The Common Application®

The Common Application, which has been simplifying college applications since 1975, is the major player in the world of college applications. Homeschooling families, take note, as both student and parent have starring roles in this senior-year extravaganza.
Wait…Just What Is the Common Application?
If you are new to the college application circus, this is an entirely valid question that merits a bit of background. In short, the Common Application was designed to be a form that the student completes just once and then submits to as many member colleges as he/she plans to apply to. Currently, more than 900 colleges and universities are members. Thus, students have a wide variety of choices, and submitting the Common App cuts down on the task quite significantly.

The Big Picture
In addition to choosing a slate of colleges and answering garden-variety questions relating to personal and family information, extracurricular activities, and test scores, the student writes and submits one primary application essay. Teacher recommendations are submitted “once and done” within the application, and the school counselor or homeschool supervisor (usually the parent) also prepares a report, a counselor letter, and a high school transcript that is sent out to the colleges the student has chosen.

Individual colleges may require a supplementary portion to the application (here’s where the application becomes less simple than originally expected), in which the student answers college-specific questions. These may be as straightforward as listing the student’s intended major or reporting whether any relatives are alumni of the institution–or as complicated as writing one or several additional essays.

For the Student: The Application Essay, in All Its Glory…
The essay topics for the applicant’s personal statement currently provide a list of six directed prompts, plus a “topic of choice” option. The prompts range from asking students to share a “background, identity, interest, or talent so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it” to prompting them to describe a time when they faced a challenge, setback, or failure and to reflect on what they learned from the experience. For the full list of prompts, see the Common Application site. The prompts are reviewed annually and may change, though changes are typically minor,

Essays are pasted directly into a text entry box and must meet a 650-word limit. In general, students should not customize the essay for a particular college. Rather, they should keep it generic enough to show their strengths to the entire spectrum of member colleges on their lists. With that said, students are allowed to submit unlimited “versions” of the essay, so they may make small modifications and corrections for subsequent colleges. In reality, most students do not customize their Common App essays; they are happy enough to have it finished!

Tell Me More…
An “Additional Information” section is available for applicants who “wish to report circumstances or qualifications not reflected elsewhere in the application.” For homeschoolers, this could be a good place for briefly explaining their homeschool philosophy, for describing an unusual learning activity, or for explaining a semester of poor grades. It shouldn’t be construed to be an additional “brag box” except to note qualifications that truly did not fit elsewhere on the application. By no means should it repeat information that is already presented elsewhere.

Students will also notice college-specific supplements (appearing only for colleges interested in collecting this information). Within these supplements, colleges and universities may also ask for additional writing samples or personal statements. Certain colleges may ask for four or five different essays of varying lengths, so students should be thinking about how to highlight various aspects of their high school careers. One common question is the “Why Us?” essay–in other words, what is it about College XYZ that is prompting you to apply? A great way to answer this question is to delve deeply into the college website, and especially into the department website of the student’s proposed major, to find programs, internships, specializations, study abroad opportunities, and even individual courses or research interests on which to comment within the supplementary essay.

Some colleges, but not all, may also allow uploaded documents such as resumes or research papers.

School Report
In a traditional school, the School Report section is completed by the guidance counselor. For homeschoolers it is almost always completed by the parent, or perhaps by the administrator of the homeschool independent study program. When a student marks “homeschooled” as the schooling option, he or she will “invite” the parent as Counselor. The parent/counselor will be then prompted by email to enter the Common Application portal and provide information about the homeschool by filling out a School Report, a School Profile, and a Counselor Letter, in addition to uploading the high school transcript. The Counselor Letter should include detailed personalized insights about the student; the parent/counselor will also be asked to rank the student in various categories reflecting aptitudes and overall character.

The School Report and School Profile area is the place to report facts about the school, such as whether students are ranked, what GPA scale is used, and how many honors or AP courses are offered. While certain items are simply not applicable to homeschoolers, the person filling out this report should make his or her best effort to answer them in a way that will be clear and understandable to the college.

A transcript of the high school courses will be uploaded along with the School Report, and this document should contain all courses and grades to date. Obviously, fall semester senior year courses may still be in progress. The parent/counselor will also fill out a Mid Year Report after first semester grades are in, followed by a Final Report at the end of the school year to report second semester grades.

Home School Questions
Within the School Report section is a space to answer several homeschool-specific questions. These are intended to gather information about the homeschool course of study and educational philosophy, methods of grading and evaluation, and courses taken outside the home. Keeping notes on these features of your homeschooling during the middle school and high school years is a wise step toward “having it all together” when senior year sneaks up on you.

One piece of wisdom from veteran homeschoolers is to start drafting your course descriptions and transcript during the 9th grade year. It may sound über-early, but if you can capture course names, credits, grades, and a rough overall format, your transcript will be much easier to assemble when that all-important summer before senior year rolls around. Likewise, draft descriptions of courses (yes, each and every high school course), recording a couple of descriptive paragraphs as well as a list of textbooks and resources. This list is much easier to construct as you go along than to conjure up at the last minute. A course description document will not necessarily be requested on the Common Application, but it’s an extremely strategic document that you can upload alongside your transcript. It will launch you into the stratum of “homeschoolers who know what they are doing.” And that’s exactly where you want to be.

Teacher Evaluations
Within the Common Application, students will request Teacher Evaluations from outside (non-parent) teachers. These may include community college professors, homeschool academy teachers, co-op instructors, private tutors, online course instructors, or others who taught the student. 11th and 12th grade instructors are preferred.

Learning about the Whole Student
Homeschoolers often earn strong, complimentary recommendations from non-academic sources such as pastors, employers, volunteer supervisors, or coaches. Some member colleges now offer the option of providing a supplemental evaluation as a venue for submission of this information. Again, not all colleges will make use of this information, but this change does open up the possibility of a more holistic evaluation of the student’s gifts and abilities.

Check It Out!
Obviously, the best way to become familiar with the Common App is to check it out yourself by browsing the site, https://www.commonapp.org. If your student will be applying to college during the upcoming year, encourage him or her to register on the site in order to navigate through the various sections and preview what will be asked. Help Centers for both the applicant and the recommender (which would be applicable for a homeschool parent filling out the School Report) contain knowledge bases of frequently asked questions. Users can also submit their own questions to be answered.

While applying for college can be tedious and at times overwhelming, the Common Application is a giant step in the direction of streamlining the process. Enjoy!

The Common Application® is a registered trademark of The Common Application, Inc.