I love September, and not just because pumpkin-flavored everything is finally back on the menu. As a college application prep professional, I see the back-to-school months as a time of great promise and excitement for my clients entering their senior year of high school: college is finally on the horizon for them!
Which is to say: if you’re in the class of 2022 and are choosing to gain a higher education, NOW is the time to start your college applications (if you haven’t already), show yourself in the best possible light, and get into the college of your dreams!
And THIS right here is your one-stop post for figuring out all your Common App needs for this application season, one Ivy Lounge Test Prep article at a time!
1) Make Sure the Common App is the Right College Application Platform for you.
Before you do anything *with* the Common App, make sure it’s the best application platform for the colleges on your college list! Chances are, the Common App—or some combination of the Common App and a particular school’s individual application portal—IS probably your best bet, but if you’re at all unsure, please read this article I wrote recently that compares and contrasts the Coalition App and the Common App.
2) Understand the different sections of the Common App, and how they’ve changed recently.
Now that you’re 10000% sure you’re completing the correct college application for your particular needs, you need to understand how the application works in the first place, as well as all the ways that it’s changed since last year.
So, before you begin entering information into the App, here’s what you need to read in order to get the lay of the land and understand the different sections that are required of you: my thorough overview of the Common App. (If you’re REALLY in a hurry, here’s my quicker guide to the Common App!)
And as far as changes since last year go, luckily for YOU, I wrote about all the updates and changes to the Common App for 2021-22. The long and short of it? Some general questions were changed or removed to be more inclusive; the Common App integrates better with Naviance now; there’s now a Common App phone app; and one of the main application questions has changed.
3) Write an Excellent Common App Essay.
Now that you understand what lies ahead, you need to get working STAT on your main essay. This is the BIGGEST piece of your application: a 650-word essay in which you show the heart and soul of who you are, what you stand for, and how the disparate dots of the rest of your college application all connect to each other. It’s no easy task, but here’s what I suggest:
A. First, have a look at this year’s Common App Essay prompts (spoiler alert: question #4 has changed!).
B. Next, read a popular post I wrote about how to find your Common App Essay topic. Keep in mind that you can basically write about anything and it will fit into one of the prompts. So focus on what will show YOU off best, not on what answers a prompt question the best.
C. Then, BEFORE you start writing, learn what I mean when I tell you that “you need an Organizing Principle.” Your essay needs to pull together the disparate pieces of your application and your resume and tell the colleges you’re applying to who you REALLY are. It’s a big job…
D. …but I can help you do it. Check out the exercises I’ve laid out in this piece about how to find your Organizing Principle—it will help you articulate the deep self-awareness that makes for a winning Common App Essay.
E. If you find you get stuck in the writing process, let me help you beat Common App Essay writer’s block.
4) Craft a Stellar Common App Activities List.
After your main essay, your Activities List gives your application readers the best overview of who you are and how you’ll contribute to their campus. And yet, I see people wasting the opportunities of this section with disappointing regularity (at least before I help them shine things up, that is)! It’s imperative that you organize and frame every item on your list to give you the most bang for your 10-activities-maximum list. This blog post tells you how to write the Common App Activities List that gets you in—make that admission reader sit up and take notice!
5) Decide if the new COVID-19 Essay will help your application, and then…WRITE IT!
Here is my in-depth article to help you navigate and craft the optional COVID-19 Essay on the Common App. Since the pandemic has affected not one, but TWO years of high school for you, you might have been affected in many indirect ways—even if you didn’t directly suffer tragedy or hardship the way so many other students did.
One biggie to keep in mind: did the pandemic / spending over a year being virtual / things getting canceled at all affect what you’re now interested in? Maybe your family’s healthy and your SATs didn’t get canceled, but all your debate tournaments got canceled, so you spent a lot of your time at home…teaching yourself guitar? Like one door closing, one door opening? Or did you see a need in your community that the pandemic brought up…that you felt called to fill—like collecting food donations for the food insecure? If so, use this optional 250-word essay to let colleges know! And that means your main essay gets to let a different part of your personality shine!
6) Write Effective Supplemental Essays for Individual Schools (Yes, That Means the “Why This College” Essay!)
Even after you’ve completed the sections for the main Common App, you may still have more work to do, depending on which schools you’re applying to. Every college has the option of requiring supplemental (or “additional”) essays for THEIR particular application. These essays can take significantly longer than filling out the basic Common App, so don’t wait until the deadline to think about these! The most common supplemental essay that universities ask for is some variation on “Why us?” or “Why do you want to attend our college?” Here’s how to write the “Why This School” Essay—it works for my students, and it can work for you too!
7) Avoid Some Common (and Some Not-So-Common) Common App Mistakes.
Please review a classic from this blog—this list of the 10 worst ways to market yourself to colleges—before hitting submit! Yes, despite how crazy some of them are, ALL of those “strategies” are very, very real…and very real mistakes. You’ll thank me later!
8) Demonstrate Your Interest
While you’re busy crafting your application, there’s still some work you need to do OUTSIDE of the Common App: show Demonstrated Interest in the colleges you plan to apply to! Make sure you do the big—and often overlooked—action items in my blog post to show admissions officers that you’re genuinely, sincerely interested in attending THEIR campus. You’ll thank me later!
And finally,
9) Finalize your Common Application!
If you’ve worked through this post step by step, you’ll be in great shape to send in your college applications with confidence. But it’s still hard to pull the trigger! How can you be sure that you’ve done absolutely everything you can to make sure that your dream school sees you in your best light? Use my final checklist before you submit your Common App.
***
Phew! That was a LOT, but there you have it: EVERYTHING you need to know about crafting the perfect college application on the Common App! And as always, if you need personalized help with the Common App, or with any other element of college testing or admissions, please contact me here.
