Picture, if you will, a day in your not-so-distant future: you’ve finished writing out your entire Common App. (Woohoo, future you!) This means you’ve drafted a personal statement (and polished it ‘til it shines), chosen and strategically edited your activities list, and secured excellent letters of recommendation. There’s just one little thing left to do: actually hit “submit” on the digital application.
This step might technically last less than a second, but it can still take up a lot of space in your head. Every admissions cycle, several of my private test prep and college application clients tell me that every last word of their Common App is written...yet they’re mentally struggling to actually send the thing!
On second thought, though, it’s not so crazy to find it nerve-wracking: you’ve put years of your life into this application, and the outcome WILL have a long-lasting impact on your future. How do you know when you’re really done? How do you know you haven’t missed a question, left in a typo, or totally misunderstood some instruction?!
You can stop biting your nails and pulling your hair out now, because there is a way to hit “send” with confidence. Today, I’m laying out my foolproof strategy. Before you submit your Common App to your dream school, follow this six-step method to make sure your carefully crafted application makes its way to the admissions reader in perfect shape.
Article Contents
A. Video version of this article
B. The Six Steps to Turn in Your College Application
1. Convert your application to PDF form.
2. Check the PDF for accuracy.
3. Do a thorough formatting audit.
5. Make sure you’re showing multiple dimensions of yourself.
6. If you made big changes…repeat this process.
C. Conclusion
Watch this post as a video:
How to Turn in Your College Application
1) Convert your application to PDF form.
On the Common App website, open the application for one of the schools on your list. (You will submit the Common App to each school separately; a single click does NOT send your application to all of the schools you’re applying to.)
Once inside, find the section that says “Review and Submit – Common App.” Don’t sweat—it’s not a big deal to click this button: your application cannot actually get sent until you pay the application fee. For now, though, we need to revisit your application as a whole. Click on “Review and Submit,” and it will take you to a PDF version of your ENTIRE APPLICATION to that school.
2) Check the PDF for accuracy.
Now that you’re looking at a PDF version of your app, read over all the information, including the basics. Yes, this will be about the hundredth time you’re reviewing this stuff, but something about seeing the application in a different format—i.e. in the PDF view—can help you catch errors you didn’t notice on the first 99 read-throughs. While you’re at it, make sure that your intended major for that college is correct, too.
3) Do a thorough formatting audit.
I’m talking nitty-gritty details, here. These might seem like minor things, but if an admissions officer notices several of these errors in your app, they’re liable to see you as careless and/or indifferent—likely NOT the kind of freshman they want at their school.
Did you indent (or choose not indent) all your paragraphs?
Do all your paragraphs have a single space between them? Or no space at all? (Either way, make sure it’s consistent.)
Did any words get cut off between lines?
Are there any special characters in your text that transformed into webding gobbledygook when you copy-pasted them from Google Docs, Pages, or Word into the Common App portal?
Is there a space between the essay prompt and the beginning of your essay? (I myself prefer to include a space, because it makes it easier on the admissions reader’s eyes.)
4. Check for coherence
This is the heaviest lift of the double-checking process….but it’s also the most important! Once the details are in order and won’t distract you, read the entire PDF from A to Z in one go. Is the Activity List coherent? Would it give a stranger an accurate portrait of who you are? Does your main Common App essay fit in with what we gathered from your Activity List? There should definitely be a main theme, aka organizing principle, that comes through. Is one emerging to you as you re-read?
5. Show multiple dimensions of yourself.
If this particular college requires supplemental questions and essay(s), keep reading through to those. Do these additional essays effectively show new parts of your identity and story that we didn’t get from the main part of the application—or do they keep hitting the same three or four notes you’ve already established elsewhere? If they rehash a fair amount of content from your personal statement and activities list, you might want to re-draft some of your short essays so that they reflect diverse aspects of your personality, interests, and accomplishments…while still aligning with the snapshot we presented of you in those other core sections.
6) If you made any major edits during your first read-through, revisit the entire PDF again!
If you’ve done anything to meaningfully change your application, I hate to break it to you, but… you really do need to go through this checklist one more time for your new and improved app. I know rereading your own words isn’t the most thrilling way to spend your time, but you don’t want to leave things up to chance when it comes to your college future. You didn’t come this far and work this hard to let a few typos or an off-key sentence jeopardize your whole app.
After you’ve checked each item off this list, congratulations! you’re ready to submit with confidence.
Make sure you use this process for each new school’s app, as each of the various supplemental essays add up to slightly different versions of you!
And remember, I can help you with whichever step(s) of the college process you want an expert edge on.
