How to Make Your Common Application a Lot Less Common

Just because the application is common doesn’t mean yours needs to be. We’ve helped over 2,000 of our Collegewise students submit clear and compelling Common Applications that helped them stand out. Now, we’ve taken everything we teach them and put it into this guide. It’s like we’re there with you while you fill it out without, well, actually physically being there.  It's 62 pages, sold as a downloadable PDF for $12.99, or $99 for a 30-copy license. More

We’ll take you line by line through the Common App and tell you exactly how to handle the sections so many students struggle with, like:

• How to fill out the “Activity” section and highlight your best accomplishments
• How to use (and not to use) the “Additional Information” section
• How to handle the explanation for any, um, disciplinary incidents
• Specific advice for each of the prompts for the long essay (and advice about whether or not it’s a good idea to choose “Topic of your choice")
• How to write a punchy response to the “Please elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities…” essay (without spending 1000 characters explaining that football is hard)
• What to do if you need to update your Common Application after you submit it
• Want to get a sneak preview?  You can download a free preview version here.

We even get into the subtleties of things like why you should think twice before you list your “Academic Interests” as “Undecided,” whether or not you should list a hobby on your activity section, and why we tell our Collegewise students not to list their cell phones as their “preferred phone number.”

Whether you’ve finished your Common App and want to do a line-by-line review with our guide in hand, or if you’re just starting and want to get it right the first time, we’ll help you make sure you put your best Common Application foot forward. Download it for $12.99 if you just want to use it for yourself, or $99 for a 30-copy site license that allows teachers and counselors to share it with up to 30 students or colleagues. 

With this license you may only download the document once from the same IP address.