TIPS FOR COMPLETING THE 2013-2014 COMMON APP
Background:
The Common App changed significantly this year based on several years of input from students and schools. As is the case with many new products, there are a few “bugs” they are still working out. Additionally, there are more colleges and applicants using the Common App than ever before, and this unexpectedly high volume is putting a strain on their systems.
Applicants, high schools, colleges, and universities have all been affected by these challenges. Be prepared for the system to “crash”, lose connection, time out, and/or drop a user –
particularly during times of heavy use. In most cases information will not be lost, but users may have to log back in repeatedly. Note: At times of heavy usage this fall, the Common App website has crashed altogether allowing no one to log in. They have been working to fix this, but please plan ahead and submit your
application early to ensure it can be submitted in time to meet deadlines.
1. Getting Started/Overview
a. The Common App (CA) has 2 Major Sections:
i. The “Common Application” that is sent to every school a student is applying to that participates in the
Common App. The Common Application is completed once, but may be changed before sending to each school.
ii. The “My Colleges” section that has questions and requirements unique to each school. There can be up to 3 sections for each College:
Questions
Assign Recommenders
Writing Supplement (This College-specific is in addition to the Essay in the Common
Application.)
b. The Common App ONLY works with certain operating systems and specific browsers. Please BE SURE you are using a computer that meets these requirements, or data
may be lost or corrupted and/or all of the CA features may not work.
A link to the “System Requirements” can be found at the bottom of the CA home page and are also listed below:
The following operating system and browsers are supported: PC (Windows XP/Vista/7)
Current version of Chrome Current version of Firefox Internet Explorer 9 or higher
Mac (OS X Tiger / Leopard / Snow Leopard) Current version of Chrome
Current version of Firefox Safari 5.1 or higher
Regardless of browser, please make sure the following browser settings are correct:
Javascript must be enabled. Cookies must be enabled.
Popup blockers must be disabled. Other Software needed:
To view and print PDF files we recommend Adobe Reader 10 or higher. While PDF files should work with most other pdf viewers, we can only guarantee full compatibility and support for Adobe Reader 10 or higher.
Email:
If your email offers a whitelist, please add the following address:
2. Choosing Colleges
a. When looking up a college, be sure to have the exact name of the school and don’t use abbreviations. (i.e. Oklahoma City University, not OCU; The University of Oklahoma, not OU) b. If a school is not found, try searching by city and state or by
other criteria.
c. If a college is still not found, check the Admissions page of that specific school to determine if they use the Common App or their own application. (FYI - OU uses the Common App, OSU does not.)
3. Filling Out the Common App
Most sections are pretty straightforward, but here are a few tips that may help:
a. The Honors portion of the Education section must be
completed before the CA will let you Assign Recommenders. SUGGESTION: Because the Honors and Activities sections can take some time to complete, temporarily choose “1” Honor and just put anything in that field. The CA will view the section as complete and allow you to “Invite” your Recommenders. You can then come back to change and/or complete the Honors section while your Recommenders are also working to complete their portions.
b. The Activities section does not have to be complete in order to Invite Recommenders.
SUGGESTION: Temporarily leave this section blank or only include one item. Go to the Assign Recommenders section of each college and Invite your Recommenders so they have plenty of time to respond to your request. (See below) You can then go back and complete this section while your
Recommenders are working on theirs.
c. For the Personal Essay in the Writing section, use Word (or something similar) to draft and edit the Essay. When complete, do a Word Count to be sure you are under the 650-word limit. Remember this final Word Count.
Copy and paste the essay into the box in the Common App. In most cases, some portions of the formatting will be lost. Carefully review the essay and add or delete lines where needed and combine separated words and/or insert spaces to separate words as needed. Check that the final word count in the Common App matches the Word Count in the original document.
4. Completing the “My Colleges” Section
a. Most Colleges will have a Question tab with 5 sections of questions specific to that school.
b. The Assign Recommenders tab is where you will request information to be sent from the Counselors’ Office and also invite teachers and/or others to write recommendations.
i. After completing the FERPA Release Authorization, “Invite” your Edmond North Counselor. The Counselor is then asked to provide a Transcript, School Report and Counselor Recommendation. Once uploaded by
the Counselors’ Office, these will automatically be sent to each school where a Common App is submitted. ii. “Invite” Recommenders - Academic Teachers and/or
Other Recommenders. Each College will list the number and type required and allowed.
iii. IMPORTANT: Once a Recommender (other than the counselor) has been Invited, you MUST Assign him/her to the College(s) to which you want their recommendation sent.
iv. IMPORTANT: Please let your Recommender(s) know that you have or are about to Invite them to submit a recommendation through the Common App. There have been many instances this fall where your Common App screen will show someone has been Invited, but they have never actually received an e-mail from the Common App. If after re-inviting them (go to Manage Recommenders on the top right side of the Assign
Recommenders page and click on the circle/arrow) they still don’t receive an Invitation, submit a Help Ticket to CA.
c. Some Colleges have a supplemental Writing requirement. (This is in addition to the Common App essay.) As before, please draft and edit the essay in Word, and then copy and paste into the box. Re-formatting will probably be necessary. It is a good idea to again compare Word Counts to be sure the re-formatting was successful.
5. Cautions and Suggestions prior to Submitting your Application(s): a. Please do several reviews of each page of the Common App. At times check marks appear indicating a section has been completed when a question has actually been missed or a field is incomplete.
b. Conversely, at times a section is actually complete but a check mark does not appear and/or the system won’t allow you to advance to the next section. In this case:
i. Remove the information from the field/section in question, clear the cache, close your browser and re-start your computer.
ii. Log back into the CA and re-enter the information in that field/section.
iii. Try using Google Chrome as your browser.
iv. If the problem persists, create a help ticket (see below). After describing the problem, BE SURE to include that
you have taken the above steps and that you need them to re-set that section to show it is complete; otherwise, the response from the CA team will be to clear your cache, re-start your computer, etc.
c. Prior to Submitting the CA, you will be given an opportunity to Preview the entire document. Please print and retain a copy of the Preview in its final version for each school. (The retained copy should be the exact document that is actually submitted.)
d. Once you are satisfied with the Preview, you will be taken to the page to submit the Application Fee.
There have been problems with the payment system this fall. The CA believes these have been resolved, but please check your statement to be sure you haven’t been charged more than once.
After paying the Application Fee, please take a screen shot and/or Print the screen showing the date, time and
successful payment of the Application Fee.
e. Once you have paid the Application Fee, you can now
Submit the Common Application. You also have the option to return to the CA and make additional changes. You will then have to go through the Preview step again, but you will not be asked to pay the Admissions Fee again prior to
Submitting the application.
f. IMPORTANT: There have been significant problems with the Colleges receiving complete Common Apps in a timely
manner. After Submitting the Common App, please take a screen shot and/or do a Print Screen showing the date and time of the confirmation that your Common App was
successfully submitted. RETAIN THIS FOR YOUR
RECORDS! You should receive a confirmation e-mail that your application was successfully submitted, but in many cases this has not occurred.
g. If your College has a Writing Supplement, that may be
submitted after the Common App has been submitted to that school. As before, you will be given the opportunity to
Preview that document and then Submit. A confirmation page will appear after it has been submitted. Please print and retain this confirmation.
6. Trouble Shooting
a. Check the bottom of the CA Home Page, the CA Help Center, and/or the CA’s Facebook and Twitter accounts for updates on the most recent problems, projected resolution time frames, and work-arounds.
b. Go to the Help Center (The link is in the top right-hand corner – click on the arrow.) There is a lot of information on
Frequently Asked Questions in the Knowledgebase. c. If a Continue button does not appear, there is usually a
question or field that has not been completed. You may also try using Chrome as your browser to complete this section and see if the Continue button appears. If you are using Internet Explorer or Firefox, try hitting F11 to see if the Continue
button appears. If none of that works, create a Help ticket (see below) and be sure to include the trouble-shooting/problem resolution steps you have already taken.
7. When All Else Fails (aka Creating a Help Ticket)
The Common App company does not have a phone number or live support. If you are experiencing problems, you can create a help ticket by going to the Help Center. Go to the Ask a Question tab and follow the instructions. Step 2 gives you information related to the topic you chose in Step 1, but if your question is not answered there go to the bottom of the page and click on “My Answer Is Not Here”. Follow the prompts to create your Help Ticket. You should receive an e-mail confirmation that your ticket has been created. Depending upon the question and the number of issues that day, you may get a response within minutes or a couple of days.
When creating a Help Ticket, please describe the problem but also outline the steps you have taken to resolve it on your own. Their help desk often responds with “Please check to be sure that your operating system and browser are supported under our System Requirements”, or “ Please clear your cache, close your browser, and re-start your computer.” By telling them you have done these things or followed their instructions from the Knowledgebase, you should get a more helpful response.
a. The Counselors’ Office and Recommenders can upload their information, but their information will not be sent to a College until you have first submitted the Common App to that school.
b. You may submit your Common App to a College without all of the required recommendation letters and support
materials. Those will be sent to the Colleges as they are complete and uploaded.
c. It may take several days for colleges to receive your
information from the Common App, and it may take several additional days for them to post an acknowledgment into students’ individual accounts that they have received it. d. IMPORTANT: Many Colleges are having problems
downloading complete application materials from the Common App. Company. After 7-10 days, please double check with the schools to be sure materials have actually been received. There are several known instances this fall of Edmond North students submitting applications, including information from the Counselors’ Office and Recommenders, but the Colleges only received portions of it.
e. Please let the Counselors’ Office know if you have a specific application deadline.
f. This year, we are recommending that everyone keep paper copies of all materials, including screens showing
confirmation of payment and/or submission.
g. Due to problems with the Common App this year, some schools have extended their traditional November 1st early
decision deadline. Please check with your specific colleges and/or the Edmond North Counselors’ office.
