College Application

A college application is a customary part of the competitive college admissions system. Admissions departments usually ask students to complete an application for admission that often consists of personal essays (as well as samples of high school work), letters of recommendation, and a list of extra-curricular activities. Some schools require the SAT or ACT, while others make it optional.

Common Application

The Common Application (informally known as the Common App) is a college admission application that students may use to apply to any of 321 member colleges and universities in the United States. It reduces the workload of students who would otherwise have to complete separate applications to several colleges.
The questions on the Common App range from the home life of the student to academic achievements to standardized test scores such as the SAT or ACT and other information that colleges use to evaluate students for admission.

While the Common Application itself is an extensive look into a student's academic life, it is often hard for a school to get a full picture of the student's character exclusively from the application itself. Often colleges will have supplements that an applicant must fill out along with the Common App in order to be considered for admission. This can range from a few yes or no questions about alumni relations or minority status to full essays pertaining to certain aspects of the school. The Common App online application often states whether a school needs a supplement and will automatically fill in the fields that the student has already filled in on previous uses of the Common Application.

The online version allows the application to be filled out once online and submitted to all schools with the same information going to each. Students can select to use the online application to fill out information and print out the completed application in PDF format to be sent in by mail.
A student can elect to send variations of the same application with edits to specific schools by using the 'copy' feature on the online application. Students often use this feature to submit different test scores to different schools (as the ACT exam allows students to selectively decide which schools receive their scores).
Once the application is submitted to a school, it cannot be edited electronically; the school must be contacted directly if a student wishes to make changes to a submitted application.
Applicants can organize payment for applications and supplements online.
Some schools like Allegheny College, Colgate University, Lewis & Clark College, Stevens Institute of Technology, and Wellesley College do not charge an admission fee if their application or the Common Application is submitted online.
Drawbacks to the online application include very strict limitations on the length of answers (especially for essays) and room for special circumstances that cannot fit into the spaces provided by the application.

Students must sign up for the Common Application online if they wish to take advantage of online features of the application. They can only register once, but can apply to as many schools as they want through the website.
Universities that accept the Common Application do so by choice. If they have a separate proprietary application, they are required to give equal consideration to applicants using either form. The Common Application is not offered to universities who do not agree to treat it in this way. Additionally, the Common Application requires schools that use it to embrace a holistic approach to admission.
As of July 2007, the Common Application website lists 315 colleges and universities as members. Of these, approximately one-third are "exclusive users" that use the Common Application as their only printed application. Some members require supplements that ask for information beyond that contained in the Common Application.