Common App

The Common Application is a centralized application that students can complete for over 700 different colleges and as of today it is now updated and released for the Class of 2018 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 or through the Coalition Application (more on that later this week). 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 7 prompts.  There are some colleges which will identify the essay as being optional.  We probably need to talk about how "optional" the optional essay really is so before you decide to skip it completely please come see me to discuss it.

One of the more confusing parts of the Common App for many students is that in addition to the main essay, many of the colleges 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 and read those questions in advance so you know what to expect.  You will find this information under the "My Colleges" tab and then select each college down the left side of the page and click on "Questions" under both Application and Writing Supplement for each of the colleges where you will be applying.

Not all schools use the common app, but a lot of them do.  There are 36 Ohio schools which will utilize the common application this year, so 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...
- 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 2014.

-  Your graduation date is May 20, 2018.  (Crazy, isn't it!?!)

- 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 NOT need to include that information in the Academic Section under Colleges/ Universities IF you are getting high school credit for the course too.  You will list these classes along with your HS classes instead.  The only way this wouldn't be the case would be if you had taken or are planning to take college courses that are not paid for by the district and you will not be getting both HS and college credit for the classes.

-  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.

-  I realize you have never filled out the Common App before so this is not new to you, but Common App is working with a handful of colleges to pilot a new student self-reporting transcript section called "Classes and Grades."  OSU is one of the colleges that will be using this system.  Your transcripts WILL STILL BE SENT to the colleges so you absolutely MUST be sure that you enter the information in the system exactly like it appears on your transcript.  The good news is that you can download and print your transcript off of Infinite Campus to use when completing this section.  It is very straight forward to use, but I have to admit that you will likely find it a bit tedious.  For the record (although I suspect you know this), our grading scale is A-F and we are on semesters.

-  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 2018, it is 301.

Let the fun begin!  Good luck as you start working on your applications and don't hesitate to let me know if you have any questions.