Common Application

[Teachin'Mine]

Do you use your own homeschool name for high school name, or do you just put homeschool?

 

The form seems very short,incomplete and inflexible. JMO Thoughts?

[Brigid in NC]

We used our homeschool name, which ended with "High School."   It did not include the word "homeschool" in it.  ;)

[Teachin'Mine]

Thank you Brigid.

[Laura in CA]

another question -- I hope people see this! Please be patient with me -- I searched and couldn't find the answer. It's probably completely obvious; my brain must just not be working ...

 

So, for the Common App, obviously my son makes an account, as an applicant ... the teachers who will write his LORs create their own accounts (right? his Greek/Roman Lit tutor is not tech-savvy and I'm sure doesn't have a Common App account yet, so he'll need to make one, right?).

 

My question -- do I, as the principal/counselor of our private homeschool, create MY own account at Common App? If so, would I do it under "Applicant" or "Member"? Is the Member tab for log-in for high-school counselors, or for the colleges??

 

I was about to print out the various forms we/he'll need to fill out so I can just take a look at them, but I can't even see the link for the forms -- do you see that after you have an account? or is it because they're still working out the kinks for the new CA4?

 

Thanks for any help :)

 

~Laura

 

[Barbara H]

Hi Laura,

I've worked through a complete application but there were lots of stops and starts (logging out, parts not working yet). So, still really glitchy and I'm advising that students wait a few more days.

 

Here's how you get to the counselor recommendation:

 

Your son makes an account and lists colleges. Then, he goes into "My Colleges" tab and selects a college. There will be a menu that says Assign Recommenders. Click "counselor" and then enter your email address. When it offers up the choices of counselor, teacher, parent - choose counselor. When your email address is entered the Common Application will send you an email.

 

The email will give you choices: follow the link to file a recommendation online, submit by mail, or decline to recommend.

 

If the system is working it will then take you to the Common Application and ask you to create a password. And, then it will either take you through the rest of the process or you'll get this:

"We're sorry. It seems you've encountered a part of our system that is under maintenance. We're busy adding system enhancements, and ask that you please try this action again later.

We appreciate your patience."

 

Hope that helps.

[Barbara H]

Adding: the letters the recommenders will get is very similar to the one you will get when your son lists you as the counselor.  The recommenders will have the same three choices of submit online, submit by regular mail, or decline to recommend. The email the Common Application sends out is very clear and easy to understand.

 

The one thing is that the Common Application asks recommenders to submit all student recommendations the same way. So, if they opt not to submit by email then that is a permanent decision.

 

Unless the student will be too busy in a week or two, I personally would wait a few days to list recommenders because the system doesn't seem to be working well. I've run through samples and not every email address has gone through and then there are the maintance warnings.

[regentrude]

Adding: the letters the recommenders will get is very similar to the one you will get when your son lists you as the counselor.  The recommenders will have the same three choices of submit online, submit by regular mail, or decline to recommend. The email the Common Application sends out is very clear and easy to understand.

 

The one thing is that the Common Application asks recommenders to submit all student recommendations the same way. So, if they opt not to submit by email then that is a permanent decision.

 

Unless the student will be too busy in a week or two, I personally would wait a few days to list recommenders because the system doesn't seem to be working well. I've run through samples and not every email address has gone through and then there are the maintance warnings.

 

Thanks, Barbara, this is very helpful. (Of course my DD tried to star her app RIGHT this morning...)

 

One question: will the recommender be uploading his recommendation through the common app to a specific college, or once to the common app itself? In other words, will the recommender have to write ONE generic recommendation to put in the common app, or be able to customize the recommendation for the individual schools?

Will the counselor letter be customizable as well, or will there be one letter for the entire common app?

Thanks fro helping me sort this out.

[Brigid in NC]

One question: will the recommender be uploading his recommendation through the common app to a specific college, or once to the common app itself? In other words, will the recommender have to write ONE generic recommendation to put in the common app, or be able to customize the recommendation for the individual schools?

 

I did not notice that there was a submit by mail option for letters of rec when I wrote common app LORs in the past.  For the teacher who submits the LOR online, the teacher will write and upload one LOR that will go to all of the common app schools for that student. The recommender will not be able to tailor the uploaded rec by school.  That may be different if they are mailed.

 

I went back to the common app site to look at what I did with ds1's counselor letter, and I got a "site under maintenance" message :glare: --so I am 99% sure that the same holds true for the counselor letter.  One document. The common app cyber glitches can be a bit stressful.  Good luck with the process. ;)

[Laura in CA]

 

Unless the student will be too busy in a week or two, I personally would wait a few days to list recommenders because the system doesn't seem to be working well. 

 

Thank you so much, Barbara!

 

And yes, I was eager to get a look at the forms, but I will be far too busy the next 3 weeks getting my older son off to college and settled. (Why I had the boys so close together in age I don't know ... seemed like a good idea at the time, haha.) At least he's on the semester system, so he'll be off in a different state and basically on his own by mid- to late August, so I won't really be doing serious stuff with college apps until late August at the earliest ... just want to start getting my ducks in a row. Between shopping for dorm stuff (this evening), etc.!

 

Of course the younger boy wants to apply early action to several schools ... and the UC apps are due in November too ... and National Merit stuff will be due soon ... but I won't think about that until we get back from taking the older boy to start college!   :willy_nilly:

[Barbara H]

The recommender will upload a single letter. Really most people don't want to fool with a lot of custom letters so typically it shouldn't present a big problem. Students can list different recommenders for differnent schools though so that allows some customization.

 

[Barbara H]

 

Of course the younger boy wants to apply early action to several schools ... and the UC apps are due in November too ... and National Merit stuff will be due soon ... but I won't think about that until we get back from taking the older boy to start college!   :willy_nilly:

 

That is a lot. Hopefully everything will be working well on the forms soon. The early deadlines seem to be earlier every year!

[Barbara H]

I went back to the common app site to look at what I did with ds1's counselor letter, and I got a "site under maintenance" message :glare: --so I am 99% sure that the same holds true for the counselor letter.

 

If ds1 was from a previous year it should have been purged from the system. They clear out the previous year accounts from the system before they launch the new year.

 

I'm thinking the Common Application has to be one stressful place to be working this week. They are working around the clock right now.

[Sunshine State Sue]

Um.  Is there an idiot homeschooler's guide to the common app?  I think I need to begin the unavoidable.  Every time I peeked at the homeschool supplement and saw that I had to state my homeschool philosophy, I got scared and ran away.  :leaving: Now I can't even find it.

 

I just decided to hire someone to write it for me, though.  :hurray:

[regentrude]

Um.  Is there an idiot homeschooler's guide to the common app?  I think I need to begin the unavoidable.  Every time I peeked at the homeschool supplement and saw that I had to state my homeschool philosophy, I got scared and ran away.  :leaving: Now I can't even find it.

 

I just decided to hire someone to write it for me, though.  :hurray:

 

That's because, from what I have read, the new version of the Common App does not HAVE the homeschool supplement anymore.

You're supposed to put all info into the school report.

[Sunshine State Sue]

That's because, from what I have read, the new version of the Common App does not HAVE the homeschool supplement anymore.

You're supposed to put all info into the school report.

Then I need the idiot's guide even more now.

[Teachin'Mine]

Yes, that's partially why I was asking about whether to use homeschool high school name or to just click on "homeschool". I couldn't find any homeschool supplement. But I think I'm glad about that ... or maybe ignorance is bliss ...

 

I could use that guide too Sue. I know they're working to fix glitches, but I wish they had released it in a better state and taken more circumstances into consideration. The form, as is, is very limiting.

[Gwen in VA]

My favorite piece of advice from this thread is that my kid shouldn't fuss with the Common App for a few more weeks. That is a piece I can follow!

 

Now I'm worried about what happens when those weeks pass and we really do need to get serious about this Common App stuff. It sounds WAY too complicated. Does anyone else remember the days of paper apps fondly?

 

(Part of my shell-shock is that my '12 graduate applied ED to a school that only did a paper app, so I am way out of practice with this "got to get the format right so the computer is happy" stuff!)