s fine. January is usually the latest for RD; ask each college to confirm.</p>
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<p>No. The following 100+ page thread should also be nice and dandy:</p>
<p>1) If the college is a member of the common app, then I’d use that since you just need to fill it out for one college and use the same one for all schools you’re applying to. However, some schools don’t use the common app – in which case you’d have to use their provided app.</p>
<p>2) Normally, yes. The common app has specific essay prompts that colleges use and gets sent along with your forms to every college you apply to (using the common app, of course). That being said, some schools have specific supplemental essays that you must also write. Just as examples, Princeton and Chicago both have specific prompts you need to address. If that’s the case, you’ll be writing a single common app essay for all the schools you apply to and additional supplemental essays that address the prompts provided by specific schools. This could amount to a lot of writing if you’re applying to lots of schools that require supplement essays.</p>
<p>3) That really depends on who you are. For me, it’d probably take a week or so of hardcore effort. Others finish it the day before, though I wouldn’t recommend doing things so last minute. I’d say you should probably have your things mailed AT LEAST a week before the deadline, if not a few weeks to a month to allow room for error. At least then, if the college is missing a rec letter or something, it still has time to contact you and get the situation corrected.</p>
<p>4) If you’re applying early decision/early action to any schools (deadline usually in November), then it would be too late. Regular decision deadline is usually January 1st or January 2nd, so it wouldn’t be too late for that. That being said, I would hazard against taking the December test. It’s pretty much a last-ditch effort – and you run the risk of receiving a low score without any time to retake the SAT.</p>
<p>5) If you have a last name that gives away your ethnicity (Gonzales, Garza, Chang, Han, etc. etc.), then it really wouldn’t matter what you fill out on the ethnicity box. If, however, you are an over-represented majority (namely Asian) for the school to which you are applying and your last name doesn’t give it away, then I’d definitely leave it blank.</p>