Filling Out the New Common App: What Families Need to Know for 2026–27
How to fill out the Common App 2026-27: What changed, what carries over, and the mistakes families make every fall.
Filling out the Common App is not the hard part. Knowing what you want a stranger to understand about you is.
My colleague Claire Schadler and I did a webinar on the 2026-27 Common App on July 27, 2026. The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and length. Watch the full replay above.
Speakers: Venkates “Swami” Swaminathan, Founder and CEO of LifeLaunchr, and Claire Schadler, College Admissions Coach at LifeLaunchr. Audience questions were submitted in the chat and Q&A and read aloud during the session.
Welcome and introductions
Swami: Hi everyone, and welcome. Thank you for being here on a Monday morning. This presentation is about how to fill out this year’s Common App, which goes live for the new application year on August 1. Today is the last day the current cycle is open before it closes for the rollover. As we go through, please put any questions in the chat, and we’ll take them along the way.
I’m Swami, Venkates Swaminathan, founder and CEO of LifeLaunchr. I’m a member of NACAC and HECA; I co-lead the HECA AI Learning Lab, and I’ve spent 25 years working to make college admissions clearer for families. I started LifeLaunchr in 2014, so it’s been around for more than a decade now. I’m joined by my colleague Claire. We were also going to be joined by our colleague Jennifer Turfler, but Jen is unwell today and couldn’t make it, so our apologies on her behalf, and we hope she’s resting up.
Claire: Hi everyone, I’m Claire Schadler, a college admissions coach at LifeLaunchr and a NACAC member. I’ve been working in college admissions for over ten years, helping students with their applications and essays. One quick note: if you send a question only to the host, I won’t see it, so please send it to the host and panelists, and I’ll make sure it gets into the conversation.
What is the Common App?
Swami: We have a mix of people here today: students, parents, school counselors, and independent educational consultants. So let’s start with the basics for anyone asking, “What is the Common App?”
The Common App is an online application accepted by more than a thousand colleges, primarily in the US but also in some other countries. It lets you apply to many colleges with a single application. It has several sections, which we’ll walk through, covering your profile, family, education, testing, activities, and writing, along with college-specific questions. It also lets eligible students request fee waivers, request recommendations, and track submissions.
A few US colleges don’t accept the Common App. The most notable are the University of California, which has its own system, and the California State University system, which also has its own application. MIT has its own application as well, and there are some regional colleges with their own systems. But the vast majority of significant American universities accept the Common App. We’ll be doing a separate webinar next week on the UC application for families applying to the University of California.
How the application works
Swami: Let’s start with first steps. First, you create an account at commonapp.org. Then you complete your “My Common Application” profile. Next, you add colleges with the search tool: you type in a college’s name and add it to your list. You complete the FERPA waiver (more on that later), request recommendations, counselor reports, and school profiles, and answer each college’s specific questions and supplements. Then you submit, and you send official transcripts and, if needed, test scores.
There’s no required order for some of these. You can send transcripts and test scores before or after you submit the application. What matters is that everything arrives by the deadline. Finally, you track your status on each college’s own portal.
Audience question: After you submit the Common App, what happens next?
Claire: It’s not over once you submit. If you still need to send transcripts or scores, you take care of that. You’ll also create a portal account for each college, and that’s where you can see whether everything has been received, what’s still missing, and the current state of your application. After the Common App, the college portal is where everything happens.
The 2026-27 rollover: what carries over
Swami: Every year the Common App makes some changes, and every year it “rolls over” to a new cycle. Last year’s changes were significant. This year’s application is mostly the same as last year’s, with a few important updates.
Today is the last day the current Common App is open. Tomorrow, if you go to commonapp.org, you won’t be able to do anything, so don’t waste your time. It reopens August 1 for the new cycle.
If you already filled things in, some of it carries over and some doesn’t. What carries over: your username and password, your college list, your answers in the main “My Common Application” section (profile, family, education), and advisor invitations. Advisors are people, like us, whom students invite to read their application without submitting a recommendation. Some counselors and many IECs like to be invited as advisors, so discuss it with whoever you’re working with.
What does not carry over: your responses to college-specific questions, your FERPA authorization, your recommender invitations, and any direct-admission offers or scholarship matches. So if you’re a new applicant, it’s best to wait until the year you’re actually applying to do your FERPA authorization and invite recommenders. Direct admissions, by the way, is a great feature: some colleges will offer you admission without your having formally applied.
Attendee comment (read aloud): Some schools use a Scoir and Common App integration, so recommendation requests and counselor reports are handled through Scoir. Advise students to check with their own school counselor.
Swami: Exactly, and we’ll come back to that at the recommenders section. Depending on your school’s process, you’ll either request recommendations directly through the Common App or, if your school uses Scoir, Naviance, or a similar tool, you’ll request them through that tool.
What’s new for 2026-27
Swami: Only a few things are new this year. The biggest is that the “Activities” section is now “Activities and Experiences,” and the position or leadership field is now optional. Some categories, especially around paid work, were updated. Character limits are unchanged.
Claire: This is an interesting one. I’ve had students with significant responsibilities, like caring for a sibling or helping support their family financially, where the “role” and “position” framing got confusing and they weren’t sure it counted as an activity. Making that field optional will encourage students to include those experiences, which are really important.
Swami: Very important. Obviously, “I wash the dishes after dinner” isn’t a significant family responsibility. But if you’re a primary caregiver for a sibling, or you do genuinely meaningful work at home, that belongs on your activities section. Making the position field optional removes the barrier, because there’s no formal title for caring for a sibling. It’s just something you do.
A few smaller changes: independent learners who are 24 and older no longer have to answer the parent and sibling questions. There’s a new first-generation question for students who are the first in their family to attend college. It’s easier to see which colleges accept the Common App fee waiver, there are some clarifications to the citizenship question, and there are new options for reporting Duolingo, a new TOEFL scale, and some new AP tests. The Duolingo and TOEFL items are mostly for students demonstrating English proficiency from other countries.
Georgetown joins the Common App
Swami: The other big news is that Georgetown now accepts the Common App. Georgetown held out with its own, fairly complicated application for a long time, so this makes applying much easier. Claire, there’s an implication here.
Claire: Right. It probably means more students will apply, because it’s easier. The supplemental essays are still there and still need to be done, but it’s no longer a whole separate login and format. Students can just add Georgetown alongside their other colleges, so we’ll likely see more applicants this year.
Swami: Which means a larger, more competitive applicant pool. Every year there are students who think, “Maybe I’d apply to Georgetown, but it’s a whole separate application, so I’ll let it go.” Now those students may go ahead and apply.
Creating your account
Swami: Creating an account is the one part we can’t do live, so I set up a test account ahead of time. You go to commonapp.org and get started, then select your category. For most people here that’s “first year student,” or possibly “transfer student.” IECs and counselors can create an education-professional account, and parents can create accounts for research purposes.
Then you enter your account information: email, password, and, importantly, the year you plan to start college. A rising senior filling this in today would pick the option for starting in 2026 or 2027. You enter your legal name, and, if you go by a different first name, you can add that. Double-check your date of birth (month, day, year). Add your phone number, since you’ll get useful text messages, and your address. There’s a question about whether you’re currently in the European Union, which is about where you physically are while filling out the form, not where you live, because different privacy rules apply.
Audience question: Do we need a dedicated email address for college applications?
Swami: You don’t need a dedicated one, but use an address you actually check regularly, and make sure it’s appropriate, not a joke address.
Claire: I’d add that colleges sometimes track demonstrated interest through your email. So don’t give one email at an open house and then use a different one on your application. Using a single email for everything college-related is smart, even if you use it for other things too.
Swami: Right. If you’ve already used an email address for college tours, use that same one, so colleges can connect who attended an event with who applied.
Audience question: Do parents have a separate account from the student?
Swami: Parent accounts aren’t really central to the Common App. They exist for specific purposes, for example, when a student applies early decision, a parent has to sign the binding agreement. Otherwise, parents have no formal role. Students can complete and submit their applications on their own.
Audience question: If we’re planning a gap year to improve admission chances, should we apply for normal enrollment and negotiate a deferral after getting in?
Swami: That’s a deferral situation, and each college has its own policy. Some are generous about it. But deferring doesn’t improve your odds of getting in. And colleges are often strict: if you defer and then apply elsewhere during your gap year, they may not be happy. If instead you want to wait a year before applying, that’s a fine choice. I don’t have data that a gap year improves admission chances, but there’s good research that it improves your preparation for college. One key rule: if you take college courses during a gap year, most colleges will treat you as a transfer applicant. So if you take a gap year, avoid enrolling in college courses.
Audience question: Will we have access to these slides afterward?
Swami: The webinar is being recorded, and everyone will get the recording by email afterward.
Parents: fill in your sections early
Swami: There’s a section for parents to complete on a student’s application, and this comes up every single year. Parents, fill in your sections early. These are simple, factual questions, but every year an application is ready to submit, and the student still needs a parent’s Social Security number, or doesn’t know where a parent works or went to college.
Claire: Exactly. Every year there’s a final meeting before submission where I ask, “Is everything done?” and the answer is yes, yes, yes, and then they’re running around the house getting a Social Security number.
Swami: Social Security numbers matter because they connect your Common App to your financial aid applications. Knowing your own number is a small step into adulthood, so parents, make sure your kids have it. If a student isn’t a permanent resident or citizen and doesn’t have an SSN, they’ll have a visa status and alien registration number instead. Make sure they have all of it.
Audience question: Why does a college need the SSN, and does it matter if it’s slightly wrong?
Swami: Students are the ones who fill it in, though a parent can log in as their student to help. The SSN is how colleges connect your FAFSA and CSS Profile financial aid applications to your college application. So get it right. If it’s wrong, you’ll have to contact each college to fix it. If you’re not applying for financial aid, it’s fine to leave it out.
Audience question: What about less critical fields, like a parent’s education level?
Swami: Getting it exactly right isn’t critical, but colleges read applications holistically. They’re trying to understand the context of a student’s circumstances. Leaving things out just makes it harder for them to make a decision. The goal is to give them all the facts so they can decide quickly and clearly.
Audience question: Do you recommend completing the optional questions?
Swami: For the most part, yes: if you have an answer, provide it. There are a few important exceptions, which we’ll get to.
Listing schools, courses, and grades
Swami: List every school and college you’ve attended, and by every, I mean every. This is not optional. Enter every school where you’ve taken classes and every course for which you have a grade.
Some names sound like colleges but are actually high schools: Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, Stanford Online High School, BYU Independent Study, UC Scout, UC Berkeley’s Academic Talent Development Program. Enter those as high schools. If you’ve taken courses at a community college or a four-year college and received a grade, list those colleges. Then request a transcript from each school and college and send it to every university you apply to, so the administrative work is done.
Some colleges require the Self-Reported Academic Record (SRAR), a separate site where you enter every course and grade. If a college requires it, complete it on that site.
Note: the link is below:
- Self-Reported Academic Record: https://srar.selfreportedtranscript.com/Login.aspx
Audience question: Dual enrollment classes taken through a community college, do those need to be listed?
Swami: You don’t list the individual classes there, but you list the community college itself, request a transcript, and send it in.
Audience question: What’s the impact of parents’ education and profession on a student’s acceptance?
Swami: There’s no simple answer. The Common App doesn’t make decisions; each college does. Leaving information out just makes it harder for a college to decide, and a harder-to-read application can get set aside. Don’t think of it as gaming the system by omitting a job title. It doesn’t work that way.
Swami: On courses and grades, report all of them. It’s not optional. Sometimes a student says, “I took one community college class and got a C, do I have to report it?” Yes. Remember that every admission offer is conditional and can be rescinded, including for leaving out important information.
On the GPA field: for most students it’s simple. Enter the GPA exactly as it appears on your high school transcript, and don’t recalculate it. If you have grades from many schools and your own calculation would differ from your transcript, just leave it blank. Every college recalculates GPA anyway, and you’re sending transcripts.
Audience question: Should we report weighted or unweighted GPA?
Swami: If your school reports a weighted GPA on the transcript, report that and indicate it’s weighted. If your school doesn’t, report unweighted. But remember, every college calculates its own GPA from your actual courses and grades, so this matters less than people think, which is why leaving it blank is a fine choice.
Audience question: If my school reports both, can I choose the higher GPA?
Swami: You can, but again it’s less relevant than you’d think, because each college recalculates from your transcript. Generally, report weighted if your school reports weighted, unweighted if it doesn’t. If your record is simple, report your transcript GPA. If it’s complicated, across many schools, just leave it blank.
Audience question: When should dual enrollment transcripts be sent, before or after submitting?
Swami: It makes no difference. Colleges assemble everything: transcripts, scores, recommendations, and the application, into one file once it all arrives. Order doesn’t matter, as long as everything is there by the deadline.
Test scores
Swami: Test scores work differently. You don’t have to report every score. You only report the SAT, ACT, or AP results you choose, unless a college requires all of them. So confirm each college’s policy. Compass Prep publishes excellent, up-to-date score-choice and superscore guides; just search “Compass Prep superscore” or “score choice.” You can also check the College Board or ACT sites, though those can be harder to read. We have no affiliation with Compass; their information is just high quality. And always double-check the college’s own site.
Note: the links are below:
- Self-Reporting SAT and ACT scores: https://www.compassprep.com/self-reporting-test-scores/
- Superscore and Score Choice: https://www.compassprep.com/superscore-and-score-choice/
Claire: Can students submit different scores to different colleges?
Swami: Absolutely. You enter your scores, and when you send your application to one college, that college sees a PDF with exactly what you chose to include. You can then change what’s included and send to another college, and that college sees its own version. It’s common to apply test-optional to one school and send scores to another where they’re an advantage. The only exceptions are colleges with specific rules, for example, requiring a single-sitting SAT, a superscore, or all your results. Some colleges also need an official score report rather than self-reported scores, so check each policy.
Audience question: I took four AP classes but only sat two of the exams. Is that bad?
Swami: Not at all. Most colleges tell readers not to make assumptions about what isn’t there. Readers have limited time and focus on what you did submit.
Swami: One more thing here: the Common App asks your graduating class size, which students often don’t know. You can ask your school counselor, or look up your school’s profile (search, for example, “Amador Valley High School school profile”). The profile is a document your counselor provides to colleges, and it usually lists the class size.
The FERPA waiver
Audience question / Swami: FERPA stands for the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. It’s a US law governing how schools handle student and family information. Among other things, it gives you the right to read your letters of recommendation once you enroll in college.
But here’s the key: if you don’t waive that right, many high school teachers won’t write you a letter, and colleges won’t take non-confidential letters seriously. In the old days, letters came in sealed envelopes with a signature across the flap to guarantee confidentiality. Now it all goes through the Common App, Naviance, or Scoir, but the principle is the same.
So before you request recommendations, waive your FERPA rights. Everyone should waive them. You complete it once, in the Recommenders section, before you invite anyone, because waiving signals that the letters are candid and trustworthy.
Claire: This one can feel counterintuitive, because you’re waiving a right you have. It’s important to understand why you’re doing it, so you realize it’s the option you should take.
Audience question: Can recommenders see whether you’ve waived FERPA?
Swami: Yes, they can see it on the Common App. And if your school uses Scoir or Naviance, the first thing those tools check when connecting to the Common App is whether you’ve waived. If you haven’t, you may not even be able to request recommendations.
Attendee comment (read aloud): You can’t change your mind on FERPA once you’ve made the choice.
Swami: Right. Once you’ve waived and invited someone, you can’t change it. So just do it once and move on. It seems complicated, but it’s simple.
Letters of recommendation
Audience question: Can a non-teacher, like a coach or boss, just send a letter directly, or does everything go through the FERPA waiver and an official link?
Swami: Everything goes through the official request process. Every college sets its own rules about how many and which kinds of letters it accepts. The most common is the counselor report, which your school counselor submits. You invite your counselor through the Common App, but if your school uses Naviance or Scoir, once you complete the FERPA waiver, the page will direct you to request recommendations through that tool.
There are three categories: the counselor report, teacher recommendations, and “other” recommenders. For teachers: if only one is allowed, choose an 11th-grade teacher in a subject related to your intended major.
Claire: I worked with a student planning to major in computer science who assumed the best letter would come from her AP Computer Science teacher. Swami made the point that for a computer science major, it’s actually more relevant that the student is strong in math. A recommendation showing that foundation is likely stronger than one from the CS teacher, even though it feels counterintuitive because CS is the major.
Swami: Right. If two letters are allowed, pick the second from the other side. For a STEM or computer science major, choose an English or history teacher, a subject that requires a different kind of thinking. If more than two are allowed, you can add another in your major area or a teacher from an earlier grade, but ideally your first two are 11th-grade teachers in complementary subjects. And crucially: talk to your teachers before you send the request through the Common App. Don’t let a system request be the first they hear of it.
Audience question: Can a recommendation come from a dual enrollment teacher?
Swami: Absolutely. The main thing is that teachers teach academic subjects, unless your intended major is something like art or music, in which case you’d choose the relevant teacher, for example a piano teacher if you’re applying to Berklee College of Music for jazz piano.
Audience question: How critical is it that the teacher be from 11th grade? Is an 11th-grade teacher outside my major better than a 10th-grade teacher in my major?
Swami: Great question, and a good moment to mention that I wrote a Substack piece on requesting recommendations. Eleventh grade matters because students change a lot; who you were in 10th grade may not reflect who you are as you apply. Colleges want to see you as you were just before applying. A 10th-grade teacher isn’t disallowed; it just leaves some questions. This is also a reminder to build relationships early. You can’t build a relationship at the moment you need it, so get to know your teachers in 9th and 10th grade, and then you can ask in 11th.
Claire: I’ve had several students who had a 9th-grade teacher again in 11th grade. So when we’re balancing a STEM and a non-STEM recommender, that teacher has known the student across two years, as a young freshman and again as a junior. It’s not required, but it shows a long relationship.
Audience question: How many recommendation letters are advisable? Is there an upper limit?
Swami: Follow each college’s rules, but more is not better. Don’t try to overwhelm readers with letters. Readers want each letter to say something meaningfully different, to understand you from multiple perspectives. Six letters that say the same thing don’t help, and colleges don’t pick the student with more letters. Be selective.
Attendee comment (read aloud): “The thicker the folder, the thinner the applicant” is a common phrase in admissions offices.
Swami: Exactly. You won’t tip the balance with a stack of letters. Be selective.
Audience question: Are Naviance and the Common App different?
Swami: Yes. Naviance and Scoir are systems schools use to manage classes, college research, and recommendations. If your school uses one for recommendations, then once you complete your FERPA waiver, you’ll be directed there to request your letters.
Activities and experiences
Swami: This section is very important, and people often focus on essays and underweight it. It allows for ten activities, plus five academic honors. List them in order of importance, most significant first.
If you have more than ten, pick the ten most meaningful. There’s psychological research worth knowing: if you have five strong items and add a sixth weak one, people perceive all six as weaker. The same is true at ten. So pick your strongest ten and stop. If you don’t have ten, that’s fine; I’ve had students admitted to Princeton with only three activities. You need meaningful things, not a padded list.
Explain acronyms, since the reader may not know them, but complete sentences aren’t required; character counts are tight. Focus on accomplishment and recognition, not just the activity. For example, for a DECA president: “Led chapter as president; competed and placed at regional and state levels, building skills in business, marketing, and finance.” For Girl Scouts: “Earned the Gold Award, Girl Scouting’s highest honor; led my troop and sustained 10+ years of service and community impact.” Be clear about the impact, and don’t worry about complete sentences. The easiest word to drop is “I,” since it’s implied that you did the work.
Audience question: Is it okay to use AI to tighten the language in the activities list?
Swami: Yes, absolutely, aside from a couple of colleges with specific rules. Unlike essays, these entries are about compressing information into tight limits, so that use is fine.
The personal statement
Swami: On essay prompts: a common question is which prompt to answer. Looking at last year’s data, the most common choice was not a predefined topic but the “topic of your choice” catch-all, prompt seven.
Claire: I was surprised by that chart, because I often tell students to skip that one and pick a different prompt.
Swami: The most important thing is that colleges have no preference among the prompts. Every college will tell you this, and you should believe them. There’s no advantage to picking one over another. Pick your strongest essay, then connect it to a prompt.
This isn’t an essay workshop, but a few essentials. The personal statement is not a summary of your application, and it’s not a cover letter. Share something that couldn’t be deduced from your transcript, scores, and activities. For example, if you’ve been a varsity tennis player for four years and competed at the state level, an essay about dedication and perseverance tells the reader what they already know.
Claire: Absolutely. The essay should say something the rest of the application doesn’t. The activities list already shows time commitment, titles, leadership, and accomplishments, so students don’t need to cram all of that into the essay. I often see students treat the Common App essay like an “activities essay,” just describing what they did.
Swami: And you made a great point earlier: if a student writes “I did this and this in Boy Scouts,” anyone who was in Boy Scouts could write that essay. You can write a beautiful essay about Boy Scouts, but find what about it was about you, something only you could say. That comes from self-reflection, from knowing your values, your personality, and your experiences. Strong essays come from self-reflection, not from a rhetorical trick or an online template. And I like the Wow Writing Workshop idea: pick one theme and tell one story that shows it. A small story about a short moment can be far more powerful than a mini-memoir of your whole life.
Attendee comment (read aloud): I tell students not to write to a prompt at all. Let me, as your coach, help you find a unique, authentic story worth sharing, and it will fit a prompt at the end.
Swami: I agree entirely. Tell a great story, then connect it to a prompt.
Supplemental essays
Swami: Each college has its own supplemental questions. The most common problem, by far, is that the response doesn’t answer the question being asked. So read the prompt carefully and ask yourself why they’re asking it and what they want to know about you. Then answer that question.
Second, every answer is about you, no matter the topic. Stanford, for example, asks about a historical moment you wish you’d witnessed. Unless you’re genuinely passionate about, say, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, that answer doesn’t reveal anything about you. Pick something that communicates who you are. And be specific: connect your interests and values to that particular college, which means doing real research so the connection is genuine, not “because it’s highly ranked.”
Challenges and additional information
Swami: There are two questions here. The first asks about challenges, things like family disruption, housing or health issues, discrimination, or disasters. If you experienced them, say yes. Otherwise, say no. Don’t exaggerate or stretch your situation, because that makes a credible application less credible.
The second is the additional information box. It is not an extra essay, so don’t write one. If there’s something specific to explain, an illness that affected your grades, or another relevant circumstance, explain it briefly. They give you space, but you don’t have to use it.
Claire: Students forget it can be just two sentences. It doesn’t need the form of an essay or a supplement. And on the challenges question, students often write about a difficult group project or a disappointing game. That’s not the place for that. It should be a significant challenge that affected their academic trajectory.
AI in admissions
Swami: A quick update, since it’s on everyone’s mind. The Common App is partnering with a company, EdVisorly, to use AI to process parts of applications, like transcript interpretation, not the written parts. Most colleges do not use AI to evaluate applications themselves. The one notable exception from last year is Virginia Tech, which uses AI as one of its essay readers alongside human readers. We expect that will change over time.
The most important point: your Common App essay needs your authentic voice. Some colleges use plagiarism checkers, and plagiarism is easy to detect, so write in your own words. The essay should sound like a student wrote it, not a parent, not AI. You can use AI for research, and tools like Grammarly for grammar, but don’t use it as a ghostwriter, and check each college’s policy.
Live walkthrough: highlights
Swami shared his screen and walked through the application section by section using a test account for “Katheryn Williamson,” a fictional student. Key points from the walkthrough:
Profile: You start with your profile, name, address, contact details, demographics, and languages. If you’re proficient in a language, list it. This is also where the Social Security number and visa information go, the part parents can and should help with. If you’re eligible for a fee waiver, you can indicate that here.
Education: Find your school first (this must be done before the FERPA waiver). Enter all your other high schools and every college where you’ve taken classes. Enter your current-year grades, and you can leave the GPA blank if your record is complex.
Current courses: “Current or most recent year courses” means your 12th-grade courses, the ones you’re taking this fall, not last year’s.
Claire: Every year students open the application on August 1 and enter their 11th-grade classes as their current courses, because they still feel like juniors. Then in October or November we catch it. Current means 12th grade.
Honors: Enter up to five academic honors with brief descriptions, for example, National Merit Semifinalist or AP Scholar. If you work with a community-based organization that helps students with college applications, indicate that; an IEC is not a community-based organization. For future plans, be as clear as you can about the degree you intend to pursue.
FERPA and recommenders: Add a college (Swami used the University of Michigan as an example), go to Recommenders and FERPA, and complete the release authorization first. Read and acknowledge your rights, waive them, enter your name, and save. You only do this once, and it applies to all colleges. Then invite each recommender once; you don’t invite them per college.
Audience question: Does a language count if I’m currently learning it and have AP-level proficiency?
Swami: There’s no precise definition. If you feel you’re proficient, say yes.
Audience question: Can I choose different recommendations for different colleges, especially if I’m undecided on a major?
Swami: Yes. You invite each recommender once, and when you submit to each college you choose which letters go to that college, though you make that choice without being able to read the confidential letters.
Audience question: If I apply early action to one college, can I complete the other colleges’ supplemental prompts afterward?
Swami: Absolutely. You complete each college’s supplements on your own timeline.
Courses and grades in the Common App: Some colleges require you to enter your courses and grades directly in the Common App. If so, replicate your high school transcript exactly, year by year, without interpreting or embellishing. Community college courses that aren’t on your high school transcript don’t go here; you request those transcripts directly from the community college.
Submitting: When you submit to each college, you select which letters of recommendation go to that college. Once you submit, the college receives a PDF of your entire application as it stood at that moment. Changes made afterward won’t be seen.
Audience question: Is inviting a recommender different from inviting a teacher?
Swami: No, it’s the same thing. You invite your counselor and each teacher once, and later choose which letters go to which college.
Audience question: I’m studying business but have no teacher in my major. Would an AP U.S. History teacher work?
Swami: There are teachers who connect to business: an economics teacher, or even a math teacher, since business skills are often quantitative. History would work as a complementary subject.
Closing
Swami: Thank you all so much for taking the time today, and for sticking with us as we went section by section. We’ll send out the recording afterward, and my email will be included, so feel free to reach out to Claire or me with any questions. Thanks again, and good luck with your applications.
Claire: Thank you, everyone.
For personalized help with your college list or application, visit lifelaunchr.com.
