Common App

The Common Application is a centralized application that students can complete for nearly 700 different colleges and as of yesterday it is now updated and released for the Class of 2017 to begin working on their applications. The colleges that participate in this application commit to treating applications received through the Common App with the same consideration as if students had applied through the institutions individual application. This will generally mean that you have to spend less time filling out all of the basic information about yourself and can mean that you have fewer essays to write (but maybe not).

On the common app there is 1 essay that typically must be completed for all colleges, but you do have a choice about what essay to pick from a list of 5 prompts.  Interestingly, while this has been optional for colleges in the past, I had never seen schools that didn't require it.  This year though, I found quite a few colleges have added their college to Common App and they do not require an essay.  For example, Bowling Green State University, University of Akron, and Ohio University are all new to Common App this year and none of them require an essay.  

Then, as if that wasn't enough, the real "tricky" part of it all is that many of the schools will also have supplements required which are other questions of their own that they want students to complete. Sometimes it is just simple questions that weren't covered on the common app, but would have been if you had applied through their individual application, but often times it includes short or long answer essays. Be aware and be prepared for that when completing your application. 

Not all schools use the common app - there are 31 Ohio schools which will utilize the common application this year, but as you are getting ready to start applications for the schools you are considering it is worth looking to see if more than one school from your list utilizes the common app.

I have spent the last few hours playing around on the Common App website and the new format will be pretty straight forward for you to use.  A few things I want to make sure you are aware of to help as you are completing your application...

- When you are looking at the college information section to see the number of recommendations required sometimes it may say "0" but the reality is that a recommendation letter may still be required.  You will want to double check on the college's website to see if they require a rec letter. Miami is an example of where this confusion can be seen.  They allow your recommendation letter to be from any adult (non-relative) so they don't require that it is from a teacher or from a counselor or from a non-academic source and therefore it lists required as 0, but they do want 1 recommendation letter from the adult of your choice.  Other colleges (like Ohio State and Cincinnati) don't require any recommendation letters so in those cases the 0 really does mean 0.  The best way to figure out what colleges actually want related to rec letters is to visit the admissions page of the college's website.

- After you have selected your colleges and added them to your list you will see specific questions (the supplements specific to that school) and some of them are updated now, but others haven't been posted yet so you may have to check back.  You will find the specific questions and additional application pages for individual colleges under the "My Colleges" tab.  The general information that you will complete for all of the colleges is under the "Common App" tab.

-  If you have attended WKHS for all 4 years of high school, then you entered Kilbourne in August 2013.

-  Your graduation date is May 21, 2017.

- It will ask you questions about me and so you will want to be sure that you spell my name and e-mail address right or else I won't receive the e-mail to complete your school forms.  (Ms. Brianna Abbott, Title: School Counselor, E-mail: babbott@wscloud.org, Phone: 614-450-6490)

-  It will ask you about other schools you have attended.  Obviously, if you moved into Worthington you have other schools to list, but I also want to remind you that if you took summer classes through a different school district (such as TRECA or K-12) then you need to include that school on your common app form too.

-  If you are a student who will be taking classes through College Credit Plus, you will need to include that information in the Academic Section under Colleges/ Universities.  (English, Psychology, Sociology, Government, Ethics, Mythology and Intro to Programming Logic are all through CSCC.  Pre-Calculus, Honors Pre-Calculus, Calculus and Intro to Business are all through COTC.)

-  I strongly encourage you to make a complete list of your activities and honors BEFORE attempting to fill out the Common App.  For example, you will need to give a total number of your honors before you start naming them.  If you haven't developed that resume list then you'll have a tough time filling it out.

-  In the activities section, you can write about your top 10 activities.  Be sure to put them in the order of importance to you.
-  As you are working on each area there is a panel on the right side of the page titled "Help Center" and I found it very helpful as I was going through the different areas.  Some of the typical questions kids have asked me in the past as they are completing the Common App are now answered in the help center.

-  You will have to indicate your class size - for the Class of 2017, it is 292.

Let the fun begin!  Good luck as you start working on your applications.