Introducing the Common Application

How to apply yourself—as a parent

Even though I no longer work as a college counselor, this time of year marks a surge of college application-related inquiries in my inbox. The subject lines vary (“help with college planning,” “Ivy League applications,” “interested in Stanford,” “questions about your services”) but the content stays remarkably uniform. Everyone with children ages 7-16 wants to know how I can help their child optimize their coursework and activities and whatever it is that will help them stand out, and everyone with children ages 16+ wants to know how I can help their child convey those optimized assets to admissions officers. Either way, it all comes down to the Common Application.

If you don’t know what the Common Application is, consider yourself lucky. The Common Application (also known as the “Common App” and sometimes as “the devil’s playground”) is an online platform through which college applications are submitted. It’s the portal to your child’s future. (Or so it claims.) It hosts applications …