Hi everybody,
I’m a high school senior now from India, where we graduate high school in May 2019. I’m planning to apply for colleges for admission in fall 2019 (would like to begin college in fall 2019). When will the CommonApp begin for that term? When can we start working on it? I wonder if the essay questions change. Thank you.
The Common App opens August 1. Usually the questions do not change, but the college supplements may or may not change. The standard essay prompts for 2018-2019 have already been released, although the individual college prompts will come later. You can start now using the current version, and you can transfer over most of the information to the 2018-2019 version in August.
Next year’s prompts are out; they release them in the spring: http://www.commonapp.org/whats-appening/application-updates/2018-2019-common-application-essay-prompts
But beyond that, the app opens August 1st.
Also, why are we only allowed to add a maximum of 20 colleges in the CommonApp? What if we’d like to apply more than that?
Not all colleges use the Common App. Many public universities and MIT as examples, use their own. Many of the colleges on the Common App require supplemental essays, so few students can write that many good essays, even if they had the time. And each application costs money. Finally, many high schools will limit a student to X number of applications.
And keep in mind: 20 application fees is a LOT of money!!
You have lots of time to narrow down your list!
My high school being a non-US doesn’t have any restrictions. Is there any way to get around this limit? What if chose to send my apps to some schools through snail mail from India? I do have some target schools but since I’m very keen on financial aid with divorced parents, it’s difficult to narrow down colleges. Also, I’m tempted to apply to the schools which have no application fee. Are there any bad things going to happen if I send out applications to too many schools other than losing app fee and time? Also, if I decide to apply to some free app schools, can I just mail in my app without adding the college on the CommonApp dashboard?
Hmm. Here comes the difficult part.
“Losing time” probably means doing a far less than perfect job on a lot of essays.
Spend that time narrowing down your list. Your situation is no different than anyone else’s. Everyone is looking for the right school and as much financial aid as possible.
One other thing. Sending SAT/ACT scores to each of these schools also comes with a financial cost.
Which is only a good strategy if that school will be affordable to you.
No. The Common App is quite clear on this:
You should assume that any loopholes that you can think of (e.g. adding a second account, snail mailing applications) has already been thought about by the Common App people.
Also, applying only to schools without a fee is incredibly short sighted. I would think it would be far better to find 20 (OK, to be honest, I like 10 or 12 ) schools that would really be a good fit, and apply to them/
@bjkmom, @skieurope, I’ve narrowed my list to 26 schools now, only 10 of those use Common App. Do you know how to get CommonApp fee waiver when my foreign (non-US) high school isn’t listed on the CommonApp profile? Whom will they send my fee waiver request to? Like in US, they send it to HS counselors but there the HS is listed. I’m a US Citizen from India. Any suggestions?
Sorry, I haven’t got a clue.
Could you contact Common App? Is there a link on the website for emails? Is it covered under “FAQs”?
@GuessME5 Hi!! I just read the complete thread and am really interested in ta;king to you in detail.
I am in the same situation and facing the problems that you could be facing too.
is there any way to DM you or something? I am from India as well 12th Grade as they say 
Hope we can work something out cuz studying abroad is really nerve wrecking.
What does app opening on August 1 mean? Is that when all the colleges update their application with the relevant dates and essays and stuff?
As a teacher, it means that’s the first day I can upload letters of recommendation for next year’s seniors.
It’s the first day that you can submit anything for the upcoming school year’s apps.