<p>This is my first time posting I am curious to know if schools consider the submission of their own applications more favorably than using the SSAT Common App (or its cousins, the TABS app, or Gateway App). </p>
<p>I also welcome any suggestions for "surviving" the actual application process with your child such as:
1) Proofreading her essays
2) Using teacher recommendation forms from the common app but completing the school's application
3) Using the same parental statement for all schools</p>
<p>I think the main takeaway is that it doesn’t really matter, but if a school states that they prefer their own app to a common app, then go that route. I think the only semi-big no-no is to send one schools forms to another school. Just bad form, IMO.</p>
<p>Responding to your itemized questions:</p>
<p>1) A very grey area that not everyone agrees on…the schools say “the child’s own work”. Some would include proofreading in there others do not. I think the point is that it should the child’s ideas and child’s writing. But I don’t think there is anything wrong with reading a draft and saying “your second sentence doesn’t make sense and you need to spell check”</p>
<p>2) Since our “apply to” list was short, we used school-specific teacher forms, but I think common ones would be fine.</p>
<p>3) The prompts for schools can be different, and more importantly, each school is probably “right” for your kid for different reasons…so I’d advise putting the extra work in to customize for each school.</p>
<p>Gateway is simply an electronic portal & document management system for the school’s own application. You will see that each school in Gateway has its own separate application requirements.</p>
<p>Gateway to Prep includes sections that are common to all participating schools as well as individualized sections for each school. It is NOT the same as using the school’s own application, though it may be quite similar.</p>
<p>A big perk of Gateway is that teachers can complete their recommendation once (online) and have it sent to each school. If desired, they can edit and tailor their recommendation for different schools. I felt we were lucky that the four schools D applied to all accepted Gateway. </p>
<p>You can always just up and ask each school if they have a preference. I remember that Andover said they accepted all the various means of applying, with no preference. I think another of the four school accepted ONLY Gateway. Only dealing with one means of applying will greatly simplify the process. Even if you end up with, say, several schools that accept Gateway and one or two that use another method, it will be better than 5 to 7 completely separate applications. </p>
<p>Much easier on the recommenders too. It was a lot of working monitoring and following through with D’s recommenders. I can’t imagine trying to get them to complete more than one recommendation form. One of her teachers, who was very enthusiastic and D’s favorite teacher, ended up totally dropping the ball (without ever coming right out and telling us she couldn’t/wouldn’t do it) and we had to go to someone else at the last minute.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if I’m understanding what others are suggesting correctly, but you should not mix and match different methods of applying to any given school. For instance if you are using Gateway for School X, you have to use Gateway for all parts of the application, you can’t throw in recommendations from TABS. </p>
<p>You also can’t submit the school’s own application but have teachers submit via Gateway. I seem to recall that you could not even trigger the teacher recommendations on Gateway until other major portions of the Gateway application had been completed.</p>
<p>If there is any question, you should definitely contact the school(s) directly rather than relying on anything you read here, including my own posts which are based on information from 2 years ago. </p>
<p>I had to call Gateway with questions a couple of times and they were quick to respond and helpful. Likewise with school admissions offices. They would rather have you ask than get caught up in a quagmire. They know that there is a lot to juggle and that it is a new process for most families.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! She is not applying to more than 4 schools or so. We got a late start to this and are now “cramming” the visits/interviews into our schedule.</p>
<p>We looked at what was accepted (and preferred at each school). Used Gateway for 2 schools and individual school applications - mostly online - for the other 4. I made a spreadsheet with all the different forms and deadlines. </p>
<p>Some schools ask for certain teachers to write a rec, some require outside recs, some have optional additional reqs. Teacher recs were in different forms for each school. We sent in a folder to each teacher with all available forms and a checklist on the front with method and due date and reference if available online or online only.</p>
<p>We had to write different parent statements for each school. Many had specific questions. Look at that piece now so you are not surprised the night before the application is due!</p>
<p>You are fine - once you schedule the SSAT and campus visits/interviews you’ll be on track with a lot of other people. Visits are common through the fall. She has time to work on applications - a lot of kids write over winter break.</p>
<p>I have a Gateway question. At the end of Candidate Profile, there is an “Additional Information/Explanation” section. What shall I add and how much detail shall I have in the “Additional Information/Explanation” section. There are lots of real estate to include info (1MB PDF). What is the relationship between the personal statements in part 2? I guess I shall not have overlapping info in the two sections. </p>
<p>My DD applied to a mix of schools, so we ended up using more than one “common app” site. Gateway seems to be the easiest site to use and monitor application progress. We had umpteen technical issues with the SSAT site - it might have been easier to do individual apps! YMMV - but be sure to follow up with Admissions Officers if Gateway/SSAT/TABS doesn’t agree with the information on the individual school portals.</p>
<p>At my kids’ school the admissions office staff (the people who assemble the admissions folders) prefer Gateway but the admissions committee says they treat each of the different applications equally. When we applied to schools we used the school’s own application whenever available on the theory that they must prefer it on some level (maybe just the subconscious level), otherwise they wouldn’t bother having it.</p>
<p>We’ve decided to complete each school’s application separately. I explored SSAT and it seemed convoluted and full of risk of something not working as it should. Given we’re applying only to 4 schools, it seems manageable.</p>
<p>@lrw3gww: The best laid plans…we were going to do the individual route (as we did with our first daughter, who only applied to 3 schools) this year too, but several factors played into our decision to go with the SSAT SAO. Not the best UI (compared to my experience with Gateway a few years ago), but I really appreciated both the real-time updating of submissions by teachers/GCs and also the fact that it makes it easier for the teachers.</p>