High school seniors, do you have your seatbelts on?  Hope so, because this season’s application period is heading over rocky roads, switch back roads, and long construction delays. Headlining these issues are the lack of communications from the Common Application Membership Organization (the oversight organization for the Common App) and member universities.

When the Common App went live on August 1^st, there was a 250-character surprise in the “Short Answer” section; which went from 1,000 characters to 750; without any communications to counselors or students.  After receiving many complaints, the Common App Org, simply changed it back to 1,000 characters; again without any communications to their user constituents. While 250 characters may seem trivial, the answer cuts off anything above the specified count, making every keystroke critical in this hyper competitive environment.  Students who have already submitted their applications cannot modify the short answer. But, those students can create an “alternate” application; modify the short answer and submit the alternate application for new schools.  Students who have not submitted any schools can change the short answer on the original application. Moreover, this is creating a lack of trust in the Common App itself, with students and their parents going over each line to check for more modifications and making the students uneasy about submitting a completed application.

While the Common App is suffering from intimacy issues with their users; many member universities are having their own commitment phobias. When the Common App went live on August 1^st, a majority of member schools had not yet made their supplements available.  As of August 21, 2011, there are still a significant number of schools who have not yet activated their 2012 supplements, among them are: Chapman University, DePaul University, Loyola Marymount University, University of Pennsylvania, University of San Francisco, and Yale University.   Since these supplements change from year to year; students are anxiously awaiting their availability in order to complete the application.  There is no formal notification process; so nervous applicants add a check of the Common App to their daily task list.

For seniors heading back to school with overloaded schedules including fall extracurriculars, SAT testing, and fighting senioritis; this delay compacting supplement completion by weeks, creating yet one more added stress to the college application process.  For expert help, see a Independent Educational Consultant to help navigate the roadblocks and keep you up to date on the constantly changing landscape of college applications.