JanetC Posted September 30, 2015 Share Posted September 30, 2015 I plan on submitting 2 separate uploads: one for the official transcript and one for the course description. My course description includes materials/texts/ resources. I also have a separate document for school profile that I will upload in the profile section. Profile section upload? Where is that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted September 30, 2015 Share Posted September 30, 2015 Profile section upload? Where is that? There is a place in the Counselor profile section to upload a school profile. Look up thread for details. Basically if it would apply to all students at a school it goes under the counselor's tab. If specific to a student then it goes in by clicking on the student's name and opening up their info in the workspace. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted October 4, 2015 Share Posted October 4, 2015 Another CA thread. I posted some step by step info on what the Teacher Recommendation side looks like. Requesting Teacher LORs on the Common App Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted October 6, 2015 Share Posted October 6, 2015 A little tip for working with these online forms that my son gave to me. If you are working with a textbox and what you are writing or pasting is more than what will fit in the box, look for a couple lines in the lower right corner of the box. Click on this corner and you can drag to make the box bigger. I've found this really helpful, especially with forms that I want to print, but that will only print what shows up in the box. When I resize the box, I can get it to print everything I've included. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swimmermom3 Posted October 17, 2015 Author Share Posted October 17, 2015 Sebastian, you are a gem for keeping this going. Thanks so much. I am overwhelmed with the number of threads and amount of advice, but slowly our paperwork here is taking shape. Virtual hugs, wine, chocolate, or coffee to all of you that are hard at work on the Common App and all that goes with it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeaTotaler Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 Sebastian, you are a gem for keeping this going. Thanks so much. I am overwhelmed with the number of threads and amount of advice, but slowly our paperwork here is taking shape. Virtual hugs, wine, chocolate, or coffee to all of you that are hard at work on the Common App and all that goes with it. Yes, thank you so much, Sebastian. Three weeks ago, I did not think I would actually be able to get my paperwork in order (autoimmune flare for the past 8 months; other challenging life circumstances) but through God's grace and mercy and the information on these boards, I have been able to pull some stuff together. Still finishing up course descriptions and have the beast of the Common App to conquer. Thank you, again. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 Sebastian, you are a gem for keeping this going. Thanks so much. I am overwhelmed with the number of threads and amount of advice, but slowly our paperwork here is taking shape. Virtual hugs, wine, chocolate, or coffee to all of you that are hard at work on the Common App and all that goes with it. Aw thanks. This one took ds and I about 30 min to figure out. I couldn't understand why the recommender's would show up for one school but not others. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 Yes, thank you so much, Sebastian. Three weeks ago, I did not think I would actually be able to get my paperwork in order (autoimmune flare for the past 8 months; other challenging life circumstances) but through God's grace and mercy and the information on these boards, I have been able to pull some stuff together. Still finishing up course descriptions and have the beast of the Common App to conquer. Thank you, again. Thanks. I hope you're feeling a little better. For Common App the biggest helps have been the College Wise guide and making a practice student account. It's far easier to fiddle with my own login than to try to hover over ds's shoulder. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeaTotaler Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 Thanks. I hope you're feeling a little better. For Common App the biggest helps have been the College Wise guide and making a practice student account. It's far easier to fiddle with my own login than to try to hover over ds's shoulder. Thank you. The autoimmune flare has subsided; other health issues keep swirling around but I am ignoring them right now in order to get college applications done. I read through the College Wise guide - wish there was one specifically for homeschoolers. I think you need to write one (in your spare time, ha, ha)! I started tackling the Common App on Saturday and got stuck on the all the info to be filled out regarding graduating class size, % attending 2 yr, 4yr college etc. Decided to bag it and continue working on course descriptions. Not a good start. Ugh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JanetC Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 I started tackling the Common App on Saturday and got stuck on the all the info to be filled out regarding graduating class size, % attending 2 yr, 4yr college etc. Decided to bag it and continue working on course descriptions. Not a good start. Ugh. Remember that anything that doesnn't have a red asterisk by it is optional, and if on the first counselor page you check "No" to the questions about providing student rankings, you can turn off more red asterisks and leave more rankings and statistics blank on the student page. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 Thank you. The autoimmune flare has subsided; other health issues keep swirling around but I am ignoring them right now in order to get college applications done. I read through the College Wise guide - wish there was one specifically for homeschoolers. I think you need to write one (in your spare time, ha, ha)! I started tackling the Common App on Saturday and got stuck on the all the info to be filled out regarding graduating class size, % attending 2 yr, 4yr college etc. Decided to bag it and continue working on course descriptions. Not a good start. Ugh. I just went with Class size 1, 4 yr college 100%, demographics were 0 except what fit my kid. Fwiw a lot of this is just going to be smushed onto one line in the report. Don't agonize over what isn't that meaningful for your situation. Either check no to making the ratings report or answer and move on. When you get to the student section you can click a preview link at the bottoms of the page to see what the output will look like. It pulls some info from the school wide fields and other info from the student fields. It is kind of cool to see it all collected together. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 Remember that anything that doesnn't have a red asterisk by it is optional, and if on the first counselor page you check "No" to the questions about providing student rankings, you can turn off more red asterisks and leave more rankings and statistics blank on the student page. I think that saying no to "do you complete applicants' academic ratings on the Common Application School Report?" will make ratings of the individual student optional, but I don't think it makes the demographic questions about the school change status. The question on this section that I thought about the longest was about AP courses and honors courses offered. In the end, I totalled up how many were on the transcript and cited that. The student took all that were offered. It didn't make sense to me to consider courses that could have been taken if we'd made different choices like more online courses or more dual enrollment. That would be like saying a PS should list all AP courses that CB offers because the school could have chosen to offer them. In the end, this is an area where Common App isn't a perfect fit for a homeschool applicant. The numbers are going to look different than what traditional schools have. So be it. We aren't hiding that he's homeschooled, so I think if they wonder about the 0% and 100%, they will see the homeschool info and realize why the numbers are not typical. In short, I wouldn't let this section be something you agonize over. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 Here's my next installment on working on a guide to the CA counselor section. These are thoughts on questions in the School Profile section of the Profile tab for a Counselor login. Feedback and suggestions are welcome. Counselor Profile > School Profile This is information that would apply to every student that attended a school. So a typical school would put data about how many students are in the graduating class, where they tend to go after graduation, how many are in minority categories, and the type of courses that the school offers. There is also a place to upload a School Profile document. If you homeschool under some kind of an umbrella school or charter school that would have a larger graduating class, you might want to check with that organization to see if they typically do the counselor section on Common App. (Just my opinion, but you probably want the info in this section to correspond to what you put in for school details. In other words, if you use a home study charter school that has a CEEB code then the counselor info might be better completed by a school official. If your family is the only entity that will issue the transcript and diploma, then this section is probably yours to complete. The percentage answers in this section will probably be either 0% or 100% because of the small class size. Remember that if you indicated in the school details section that the student was homeschooled, then admissions counselors are going to be able to see that this data isn't as significant as it might be for a traditional school. Graduating class size: Unless you have two kids in the same grade, this is probably 1 Percentage of graduating class attending 2-year college: I put 0, because my one student is headed to a 4 year college. Percentage of graduating class attending 4-year college: I put 100 for this. Remember that even a traditional school would be giving an estimate, based on past history, because they cannot know exactly where every student is going when they fill this info out at the beginning of the school year. The next several questions ask about ethnic and racial categories for the school. (This is JMHO, I didn't see anything in CA help regarding these particular fields.) At a traditional school, this would give a broad-brush glimpse of the school population. This might be useful to put a particular student into context with respect to his or her larger school setting. I don't think the percentages have to add up to 100. If the student's background is such that he considers himself both Asian and African American and Native Hawaiian and White, then those fields might all be 100. I found this document, which seems to give a description for colleges on what the categories mean. https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/reic/definitions.asp Percentage of students who are Hispanic or Latino: If your student is Hispanic, then you could put 100, if not, then probably 0. Percentage of students who are American Indian or Alaska Native: Same as above Percentage of students who are Asian: Same as above Percentage of students who are Black or African American: Same as above Percentage of students who are Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander: Same as above Percentage of students who are White: Same as above. Percentage of students who are first-generation college: If the student will be the first in the family to attend college, then 100. Percentage of students who are US Citizens: If the student is a US Citizen, then 100. Percentage of students who are Non-US Citizens: If the student is not a citizen of the US, then 100. I think that the citizenship questions might need to add up to 100. The student is either applying as a US citizen or not. If a student holds dual citizenship, but is applying as a US citizen, then I'd probably mark the US as 100. Percentage of students who receive free or reduced lunch: Probably 0, unless your area has a program for students outside of schools or the student is partially enrolled. (If I had a student who qualified for fee waivers for exams and applications or received other aid programs, I might call that out explicitly in the school profile document that I wrote and uploaded.) School setting: Pick one - Rural, Suburban, Urban 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 The Common App has a pretty short help paragraph for the school profile section. They also give a link to this page from College Board. http://professionals.collegeboard.com/guidance/counseling/profile/sample I think past threads here have given some great ideas about what is meaningful to include in a school profile about a homeschool. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 Common App summary page - AP Curriculum doesn't have amplifying info. http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/571567-common-app-ap-curriculum/?do=findComment&comment=6639015 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 Notes on what opens up in a Counselor Login after you submit the School Report for a student. I tried to get down all the details for Counselor Recommendation, Optional Report, MidYear Report and Final Report. http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/572479-common-app-after-the-school-report-next-steps/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 DS was having problems yesterday with items not saving. He lost information several times. What he thinks was happening: He was navigating away from a section by clicking on another school or tab, but hadn't hit Save or Continue at the bottom of the screen he had open. He let it sit open for too long and it timed out. I also found that if you changed an answer that modified the number of available downstream questions, several fields might clear previously entered info. For example, when he changed the number of courses being taken senior year from 6 to 8, the term for the courses cleared out of all of the items he'd previously filled in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst Posted November 1, 2015 Share Posted November 1, 2015 There is also an odd quirk I found on the page where you are reviewing a document you have downloaded-- The document appears in a preview box on the screen and you scroll through it. At the end, in the bottom left there is a section where you click yes or no. I frequently couldn't find the following button unless I moved my mouse off the document being review and clicked on a side panel. Other times I had to pretend to enlarge the window my browser occupied before it would appear. Completely odd but ... Also, I ran into a glitch downloading documents, in the transcript section in particular. I initially selected a document, realized that it was the wrong document and opted to remove it. The system wouldn't let me upload a new document unless I first refreshed the page. Again, completely odd but incredibly frustrating! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted May 7, 2016 Share Posted May 7, 2016 Starting this year, student Common App accounts will be able to "rollover" some information. http://www.commonapp.org/whats-appening/college-counseling/common-app-account-rollover Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodland Mist Academy Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 (edited) Thank you, Sebastian! So helpful! And everyone else, too! Some parts of the Common App may have changed, but some of the tricky parts remain the same. This thread answers many of my questions. Thanks so much! Edited August 28, 2018 by Woodland Mist Academy 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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