August 1 is a thrilling date for me, a college process wizard whose magic power is getting high schoolers into the colleges at the tops of their lists. It’s today that the Common App reopens, meaning that the class of 2024 can start working on their college applications!
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What is the Common App?
I’m so glad you asked! The Common App is an online platform that aims to streamline the college application process, making it less time-consuming and stressful for students and admissions offices alike. The Common App achieves this by letting you draft just one college application…and submitting it to over 1,030 participating schools! The advent of the Common App in 1975 truly ushered in a new, less tedious era of the college admissions process.
It should be noted that not EVERY institution of higher learning accepts the Common App. However, so many colleges and universities DO—and more keep getting added every year—that most of the hundreds of students I’ve worked with over my 13+ years in the test prep industry have submitted only the Common App. (Is the Common App a totally new concept to you? Check out this post I wrote breaking down what it is.)
The college application process is a rite of passage…and, like many other rites of passage, it can be a demanding one. To help YOUR experience be a little less back-breaking, every year I bring you a summary of all the most important ways that the Common App has changed since the last application season.
THIS YEAR, THERE ARE FIVE CHANGES TO THE COMMON APP THAT AFFECT FIRST-YEAR APPLICANTS THE MOST:
Update to sex and gender identity questions,
Preferred name option,
Update to test section language,
Change to account rollover, and
Change in how Race & Ethnicity Question esponses can be used.
Over the years, the folks who run the Common App have observed that certain student demographics tend to begin but then abandon their applications more often than other students. And there’s a pattern: students who don’t finish their applications tend to get tripped up on a single question or two. As a result, the designers of the Common App have been evolving the application to make it more accessible for members of these marginalized groups. The goal is to edit, add, or remove certain questions in order to make the application more representative of ALL students who want to go to college—not just to the majority.
Here are fuller explanations of the updates for the current 2023-2024 application cycle that aim to remove barriers to entry in this way:
1. & 2. Changes to questions about sex, gender, & first name on the 2023-2024 Common App
To build upon the last admission cycle’s Gender Identity question updates, the Common App is continuing to make an effort to better respect and reflect the diversity of today’s high schoolers. Specifically, the website will be changing to become even more LGBTQ-friendly than before by:
Adding “X or another legal sex” as a third option for the Legal Sex question (in addition to the “male” and “female” options);
Adding a “My First Name” option in addition to the “Legal First / Given Name” field when a student creates an account…and then allowing the student to select which of those two names Common App should use to communicate with the student!
It’s wonderful that the Common App continues to evolve to be more inclusive of the gender spectrum. I hope that these semantic changes will help to give nonbinary and transgender students the level playing field they deserve!
3. The Common App has updated its Test Section language!
This may sound like a very minor detail, but as a test prep expert, I believe it will have a big impact on students’ abilities to show themselves in the best light possible:
Instead of asking students “Have you taken…” the ACT Plus Writing (i.e. the ACT essay) or the SAT essay, the Common App will now phrase it as “Would you like to report an [ACT Plus Writing / SAT essay] score?”
After all, maybe you DID take an SAT a couple years ago, and opted to do so with the Essay component—or perhaps you took the ACT Plus Writing recently—but not only was your essay score not great, but no college really requires it, anyway. It would be lying to say “no” to a question asking if you HAD taken it…even though you don’t care to share that part of your score.
By asking instead if you’d “like to report” the score, more students will feel confident NOT sharing that information if that information won’t benefit them.
4. Advisor invitations will roll over after the Common App relaunches on August 1st
Did you know that you can create your Common App account BEFORE senior year? Well, you can! You can get started in early high school by creating an account and even filling out your information and creating a college list.
However, a small fly in the ointment is that every year, the Common App relaunches on August 1st and certain information in your account is deleted, while other parts roll over.
Here are the parts that roll over:
Your college list
Answers to questions on the Common App tabs, like:
- Profile
- Family
- Education
- Testing
- Activities
- Writing
- Courses & Grades
However, these items get deleted during the annual reboot:
College-specific Questions
FERPA release authorization
Recommender invitations
The change here is that this year, your Advisor invitation WILL roll over. So that’s one less thing to do if you got started early on your Common App!
5. The Common App now allows colleges to “suppress” responses to Race & Ethnicity questions
In light of the recent Supreme Court Decision banning race-based affirmative action, Common App made a change in anticipation of how colleges might start to respond to the news. This change has nothing to do with how a student ANSWERS these questions, but with a member college’s ability to hide your answers to its admissions officers when they look at your application.
To be clear, any question the Common App asks you about Race and/or Ethnicity has been optional and will remain optional. You are more than welcome to answer them. In fact, the Common App uses this data to help make the application more inclusive each year.
The part that is changing is that colleges now have the option to suppress the Race & Ethnicity responses so admissions officers can’t see them…which is helpful if a college doesn’t want to use—or cannot legally use—this information. There might be more changes in the future as each college adapts to the SCOTUS decision, but this is how it affects the Common App thus far.
Is the Common App Activities Section Different this Year?
Nope! In fact, all character counts (and other counts) remain the same as they were for the 2022-23 admissions cycle:
You may list up to 10 Activities
Position / Leadership is still up to 50 characters
Organization Name is still up to 100 characters
Description is still up to 150 characters
There is still the Estimated Time Spent question for each activity
Are the Common App essay prompts different this year?
The main Common App essay prompts are not changing this year, so they are the exact same seven prompts as last year and the year before!
HERE’S THE FULL LIST OF COMMON APP ESSAY PROMPTS FOR 2023-2024 (FROM THE COMMON APP WEBSITE):
Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?
Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?
Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you've already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.
The Common App will also keep the optional Covid-19 / natural disaster essay question in the Additional Information section of the application.
SO, NOW THAT YOU’RE CAUGHT UP TO SPEED, YOU’VE GOT A LEG UP once THE COMMON APP RELAUNCHES TODAY ON AUGUST 1ST.
But hey, that’s not to say challenges and confusion won’t necessarily come up once you’ve started your Common App. If you’d like you-specific help with the App’s questions, or essays, or with getting an SAT/ACT score that you’re proud to write down on the App…all of that is what I specialize in!
For example, you can make an appointment here to hold a private essay writing session with me. During our meeting, I’ll get to the bottom of what specific traits/experiences both make you stand out and provide coherence to your college applications. (I call this your “Organizing Principle”.) Then, I help you write prose that brings you to life in just 650 words!
Or, if you’re more of a DIY-er, you can nab my “Ace the Personal Statement” guide for only 9 bucks! Yes, this is priced way below its value, but I believe in doing what I can to bring my expertise to as many students who need it as possible—especially those who can’t afford to work with me one-on-one.
