Imagine, if you will, a few days into your future: you’ve finished your Common App. (Congrats, future you, btw!) You’ve drafted a personal statement (and edited it ‘til it sings), polished your activities list, and obtained some superlative letters of recommendation. There’s just one teensy step left: actually clicking “submit.”
It may be a step that takes a fraction of a second, but it can still take up a TON of mental space. Every year, several of my private test prep and college application clients share with me that their Common App is entirely filled out….but they just can’t bring themselves to send the thing!
This isn’t so surprising, if you think about it: you’ve poured years of your life into this thing, and the stakes ARE very real. How will you know when you’re really done? How will you know you haven’t missed a question, left in a typo, totally overlooked something important?!
Don’t worry: there is a way to hit “send” with confidence. Today, I’m lending you my sanity-saving strategy. Before you submit your Common App to your dream school, follow this six-step method to make sure each and every one of your exquisitely-crafted words make their way to the admissions reader.
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:
College Application Submission Checklist
1) Convert your application to PDF form.
You’re going to proceed to the section that says “Review and Submit – Common App.” Don’t sweat—it’s ok to click here: your application cannot actually send until you pay the application fee. For now, though, we need to revisit your application as a whole. There should be a place to “Review and Submit.” Click on it, 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 101st time you’re reviewing this stuff, but something about seeing the application differently—i.e. in the PDF view—can help you catch errors you didn’t notice on the first one hundred 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:
Do all your paragraphs have a single space between them? Or no space at all? (Make sure it’s consistent.)
Did you indent (or choose not indent) all your paragraphs?
Did any words get cut between lines?
Are there any special characters in your text that transformed into an unreadable webding when you copy-pasted them into the Common App portal?
Is there a space between the essay prompt and the beginning of your essay? (I personally prefer to include a space, because it makes it easier on the eyes.)
4. Check for coherence
This is the heaviest lift of the double-checking process….but it’s also the most crucial! 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 cohesive? Would someone get an accurate picture of who you are from that? 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 popping out at 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 story that we didn’t get from the main part of the application, or do they merely retread old territory? If they repeat content from your personal statement and activities list, you might want to re-draft some of your short essays so that they reflect different aspects of your personality, interests, and accomplishments…while still remaining compatible with the portrait we painted of you in those previous core sections.
6) If you made any major edits during your first review, review the entire PDF again!
If you’ve done anything to meaningfully change your application, the inconvenient truth is that you need to go through this checklist one more time for your new and improved app. I know rereading isn’t the most exciting, but you don’t want to leave things up to chance when it comes to your college future.
After you’ve checked each item off this list, 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 overall pictures of you! Good luck, and remember, I can help you with whichever step(s) of the college process you’d like expert guidance on.
