Acing the Application: Sections of the College Application

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Here is a look at the different components of a typical college application, with tips on making your application more effective.  

The Common Application

An increasing number of colleges and universities are using the Common Application—a standardized, "one size fits all" online college application form. Some schools use the Common Application exclusively. Some schools use the Common Application, but supplement its requirements with one or more additional, college-specific essays. Some schools inexplicably give you the choice of completing the Common Application or using a school-specific application available from the admissions office. Finally, other schools refuse to use the Common Application in any capacity. You can find the Common Application, information about how it is used, and which schools use it in which way at www.commonapp.org.

Although other resources and sometimes the admissions offices themselves will tell you that it makes no difference which application you use, we disagree. It is our position that if a school accepts both the Common Application and its own individual application, using the school's individual application at least subconsciously suggests that the school was important enough to you for you to actually get its specific application form.

The Personal Information Section

The personal information section, as you might suspect, gathers your personal information, such as your name, your contact information, and the name and address of your high school or boarding school. It also typically requests, but makes optional, such information as your racial or ethnic background and your intended major.

With respect to your intended major, many colleges and universities are pressing to matriculate a greater number of science, math, and engineering majors—and particularly women who are interested in these subjects. If you fit the bill and your high school record and teacher recommendations will support it, you should identify your major. If, however, you intend to matriculate as one of the hundreds of English, history, political science, or economics majors, you're probably better off calling yourself "undecided," unless you are very strongly favoring a major and are using it as a selling point in your application.

The Activities List

Whether you are using the Common Application or an individual school's application form, you will be asked to provide a list of your activities and employment during your high school or prep school years. And whether you are using the Common Application or an individual school's application form, you will no doubt discover that the form documents leave nowhere near enough room to type in anything meaningful about your activities.

Not to worry. Unless the application form you are using specifically prohibits you from attaching additional sheets, you can, and should, create your own.

"These lists of your activities and employment history are going to be templates that you will use on multiple applications, so start early, and complete your compilations and editing of this basic information as soon as possible," Chase ad­vises. "The worst feeling when applying to colleges comes when things are rushed and you worry that you might have missed something or made a mistake."

The Short-Response Questions

Students sometimes wonder just how important these short responses are.