I HATE the common app

[Anonymous]

Why are people so bent out of shape if they’re helping their kids do their apps? I wish my parents helped me back when I went!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are people so bent out of shape if they’re helping their kids do their apps? I wish my parents helped me back when I went!

I helped my kid. Took me over 2 hours to input info while they focused on writing their essays.

[Anonymous]

I much prefer it over Coalition, University of California, and MIT applications. I do remember having to mail in all my applications over holiday break so it is definitely an improvement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As one of the many parents on here who remembers typing each college application individually, I say, thank God for the common app.

The only big problem is that, back in the day, a senior applied to maybe three or four colleges and then ran out of steam. Now kids hit "apply" 20 or more times. It's the number one reason why colleges are flooded with applications.

But be happy.

Seriously! Time and again on this site, I wonder if the parents doing a lot of the complaining have completely forgotten what this process was like when they were going through it. College is so much more accessible now. Applications are easier and don't require the amount of organization that they used to. Tracking all the paper, the envelopes, the different instructions...it was all so complicated. The Common App is great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are people so bent out of shape if they’re helping their kids do their apps? I wish my parents helped me back when I went!

I helped my kid. Took me over 2 hours to input info while they focused on writing their essays.

FFS. You should not be helping your kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are people so bent out of shape if they’re helping their kids do their apps? I wish my parents helped me back when I went!

I helped my kid. Took me over 2 hours to input info while they focused on writing their essays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are people so bent out of shape if they’re helping their kids do their apps? I wish my parents helped me back when I went!

I helped my kid. Took me over 2 hours to input info while they focused on writing their essays.

FFS. You should not be helping your kid.

Yeah, kids should pull themselves up by their bootstraps!

[Anonymous]

Common app is what energizes the ratings game! A single app submission with perhaps some supplemental essays allows students to apply to so many more schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Breathe. Yes, there are a lot of drop-down menus. You can do the whole thing in an hour or two, except for the essays. And then merely click to apply to additional schools. Once it's done, you'll forget that it was a little tedious.

And you forget/ddidnt have the pleasure of knowing how to apply to 10 colleges that were not on the Common App. Imagine having to enter that information multiple times for each college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are people so bent out of shape if they’re helping their kids do their apps? I wish my parents helped me back when I went!

I helped my kid. Took me over 2 hours to input info while they focused on writing their essays.

FFS. You should not be helping your kid.

Why are you posting in this forum if you are not interested in helping your kid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As one of the many parents on here who remembers typing each college application individually, I say, thank God for the common app.

The only big problem is that, back in the day, a senior applied to maybe three or four colleges and then ran out of steam. Now kids hit "apply" 20 or more times. It's the number one reason why colleges are flooded with applications.

But be happy.

Seriously! Time and again on this site, I wonder if the parents doing a lot of the complaining have completely forgotten what this process was like when they were going through it. College is so much more accessible now. Applications are easier and don't require the amount of organization that they used to. Tracking all the paper, the envelopes, the different instructions...it was all so complicated. The Common App is great.

Personally went to college in Europe. I had to fill one page and I was in. Dh applied to one college and got in. So not everyone applied to a bunch of schools. This is MUCH harder than our personal experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are people so bent out of shape if they’re helping their kids do their apps? I wish my parents helped me back when I went!

I helped my kid. Took me over 2 hours to input info while they focused on writing their essays.

FFS. You should not be helping your kid.

Why wouldn't I be helping?
He's an amazing kid who works really hard and had most of his common app entries ready. But on top of the 7 AP classes he was taking plus a part time job and extra curriculars, helping with a tedious task was the least I could do as he was stressing over his top ED school. Got into ED school, 4.0 GPA for freshman year, already has an internship lined up for summer 2025, will graduate one year early. And best of all, he's totally grateful that I helped him out when he needed getting through a tedious task.

My parent would have done the same for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are people so bent out of shape if they’re helping their kids do their apps? I wish my parents helped me back when I went!

I helped my kid. Took me over 2 hours to input info while they focused on writing their essays.

FFS. You should not be helping your kid.

This sentence made me laugh out loud. That is literally the definition of parenting.

Sure, we can quibble about where the line is on "too much" helping. But when people respond like this I always wonder exactly when they decided they didn't need to help their child anymore, and if it extends to every aspect of their life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I much prefer it over Coalition, University of California, and MIT applications. I do remember having to mail in all my applications over holiday break so it is definitely an improvement.

Common App is so much better than the Coalition app. Do yourself a favor and stick to the Common App - create a parent account if you want to learn how to use it and work on practice applications