You’ve probably heard of the Common Application if you’ve started the nerve-wracking but exciting experience of applying to colleges. The common app is a tool for submitting a single application to the majority of the institutions you are willing to apply to. This saves you time as you do not have to enter your personal details, grades, and activities for every individual university application.
Here are the 5 most common common app mistakes you could avoid:
1. Mistyping personal details
Be extremely cautious when completing the Common App’s Profile, Contact Information, and Family sections. The most common Common App errors include mistakenly reversing two digits of your phone number, and confusing your school address with your home address. Although they seem obvious, you’d be surprised at how frequently they occur. Make sure that all names, addresses, and phone numbers are accurate.
2. Not utilizing the space given for describing activities
Each of your ten activities can have a summary of up to 150 characters. That is not a lot of characters, but you also shouldn’t pass up the chance to briefly describe your extracurricular activities. So instead of merely naming what you’ve done, provide more details. Be as detailed as you can by using powerful and active verbs, and don’t forget to give priority to your measurable accomplishments.
3. Using uncommon acronyms
When detailing your activities, you don’t want to run out of characters, but you also don’t want to leave admissions officers perplexed and lost after reading your Common App. In spite of the fact that organization names can be lengthy, abbreviating the names of unfamiliar institutions will not benefit you. Using well-known abbreviations like UNICEF or BBC is acceptable.
4. Answering only a part of the prompt
Supplemental essay prompts and personal statements frequently have many sub-questions. It’s common to miss a second sentence or a chunk of the question when reading quickly, leaving you with an incomplete response. Before beginning to plan your essay, be sure to read the question attentively and make a note of everything it asks for.
5. Using the additional information section as an extension to the other sections
This is one of the common app errors that plenty of students make. Your personal statement or your list of extracurricular activities should not be continued in the Additional Information area at the end of the Common App. There is a reason why such areas have character restrictions. Extensive circumstances, a link to a study abstract, or your writing or artistic portfolio can all be included in this section.
How can Rostrum Education help?
The team of counselors at Rostrum Education focuses on the application forms of each student individually. From tracking deadlines to guiding you with specific details to be filled we help with every part of the application process. We also help with proofreading your common app so that you avoid such errors. Contact us for a free counseling session today!
