<p>D1 wonders if she can show more love to a school by using the school's own application instead of the Common App. Is this ever a factor? Her current (not necessarily final) list of common-app-using schools includes Tufts, U Rochester, GWU, Emory, and Wesleyan.</p>
<p>I've read on CC that it's a good idea to look at the school-specific application regardless, since it might end up allowing the applicant to present themselves in a better light. Other than that, are there any other reasons to use school-specific applications?</p>
<p>Not that I am aware of. To cite an example - my son had the common app done when he got a “personalized” app from Wake Forest that already had some basic info pre-filled. He just went ahead and submitted the common app anyway since he already had it done - did their supplement as well of course - and was accepted.</p>
<p>I agree with you that if the school has their own app it can’t hurt to look at is and compare - but I have never heard anything that would convince me that a school would give a bump to an applicant who used one version over the other.</p>
<p>At Randolph-Macon college in Virginia, they told us flat-out at the information session that they prefer applicants use their own application because using the common app shows less interest.</p>
<p>I had NEVER heard that before for any college. Certainly not at the schools you listed.</p>
<p>When we compared the common application with the school application for the colleges to which my daughter applied, the information requested was all but identical. So she submitted the Common Application. Of course, she also submitted the individual college supplement separately for each college. The supplement is the key submission to many of these schools because the supplement has the unique essay topics and the “Why This College” essay. When submitting the supplement, my daughter also included two other items in the large envelope. She did an extra-curricular activity listing such is found in “Acing the College Application” by Michele A. Hernandez and left the EC list on the Common Application blank except for a note that said “information submitted with supplement” (or something like that). The sample charts in How to Ace the Common Application" show how to really showcase leadership in extra curricular activities and the author recommends NOT using the form on the Common Application. My daughter also submitted a five-page writing portfolio. The colleges each had something about “please submit any other materials that will help us to get to know you better but limit your additional information to five pages.” One other strategy our daughter used for her first-choice school (after hearing about this on our tour at the U. of Chicago from the admissions officer) is that as each Senior award or recognition came in during the late winter, she sent an email to Admissions that said “new information for applicant XYZ’s file.” In that e-mail she also wrote, “I remain committed to X College as my first-choice school.” The man at Chicago said that they make a mark in the file noting each contact an applicant has with the admissions office and, if they are torn at the end between two applicants for a single slot in the incoming class as they get down to the end, the one who has shown the most interest based on contact with the Admissions office can get the nod.</p>
<p>If there were a real difference between the two applications I might use it. It’s not quite the same, but Georgetown doesn’t use the Common App at all. Their online application was so creaky my son gave it up in disgust and printed it out instead.</p>
<p>R-M is the first college I’ve ever heard of that says they’d prefer their own application. Every place I’ve heard address the subject says they don’t care.</p>
<p>From the Commonapplication Q&A part of their website:</p>
<p>“IS IT TREATED FAIRLY?
YES! Our college and university members have worked together over the past 30 years to develop the application. All members fully support its use, and all give equal consideration to the Common Application and the college’s own form. Many of our members use the Common Application as their only undergraduate admission application.”</p>
<p>Leaving the grid blank is risky, IMO. While it’s a great idea for kids to create a resume that presents details of their activities/achievements organized the way they want, they should also fill in the section of the Common App that asks them to list their activities. That section is not optional, and I’m sure there are schools that will not be pleased if it’s left blank.</p>
<p>Another reason to use the school’s app is cost. The application fee was waived by RPI for the RPI medalists, but in order to take advantage of this you had to use their app.</p>
<p>@CIA - Randolph Macon is apparently breaking the rules, it was my understanding that all colleges accepting the Common App had to agree to consider it exactly as they would their own app. If they are going to give preference to kids using their own app, then they’re not supposed to be offering the Common App as an option.</p>
<p>It sounds like D1 will be fine using the common app where she can. The public schools on her list all use their own forms, so she will have enough work keeping up with those. :)</p>
<p>slithey tove - it’s also good to read the instructions on the common app. website for how to replicate the app. There are threads on cc discussing this - but the basic idea is you create one version of the common app and submit it to one school. Then you replicate it - which means you have a copy that is not “locked” - you can make changes - and then submit that to one school and so on. I don’t know if this has been changed for the upcoming year - but it worked this way last year. This allows you to have several versions of the common app. and customize each one a bit to pertain to one school.</p>
<p>For one example, my son mentioned the college he was applying to by name in the closing paragraph of his common app essay - which he was able to do because he made several different versions of the common app - so that rather than being generic - he was able to customize a little bit.</p>
<p>rm and others: apparently, this “loophole” in the common app that allowed customization of the common app essay has been closed for the upcoming 2011 admission year; so unless this info is inaccurate, kids will be back to creating only one essay (both my kids have fallen into this category…lol)…</p>
<p>D did not like the Common App and did not use it at all. She saved her essay and the information that every college wants (ECs etc) in Word files and copied and pasted it in the school specific applications. Got in her first choice EA with a generous scholarship. I don’t know if using the school’s application made a difference, but D said doing it this way was easier because most of the colleges she applied to (except safeties) had their own supplements.</p>
<p>For a few of my universities, their own applications requires more essays (that they do not include in their supplements necessarily), so I think that essay-wise, it may be nicer to do the school version if a) you are a good writer and want to highlight it, b) you want more options.</p>