Introduction to US college application process
The US college application process has become a thrilling exercise due to its simplification through different application platforms such as the Common App and the Coalition App.Traditionally, students had to physically mail their applications across the Atlantic via DHL or UPS. However, these new electronic ways have made it simpler and more convenient.
What is Common App ?
This is an online platform that enables students to submit college applications electronically to more than one school. A student fills out the profile once, and it is submitted to many different schools. One can use the common App to apply to many different schools, owing to the numerous partnerships that the Common App has with Universities and Colleges in the US.
Opening a Common App Account
It is absolutely free of charge to start a common app account, and below is a list of all you need to fill out!
- Your name
- Email Address
- Phone Number
- Address
- Home Country
- Setting a password for your Common App Account
- Answering the required few questions
Opening a Common App Account
It is absolutely free of charge to start a common app account, and below is a list of all you need to fill out!
- Your name
- Email Address
- Phone Number
- Address
- Home Country
- Setting a password for your Common App Account
- Answering the required few questions
Once you have all these, then you are good to go!
Opening a Common App Account can be done as early as you would wish to, but it only opens in August for the subsequent year’s Fall admission applications. Essentially, you can only start filling out different parts of the Common App in August. Any work done before that will be lost once the Common App is renewed in August. It is therefore crucial to start working on your Common App after August 1st.
Parts of the Common App
Below is a glimpse of the different parts of the Common App and what they entail
Profile
In this section, one is required to fill in the following: personal information, address, contact details, demographics-in this part you fill out your gender and your identity in terms of race-language, your nationality and application for the common app fee waiver.
Family
All that is needed for this part is the nature of your parent’s household, i.e , their marital status, their occupation and highest levels of education. In addition to that, sibling information is also required in this section.
Education
This is one of the sections that requires a student to pay keen attention to it while filling it. Carefully fill out the high schools you attended, the courses you took and the level of course difficulty, taking note of the required gap year essay if you took any. If a student is in college already, they are required to give the number of courses they are taking.One can also report up to a maximum of five honors, while including the levels of recognition. It is in this section that
one talks about their future educational plans also.
Testing
Test Scores for SAT, ACT, IB, Duolingo English Test and many more are reported here. Some schools have adopted a policy of applying test-optional and there is that option by clicking on the ‘No’ option. One also self reports senior secondary school leaving examination scores here.
Activities
This is an area that has an influence on your admission decisions and should be handled with uttermost attention.Here, one is supposed to fill in the activities they took part in while in high school, mentioning the type, leadership position, organization name, a brief description of the activity, grade of participation, the timing of participation, and the time spent on every activity.
Writing
The writing section of the Common App is of great significance in the entire application process. This is the section where one writes their personal statement by responding to one prompt from the seven prompts. Most schools require that one submits a personal statement, and it is of great importance that you do a good essay. The additional information section allows one to talk about any other thing they feel would have an influence on their admission decision.
Courses and Grades
For the schools that require this, a student is supposed to fill out exactly what is in their official high school transcript.
Recommenders
Because a student cannot submit their own recommendations, they are required to invite a teacher to complete the submission of recommendations for them. This is done by inputting the teacher’s email address, name and the subject they taught you.
-This is not all about the Common App. It also has a tab called Financial Aid where one gets guidance on how to apply for the different scholarships applicable to them.
The Coalition App on the other hand was majorly started to serve students from underrepresented groups. It has fewer partnerships with schools compared to the Common App, but for schools that accept the two, one does not have an advantage over the other.
A student should therefore carefully evaluate the two before settling on the most appropriate platform to use.