The Common App

The Common Application, which is accepted by more than 1,000 schools, including some colleges located outside the U.S., helps streamline an essential part of the admissions process for students. First-time and transfer applicants can apply to multiple colleges at once. This way, students only have to fill out details that most schools require – such as name, address and extracurricular activities – one time. Basically, it simplifies everything!

The Common App opens Aug. 1 every year. Students should pay very close attention to deadlines, as they differ among universities. Most of the time, early decision and early action deadlines are in November 1 or November 15. Regular decision deadlines are generally around January 1. Rolling decision deadlines can extend into the summer after high school graduation!

How to Complete the Common Application

Here are steps for how students can work on an application through the platform:

• Go to commonapp.org and click on the "Start your application" button to get details about how to create an account and log in. Additionally, students can download the Common App's mobile app to keep track of deadlines, invite recommenders and set reminders.

• Choose the first-year student or transfer student option.

• Add user information such as name, email, phone number, address, date of birth and prospective enrollment year.

• Fill out the user profile with requested details on education, extracurriculars, demographic data, household information and more.

• Add collaborators such as teachers, counselors and others providing letters of recommendation or other supporting documents.

• Search for and add schools to "My Colleges."

• Get familiar with each college's application requirements and follow those accordingly when applying.

Extracurricular Activities

As every college applicant knows, admissions offices look at extracurricular activities as one of the many factors that go into admissions decisions.

But just how those extracurriculars are considered is much less understood. Is it better to be involved in as many activities as possible to show that you’re a well-rounded applicant, or do schools want to see commitment, focus and leadership? Which activities are more prestigious?

Let’s break down how colleges look at extracurricular activities on applications.

Extracurriculars can play a decisive role. For instance, admissions counselors may have reservations about a star student who has not contributed to his or her community in a meaningful way. On the other hand, extensive community involvement can work in the favor of an applicant who does not stand out academically.

Degree of Commitment

Colleges want to see that applicants are committed to the extracurriculars they choose. One way to showcase commitment is through the length of your participation in an activity. The longer you have been involved in a pursuit, the better it will look on your resume.

Leadership Positions

The degree of your participation in extracurriculars is equally important as the duration. It adds a competitive edge to your application to indicate that you went from being a general member in a club to holding a special position. This demonstrates both commitment and leadership skills.

You can stand out further if you’ve founded a club or organization, showing initiative. If you have a passion that isn’t satisfied by a club at your school, consider finding out how to start one. Not only will you be able to show deep commitment and leadership, but you’ll also demonstrate to schools that you’re an innovator.

Community involvement

While it’s easy to focus on school-based activities as you apply to college, keep in mind that your extracurricular activities can take place outside of a school setting.

These outside activities can add to your abilities to pursue your passions, show deep commitment and identify leadership opportunities. So determine what you love to do and seek out opportunities to commit to it both inside and outside of school.

Ultimately, it really does come down to doing extracurricular activities, because oftentimes, students don't understand that you have to be more than just a student. 

This is your chance to showcase who you are as a person and who you are as a scholar. 

Advice for Seniors

If you are a senior admitted to multiple colleges and trying to make a decision, keep reading!  

I understand that this decision may feel overwhelming. Nothing I can say is going to provide you with total clarity. You have worked hard and earned the right to make this decision. Celebrate yourself and all of your accomplishments!  

I know you are busy. You have a lot going on both in and out of the classroom. So, I did the heavy lifting by putting together advice, tips, and other resources on how you can make this decision with confidence. Here we go. 

The Associate Director of Georgia Tech, Andrew Cohen wrote a real gem on ways to make a final decision without physically visiting or re-visiting a college. While this came out at the very beginning of the Covid pandemic, his advice is just as relevant now since most students don’t have the time or resources to revisit all of their college options. 

Admitted Student Webinars and Virtual Events: Visit websites and plan for a virtual tour or information session. You can also set up conversations with current students and alumni to pick their brains.

Virtual Campus Tours: If you cannot make it in person, get online! 

Social Media: As many of you know, I always say not to believe everything on social media. That said, you should still follow the institution and admission office’s social media handles. Make sure you also take a look at the various departmental and student organization accounts. These accounts are created for current students, so you will get some different information that you might not see on the institution or admission accounts.

Talk to Students and Admissions Staff:  Most institutions have a way for you to connect with current students.

In my many years of college counseling, I stand by focusing on the following:

1. Academic Interests and Options: As an admitted student, your goal is to understand details about the academic area you are considering and how you can tailor your studies toward your interests.  “How can I be a history major but also be a pre-med student?” Remember,  your goal is to glean insight and details to gain an understanding of what your experience will really look like on these campuses.    

2. Community: As an admitted student, your goal is to understand some of the residential opportunities available. Some dorms offer themes or group students together with similar interests. Ask questions!

3. Culture: Get an inside look at what it is really like to be part of campus. Keep in mind you are visiting campus one day out of the year, so your experience is not going to be a fully accurate representation of the campus culture. 

4. Stories not statistics: Use your time on campus and exploring social media to ask for stories and anecdotes about graduates or graduating seniors. 

Ultimately, you need to trust your gut. You can read websites, watch webinars, and scroll social media, but at the end of day you will have a feeling and need to trust yourself. You know yourself best! You will have that “aha moment,” just like I did!

Options and choices can feel overwhelming, but don’t forget that THIS WAS THE GOAL! This decision is a privilege. THIS is why you visited schools, researched colleges, and applied to more than just one place. THIS is why you took tough classes, studied, worked hard, and sat through multi-hour standardized tests—to have choices. You are EXACTLY where you wanted to be!

Good luck. You got this!

The Cost of College

For financial aid purposes, there are five types of colleges:

• Public In-State Universities

• Public Out-of-State Universities

• Private Colleges/Universities

• Two-year Colleges

• International Universities

What is the difference between public and private universities?

Public universities are partially funded by the government of the state in which they operate. 

You pay taxes. Those taxes flow to the state government, which then spends them on the universities funded and operated by the state. In contrast, private colleges mostly operate independently of state influence and funding. As a result, public universities typically have much lower sticker prices than private colleges. That said, this lower sticker price only applies to students who qualify for in-state tuition. 

Private colleges are far more likely than public universities to make their net prices flexible through discounts, particularly scholarships. 

A private college with a higher tuition could easily drop to the cost of a public university for a student with great academic achievement. Conversely, because public universities already have comparatively low sticker prices for their residents as well as (usually) much bigger applicant pools, earning a scholarship at a public university is far tougher to do unless your state has a built in merit-based program.

Based on these differences, you may already have a good idea of which types of colleges are more likely to offer you an affordable price. And you’re probably right.

Next up…FAFSA 101.

The SAT is changing. What do you need to know?

The SAT was scored out of 1600, changed to 2400, back to 1600 and now…No more filling in bubbles or waiting for proctors to collect the exam sheets: The SAT is going digital! (This will not impact the ACT.)

Don’t stress just yet. International students are going to be the first recipients of this change starting this year, but it won’t impact the United States until 2024.  The SAT is a multiple-choice exam aimed at predicting "college readiness" among high school students. You are more than just your SAT score, but this exam does signify if you are ready for college-level work. Many universities went test-optional during the course of the pandemic, but schools have the option of reevaluating this decision on a yearly basis. Therefore, it is imperative that your child is adequately prepared to test.

What are these SAT changes? Aside from a new digital format, other adjustments to the SAT include a shortened test, allowance of graphing calculators throughout the math portion and faster results.  The SAT will remain on a 1,600-point scale and continue to test skills related to the three subject areas of reading, writing and math.

The new digital test will be adaptive, which changes the level of question difficulty for subsequent questions based on a student's performance. Do we like this? How will this impact your children? As a college counselor, I have mixed feelings about this. Anxiety always plays a role in performance on standardized testing.  If your child walks in nervous, then they might answer the first question wrong, which in turn, would immediately drive their score down. 

The length of the exam will be reduced from three hours to two.  Questions are also going to be more concise. For instance, lengthy reading passages are set to be replaced with shorter versions. Only one question, rather than multiple, will be tied to each reading.

Good news? A graphing calculator will be allowed! The current SAT divides the math section into two parts: a non calculator and a calculator portion. As part of the recent changes, a calculator is now allowed for the entire math segment. 

Test results will also be available within a matter of days! No more anxiously waiting weeks for that email!

Due to the many months spent studying online during the height of the pandemic, many students are more comfortable taking tests digitally. The College Board is still figuring out how to accommodate students with learning differences. 

The biggest question is whether your child should take the SAT/ACT with the implementation of test-optional. The answer is a resounding YES. If you take the SAT or ACT and are not pleased with your scores, then exercise your test-optional right to not submit them.  If they are valuable to you and they could be a differentiator in your college application, then submit them. If you never take the test, you'll never be able to make that choice as you're applying to college. 

Are you happy about these SAT changes?

The College Essay

Are you applying to college in the next few years?  How much of your real self should you reveal in your applications?  Your college essay is meant to be a glimpse into your story, not your entire life. This is not a resume, transcript or list of achievements. After all, you have 650 words to convey something that the rest of your application does not demonstrate. Therefore, this is not the space to show your grades, extracurricular activities or why you want to attend said university. 

I want you to think of your personal statement as a way for colleges to get a sense of who you are through what values, qualities, and skills you’ve developed and will bring to their campus and community. Show who you are through what you value.

How can I give you a sense of who I am through what I value in the span of a few minutes? Why, you ask? Because that’s how long someone tends to spend reading your college application.

I’m not bringing this up to evoke anxiety. I want to manage expectations so that you write in a way that conveys all the beautiful complexity of you in the span of a few minutes.

This essay is also a place for exploration and discovery of yourself!

SHOW GROWTH. 

I love when an essay helps me see how a student has grown through their experiences.

GET PERSONAL/VULNERABLE.

Vulnerability can be scary. Especially since we can be trained to think of vulnerability as weakness, which it definitely is not. In fact, it’s one of our greatest strengths. When a student opens up about their worries, fears, or difficulties, I feel closer to them. It feels like a gift when students bravely offer up a part of themselves. 

DEMONSTRATE CRAFT.

Don’t try to demonstrate facility with language by using “big words” just for the sake of using big words.  Think of someone you know who uses big, shiny words not because they fit the context, but because they want you to be impressed. Are you actually impressed? Unlikely. This will NOT impress admissions.

SHARE YOUR STORY

Don’t tell a story because you think it’s what they want to hear. Tell them about what matters to you, about what has shaped you.

A few important reminders: 

• Think from your reader’s perspective (for clarity, and for engagement—if you’d be bored, they probably will be too).

• Don’t let a parent write/revise—admissions officers are really good at spotting this, and it will be the end of your application.

“The truth is, admission reviewers rarely know—or care—which prompt you are responding to. They are curious to discover what you choose to show them about who you are, what you value, and why.”- Brennan Barnard of The Derryfield School and Forbes

Early Prep is Key

Top schools saw record numbers of early action applicants again this year and admitted an even smaller percentage. Letting go of perceived control can be one of the hardest parts of parenting. Unfortunately, sometimes uncertainty and our growing lack of agency over our children’s future get funneled into the admission experience as a last-ditch effort to cling on. There are so many factors that go into building a class and, often, there is an overabundance of talented applicants–many of whom could be successful at a given college or university. Being top in your class does not mean an automatic acceptance at a college or university anymore. As more colleges move toward holistic admissions, other factors are becoming increasingly important, including course rigor, GPA, extracurricular activities, essays and in some cases, test scores. 

When applying to college, teenagers and their parents often gauge their chances by looking at a university's overall acceptance rate. This statistic rarely tells the whole story.  

The application volume for this cycle increased nearly 10% from last year—which itself was up some 10% from the year before that. Over the past two decades, the number of applications submitted to colleges has increased more than 150%, even as the size of high-school graduating classes has remained fairly stable.

I hope this demonstrates just how imperative it is to get the process started early. We will guide you on how to approach this process so as to not feel overwhelmed or have your child get lost in the large number of students assigned to his/her/their guidance counselor.

Wishing you the best. And remember…early prep is key!