Every year, on August 1st, school counselors, admissions consultants (such as myself!), and college admissions staff unofficially observe Common App Day as the marker kicking off of a brand new college application cycle.

What Is Common App?

Common App is a widely-utilized web-based platform, in which prospective students submit their undergraduate college applications. As of today, Common App hosts applications for over 1,000 different colleges through the United States, as well as abroad. The use of an essential “one stop shop” for college applications makes everything much less cumbersome than it was when I first applying to college. Long gone are the days of filling out applications one-by-one (and mailing off applications via USPS mail!), as they did when I applied to college in the late 1990s, and shoot, even during my grad school days in the early-to-mid 2000s.

Every year, new colleges join Common App, which makes this the most popular college application platform in the United States. It’s not the only one, but the most popular one. (We’ll get into some of the other commonly used platforms in a separate post). Check the link for a quick rundown of which colleges have joined Common App for the 2023-2024 application cycle.

Completing the Common App

As expected, there is a variety of demographic and background information requested about the college applicant. You will also be asked to enter information on the various extracurricular activities that you regularly participate in outside of school. This can include anything from French Club, community-based soccer team, whatever activities you regularly participate in.

After signing up, you’ll want to identify whether each of the colleges you’re interested in are on the platform. (Again, all of them are not.). In selecting each college of interest, Common App will pull up college-specific information, such as application requirements, letters of recommendation (if needed), deadlines, and application fees. Make no mistake – even though Common App is a one-stop shop, college reserves the right to request as many different requirements as they like, in order to complete your application. Also make no mistake – each college sets their own fees associated with submitting the application as well.

If you are a low-income student, you have the option of requesting a fee waiver. Please see the Common App website directly, to check your eligibility to receive a fee waiver.

A new change for Common App this year: Member colleges have the option to hide self-disclosed race and ethnicity information, in order to comply with the recent Supreme Court decision that prohibits the use of race as a factor in college admission. My understanding is that you will still see this question on Common App, as the company will use it internally to track user data.

Common App Essay and Supplements

Once you’ve signed up, you will soon come across the Common App Essay. Many selective colleges will require that students submit, at a minimum, the Common App Essay. There are a total of 7 different prompts to select from. There is no advantage of selecting any one prompt over another. However, students will want to consider which prompt allows, and inspires them, to create their best potential essay.

The Common App Essay is not your typical 5-paragraph essay that you write in your high school English class. Your essay should be personally reflective. It should share key details of who you are, beyond the demographics, and objective information, such as high school GPA or standardized test scores. This is one of the only portions of the application where colleges get to hear from YOU. It is important to make it out.

Supplements are additional essays – over and above the Common App essay. Not every college assigns additional supplements, but it is very common for highly selective colleges to request one, two, three, or even four additional supplemental essays. These should also be personally reflective and answered with detail and care.

Do colleges actually read these essays? You bet, especially for highly selective colleges.

Managing College Application Season

Common App surely makes college application much easier, in some respects. However, keep in mind that it is wholly up to every student to manage and navigate details of application requirements for each college, essays and supplements, and their respective due dates.

Again, keep in mind that all of your colleges may not be on Common App, so you may be submitting applications through other platforms as well.

Here at Admissionisms, we believe that students should be in the driver’s seat in completing and submitting college applications on their own. However, we recognize that students often needs support and accountability, in order to submit applications accurately and completely, feedback to submit application materials that shine and stand out, and are turned in in advance of each college’s deadline.

If you need support with the project management aspect of applying to multiple selective colleges, across college application platforms, and crafting application materials to help you stand out, we invite you to reach out to explore our services to see how we can help.