71st issue
July 2019
Online application forms for US colleges go live shortly
If you are at the end of Year 12 and want to apply to study in the US next year, the best time to put together your application is between now and September. The summer holidays are the ideal time to choose which application method you will use, and to put together as much of your application as possible. When you start the autumn term of Year 13 you will be very busy with your UCAS application, so the more of your American application materials you can compile beforehand, the better.
There are currently three main application methods – the Common Application Form, the Universal College Application and The Coalition. Harvard and a few other colleges will accept all three application types – however, many colleges only accept one or two of them, or in some cases have their own individual application forms. Therefore an important factor in your preparation is to find out which application methods are accepted by the colleges on your shortlist, as you will want to avoid having to complete more than one type of form.
Further details on the three main methods appear below, together with links to the relevant websites.
1. Common Application Form (Common App)
Although not all US colleges accept the Common App, it is nevertheless used by over 800 institutions, including all the top research universities, so most applicants are likely to use this method. From 28-31 July 2019 the Common App website will be offline as the whole site is being refreshed with a new look and additional functionality. The new Common App form for 2019-20 will be launched on 1st August 2019. Students applying this autumn for entry in 2020 should register on 1st August or shortly after and put together as much of their application as possible over the summer. Click here to go to the Common App registration page.
Useful information and advice for students and teachers about completing the Common App form is contained in the ‘Common App Ready Toolkit.’
The tools most useful for students are:
Creating a Common App Account
Completing the Common App
Tips and Best Practices
Understanding Application Fees and Fee Waivers
Recommendation Process
Managing Deadlines
Approximately two-thirds of Common Application member universities will also want you to complete their own supplements, which all require short pieces of writing in addition to the personal essay in the main Common App. The supplements will be unique for each individual university and are located within the ‘My Colleges’ section of the form. You may wish to check the supplement section for each college you’re applying to, and consider all of the essays and the personal essay together to ensure you are not repeating yourself and that the various pieces of writing complement each other.
If you are a teacher or university adviser who submitted a reference on your Common App account for one or more of your students last year, you will be able to sign in using the same information when you are invited to register for 2019-20. Once signed in, you will find your profile information populated with responses from the previous year. However, the recommender invitations, assignments, and reference forms will not roll over.
2. Universal College Application (UCA)
An alternative to the Common App is the Universal College Application (UCA). It currently only serves 10 colleges, but if all the colleges to which you are applying accept the UCA then it is worth checking it out to see if you prefer it. The online advice site PrepScholar suggests you use the UCA if:
- You’re only applying to schools that accept the UCA and you prefer the UCA’s interface.
- You’re only applying to schools that don’t require an essay and/or letters.
- You have a specific essay topic in mind that doesn’t fit within the Common App’s prompts.
It suggests you keep with the Common App if:
- You are applying to schools that don’t accept the UCA and/or schools that are Common App only. This will likely be the case for the majority of students.
- Most or all of the schools you’re applying to require at least one letter of recommendation and essay. Since these features are required on the Common App, it will simplify your application process to have them as required, rather than optional, components.
Click here for the full article.
Click here to go to the UCA registration page.
3. The Coalition
Now three years old, the most recent college application platform is The Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success, better known as ‘The Coalition.’ It currently has over 140 colleges signed up, including all eight Ivy League schools, Stanford and the University of Chicago. One of its innovations is that the online platform contains a ‘Coalition Locker’ and ‘Collaboration Space’.
The Coalition Locker is a private area where students from the 9th Grade onwards (UK Year 10 onwards) may collect and store examples of their work to gradually build up their US college application portfolio for submission in Year 13. The Locker provides unlimited online storage space for resources and materials relevant to the student’s application, such as essays, artwork, videos, class projects, extracurricular activities, awards and letters of support from instructors, coaches, or supervisors. The contents of the Locker are confidential and can only be accessed by the student.
The Collaboration Space enables students to privately share or discuss items from their Lockers with teachers or mentors of their choosing. This is how it works: the student firstly emails the mentor requesting their input. The email will connect the mentor with the Collaboration Space, which will contain the items the student wishes to share. After reviewing the items, the mentor can provide comments for the student, who will receive a numbered notification in the items box indicating that feedback is ready. When the student opens the item, the mentor’s comments will appear in a side bar. Mentors are permitted to comment on, but not to make changes to any shared item. Having a trusted mentor’s comments can help students polish their ideas and hone their work.
When a student is finally ready to complete their application, they may choose which materials to transfer from the Locker to the Coalition application form.
A major difference between the Coalition and the other two application methods is that students may still use the Locker to store their work even if they will be applying via the Common App or UCA. Hence the Coalition may be used alongside other methods, as well as an application platform in its own right. Its purpose is to make the US college application system more accessible to students with modest means, particularly those whose high schools are unfamiliar with the application process.
The Coalition platform and tools are free to use for students, parents and teachers, as the colleges and universities who are members provide the necessary resources to support its operation.
Click here to create your My Coalition account.
Make good use of your summer holidays
If you are at the end of Year 11 or 12, you can use the summer holidays to enhance your extracurricular profile in a way that will benefit your university applications both in the UK and the US. You can do this by undertaking:
- an internship or work experience in an area related to your potential future career
- community service or other extracurricular activity that you have set up through your own initiative
- a mini research project related to an area of interest, again that you have set up through your own initiative
- a masterclass at a local university in a subject that interests you.
If your summers are committed to paid work or family responsibilities, why not keep a journal of your observations and experiences during that time? Such careful thinking and reflection might well turn into the inspiration for your application essay (which we will be considering in more detail in next month’s newsletter).
At least one top US college specifically asks in their application supplement to describe what you have been doing during your previous two summer holidays. Given that nearly all students applying to top colleges will be very accomplished academically, it is often your additional interests and achievements that will make the difference between being offered a place or not.
