YouTube Deep Summary

## Introduction [00:00] What's up everyone? Coach Tony here. In this training, I brought two of our very best coaches to do a really cool walk through of the common applications. If you're a high school student applying to one of the private schools, Ivy's, and a lot of state schools out there in the United States, this training is for you. are two incredible coaches I'm going to bring on. They're going to walk you through pretty much page by page through the entire common application, show you exactly what it looks like. For those who haven't seen it before, so you guys know exactly what to click, what to do. For any of our current juniors, if you're a current junior watching this live, it is April right now. You're about to be using this application in the next few months when you are applying to your own colleges. So, this be a really really cool uh training for you guys. If you're watching this live, you're here on Zoom with us. Feel free to say hi in the chat. Drop your grades in the chat as well, too. Uh I know our ## Creating Your Common App Account [01:00] two incredible coaches are happy to answer any questions you guys have. So, if you do have questions today, feel free to drop it inside the chat or the Q&A. I'll be hanging out in the chat today with you guys because I want to relearn the Common App myself as well to tonight. So without further, I'm going to introduce our two coaches and they will go ahead and kick it off today. Off to you guys. Um so I am Coach Kristen. I have been with Eagle for almost a year now and it has been a wonderful, wonderful time so far. I've really enjoyed getting to meet all of um our students and working with families and helping people get to where they want to be after high school. So, it has just been phenomenal and I'm very excited to be here with you all today. And hello, I'm Coach Sarah. Um, I've been with Eagle a little over six months, so I'm a little bit newer. Um, I've been in co college admissions counseling for about 15 years. I did u my own consulting, but I was also the director of college counseling at a private high school in my area. So, I've helped uh thousands of students get into different types of schools. Um, and I also have two kids in college. So, I've been a parent throughout the whole process, which um is great and has given me other perspective. And I really enjoy working with students. So, I'm happy to be here and, you know, walk you through this common app process. All right. So, I am going to share my screen here. Um, and we're basically just going to walk you through um what the common app looks like. So, here we go. Um, so I believe we should be all set. Um, so this is what the first Common App page looks like. And so you are going to go in here um to create your account. And so most of the students we are working with are going to be applying as firstear students. So that is the example I'm going to use today. So I will go in here to firstear student. Um and then you'll type in your information here. Um this is I mean email address, password. Um we will be applying as a firstear student in ## Filling Out the Profile Section [03:30] 2026. So, that is not an an available option yet. Um, but Coach Sarah will go into a little more detail about when to start filling this out later. Um, and then it's going to give you a lot of space to fill out some more personal information. So, in order to um kind of save you the boringness of me kind of filling that out for you, I am actually going to go in and log into one that I have prefilled so that we can just get right started here. All right. So we will start with this tab called common app and I will hand it over to coach Sarah to go through the first couple of sections. Okay. So if you notice um you know there's different tabs once you log in. You want to start with the common app tab to fill out you know your basic information. So first you have your profile section which is going to be your first name if you have a middle name your last name. Um, and then if you want to add, you know, a nickname, it gives you the option to do that. Um, it also I would I would caution that you make sure that the the na last name and, you know, the way you put it in here matches your transcript and your school documents because a lot of the time, you know, you may not notice that on your transcript you have two last names, but you don't usually use two last names. So, just make sure everything kind of matches. Um, but if you scroll down, you just have a couple more questions regarding that and then your date of birth. I also want to point out that some of this information does have like like a little red asterisk and that's required. Okay, but some of it is not required. So, you don't have to fill it in and it will still, you know, give you a check mark in the category saying that, you know, you filled in the sufficient amount of information that was needed. Now, another caution for you is make sure you click continue after you fill stuff in because if you just pop in from this section to another section, but you don't click continue, um it's not going to save your information. So, we're going to click continue to go on to um the next part of the profile section, which is the address. you know, you're going to fill in your address and then if you have an alternate mailing address, like for example, if you're a student that attends a boarding school and you want to, you know, put the boarding school address um instead of just your your permanent home address, you can do that. So, it gives you that option. Uh and then contact details is next. So, remember, press continue and it will save the information you inputed. And as you you can see there, it's actually ## The Family Information Section—What You Need to Know [06:15] giving you check marks for when you complete each section. Okay? Sometimes students will come back to me and say, "But it didn't give me the check mark." And they can't figure out what wasn't filled in, and it's actually because one of the it could be a tiny little thing that had a red asterk in it. You forgot to fill it in. And that's why there's no green check mark. Um, okay. Your phone number. If you have a home phone or if you want to just include your cell phone number. Uh, you can also include a parent phone or put it at, you know, your parents mobile phone, that's okay, too. Um, and then just click continue for this section. This is pretty basic, you know, it's been pretty easy to fill it out, but remember there are things that are required or else you won't be able to submit because you won't have that green check mark. Then the demographics information. So, this will not obviously affect your admissions at all. It's just, you know, information that they're gathering about you. Um, so your gender, again, gender is not required. You don't see the little red asterk next to it. um your legal sex, your um pronouns if you want to include them. Obviously, that's not required either. Um if you are uh you know, part of the armed forces, you know, you can put that there. And if you're Hispanic or Latino, that's not required either. So, you don't need to fill these sections out, but you can if you really want to. Okay? As as well as like the race. Um and then just uh noting if you if that describes your background. And then we click continue. Okay. For the language section, you know, if you're bilingual or triilingual, then, you know, make sure you note it here. Um, you know, that's not a skill that everybody has. So, you would just put how many languages you're proficient in and then it does allow you to select, you know, what aspects of that language profic proficiency you have. So, you select the language and then you put, do you just, you know, speak it? Do you read it? Do you write it? um is it the language that's spoken at home? So, just make sure you fill all of that information in. Um check off whatever applies to you. Okay? And then uh click continue. Then you go to your uh just getting a little bit of information of your birth country. Again, if you notice, there are not red asterisks next to these questions. So, even though you know you can fill it in, it's fine. It's not required. Um, and then they do want you to select your citizen citizenship status. Okay. So, that is a required question. You do not need to put your social security number if you don't feel comfortable. That's not required. And we continue. Okay. The final section of the profile um I guess section is the common app fee waiver. So ## How to Enter Your High School Information [09:00] if your family, if the any of these things apply to your family, then you might you will be eligible for a common app fee waiver. What does that mean? That means that you will not need to pay the application fees for the different um college applications. Okay, but here's something that happens. If you click yes, you know, this apply, one of these conditions applies to my family, which is income based, um, usually, uh, then your counselor, when you put in your counselor's information, your high school counselor's information, they will get an email, um, having them kind of verify that they that you are eligible for a fee waiver. Okay? So, you can get a fee waiver also, if you were eligible for an SAT or an ACT fee waiver already. That's one of the reasons um you can check that off and then you know you will qualify for this type of fee waiver too. And then you just you know type in your name as your signature if you put yes that you are eligible. And this question here at the bottom is just asking you if you want to be connected with certain programs um that will help students uh with different things related to college. And then we click continue. Okay. So now we're on to the family section. So, family, again, very straightforward. Are your parents married? Are they divorced? Um, do you live with your both parents or one parent? Which one? Um, do you have any children? Yes or no? And then information. So, if you put, you know, you live with both parents or whatever it is, you're going to fill in certain things for parent one. So, you choose, am I going to put mom as parent one or dad as parent one? And then you know just basic questions to get an idea of what your household looks like. Um so you put their names, their information. They also want to it's not required but a preferred email for them, phone number. So just contact information for your parents, their occupation. Again, this isn't required but you know they are asking for it. So if you want you fill it out if not then you can leave it blank. um if they're employed at a college, they'll ask you what college or the name of their employer. So, just you know, different questions about your parents and their highest level of education. If they did not attend uh college here in the US there, there are a lot of international colleges in there. So, you might still find their college in there. Okay? Don't think just because they didn't go to college here in the US, you're not going to find their college. Most of the universities across the world are listed there. Okay? And then we click continue. And we do the same thing for parent two. Um if you listed both parents and then we click continue. And then they want to know about your siblings. So how many siblings do you have? And then their names, their ages, um just to get an idea again of what ## The Activity Section—Strategic Tips for Listing Your Activities [12:00] your household looks like and continue. And that's it for family. Uh then we have education. So for this section, you are going to need to gather some information from your high school counselor or sometimes the counselors put out like a like some sort of um handout or something on your website that gives you this information they know that you're going to need for the common app. So first thing you have to find your high school. So your current most recent high school. So if you attended a different high school in ninth in 10th grade and now you're at this high school, you're listing the one you're at now. Okay. date of entry. So the the month and year that you attend that you started there. Is it a boarding school? Yes or no? And will you graduate from this high school? Okay. And then your graduation date. So the month and the year. Um you if there's going to be no interruption and so you're graduating when you know in May when you're supposed to graduate with the rest of your class then you're going to put no change in progression and then always click continue. Okay, if you attended a different high school, so you should list it here. Okay, so how many different high schools? You go ahead, do the same thing. You find the name of the school and then the date that you attended, you know, uh that's that high school. And then a little bit different here. We'll see it in a second. So you look for the high school. Okay, so secondary high school name. Okay, good. Okay, so um from date to date. So when you started there and when you stopped attending that high school and then it is going to ask you for a little bit of information which is required. There's a red asterisk as to why you left that high school. Okay, so just an explanation. Was it because your parents moved? um you know or was it you know whatever the reason was you do have to give a little bit of an explanation to give some context as to why you left that high school and now you're at a different high school. And then you just put um continue. And now this section is going to have you fill in if you have taken any coursework through dual enrollment or a summer program or you know just at a college in general. This is where you're going to put that information and you're going to find the college. So, first you put how many colleges you've done that at and then you find the college by typing in the name. And then you're going to click the was it a dual enrollment with your high school, which means it's usually on your transcript. Um, was it a summer program that you attended and you got college credit for? or was it directly from the college you just went and took classes at this community college and you got credit from that college and so college ## How to List Your Grades, Test Scores, and Classes [15:00] from date when you started the class so let's say you started at this community college in August of 2024 and you took classes both in the fall and in the spring you're going to list from August 2024 all the way to May 2025 because you attended both semesters okay and And if you it's just dual enrollment, it's no degree earned. So don't click anything there. Then continue. Okay. This is the information I was talking about as far as like getting some um info from your counselor. So you need to know the graduating class. What's the size of your graduating class? Okay. Um if you don't have the exact number, but you have to be pretty close or you should be pretty close. Does your school rank? yes or no. And then if they don't rank, then you put none. Okay? Um but if they do, you need to know what type of ranking it is. And then the GPA scale reporting, you should know your GPA scale and then your cumulative GPA. I would always use the weighted GPA, but if your school doesn't use weighted, you can put unweighted. Okay? But always just make sure you're you're um putting the correct one. Continue. Okay. So, current or most recent year courses. So juniors, my students used to do this all the time. They would start filling this in junior year and they would list all their junior year courses and then they would come back to it in August and forget that the courses they listed there are not their senior year but their junior year courses. Okay? So you this is referring to your senior year courses. Okay? So, because you're going to you're going to submit this during senior year, you want to make sure that your senior year courses are there. And you want to have all of your classes, okay? And you want to um be sure to mark off if it's by semester, trimester, quarterly, etc. And you're going to list your classes by subject, okay? So then subject, course name, course level, and then is it just first semester, is it second semester, is it full year that you took this class? So just remember those are senior year courses. Continue. Okay. So honors um if you click yes. Okay. So this is any type of academic honors that you've received or recognitions um you can go ahead and list here. You'll put the name of the recognition and then the grade level that you received it. Okay. And then was it school something that your school does? Is it something that you know was statewide or national or international? And then you can also add more honors. If you just click add another honors, it actually gives you five uh spaces to add there and then continue. Okay. Community based ## Writing the Personal Statement [18:00] organizations. So if it's it's just wants to know again um to get an idea of the context is it have any organizations helped you you know free assistance with your application process you know if you put one it's going to make you check off which organization helped you um if you had a mentor their name their last name etc their email so just information if it applies to you great if it doesn't you don't have to um fill this So yeah, if you put zero, you can just keep going. And then future plans, um, applying first year student and plan to start college. Well, that's going to change. It's actually going to say, you know, the next application cycle. Um, and then highest degree you intend to earn just to get an idea and what your career interest is. Now, here's the thing. This application is still from the previous application cycle. So that's why it hasn't been updated. You can start, you know, you can create an account. You can start filling in the things in the common app tab. Okay. However, every year the common app gets um they do like a reboot in August on August 1st. And if you filled in any information in the colleges section, so like where the supple supplements are, we're going to show you that section. Yeah. the bicologist section, then that information will be erased. Okay? Because when they do the update, that my colleges section gets erased. But this stuff that we just went through in the common app tab will still be there. Okay? So, that is okay to fill out. I would not fill out the myologist section yet until after August 1st. Okay. All right. Continue. And I think was that it? Okay. Um, so, Coach Kristen is going to, um, cover the rest of this. Coach Kristen. Yes. Thank you, Coach Sarah. So, um, this is the testing section. So, you have a couple of options here, um, to report. So, you can report standardized tests like the ACT, SAT, you can report your AP scores. Um, and if you have any like TOEFL or other English tests or things like that, you can also report that here. One thing to note is that if you put yes here, um, it will give you all of the different options. So, you've got ACT, SAT, everything here. Um, the one thing I will caution you against is that um, there are some options that will lead you to be able if you took the SAT with writing, um, there are international options that will allow you to add that score. Um, if you are not international, make sure that you do not add that score. Um so for this purpose if we go in and add AP subject tests um and I am going to say no I am not international that will bring us toward this next section which gives you um the number of AP tests that you've taken. So let's just say we took three. This is inclusive of any AP tests that you plan on taking in the future. Um, but one thing, if you choose to put them in here and report that you're taking a test to colleges, you really want to make sure that you take it. Um, you don't want to ## Additional Information Section—What to Include [21:30] put something on your application and then not follow through with it. So, you can put the date that you took it or the date that it is planned. You have all of the subjects here and then you can put in your scores and then it gives you the options based on how many you chose. So, as far as AP tests, SATs, and ACTs, you can choose which schools that you're sending them to. So, for example, um we recommend sending um your SAT and ACT scores if they are within the 70th percentile of the previously accepted student class of of last year. Um, so if that's the case for one school and you want to submit to that school, then just make sure that you submit and we'll go over how to submit through each college. But before you submit to the next school, you want to come in and edit your application to take that score off if you don't want to submit it to the next school. So, it is editable between applications. You just want to make sure that you're diligent about going in and changing the information per college before you hit that submit button. So that is testing. And then now we get to the activities section. So in the activity section you are going to have 10 slots. Um and this is inclusive of everything listed here. So, your clubs, whether or not you do volunteering, community service, um, work, things like that. Um, but like I said, you only have 10 slots. So, this is going to be the 10 things that are most important to you. And you also have to order them in their importance to you. So, there's really not a clinical way in for us to tell you, oh, you know, you should put this one first and you should put this one second. It's based on the ones that are most important to you um throughout your throughout your high school years and your development. So um this is what it looks like. So you're going to have um character limits in each of these. And so one of the things when we're describing activities, the formula for a a good activities description is to use short phrases, action words, and numbers. So, when you're describing your activities, ## Review and Submit: What to Check Before You Click Submit [24:00] putting those numbers in there will give the reader some extra context about what it is that you did. Um, and the example I always like to use is that if I say I got second place in a race, that sounds great, unless I tell you that there were only two people running that race. So, in that case, I would have gotten last. Um, so the context here, if I was to tell you I got second place in a race of a thousand people, that's really something and that's really meaningful. And so that's why context is important here. And then you're going to go through here and select the levels in which you participated. And if you are currently in school, you will not select post-graduate. This is for students who may have taken a gap year or something like that. But since you're not postgraduate, we don't know if you did a post-graduate yet. So, you only put up to 12th grade. Time of participation um during the school year, during break, or all year. And the hours spent per week and the week spent per year are estimates, right? Um as far as hours spent per week, it's probably not going to be the same exact thing every week. Um, and this isn't something that they're going to go through your schedule the last four years of high school and count every single hour that you had. So, this is just kind of a best guess estimate on how many hours you spent per week and the weeks you spent per year. Yeah. The one thing I would I'm sorry, Coach Kristen, but the one thing I would caution against is just make sure it makes sense, you know, like because when you list all your activities and you add up all your hours and then, you know, you see that your hours, you actually included more hours than are available to you, you know, throughout the week, it doesn't make sense. So, just make sure that what you're putting in there, you don't have to be super conservative. include, you know, travel time or like anything else that is included in these activities, but just make sure it makes sense. And kind of on that note, too, this is another thing um that through our essay service and through our college app intensives, activities lists are something that we will help you review and edit and offer feedback on. So that's something that I always look for as I'm looking at activities list, kind of making sure that there are no exorbitant number of hours on a specific activity where it doesn't even make sense anymore. So um and then kind of like what I was talking about here with I intend to participate in a similar activity. This is what a lot of people think of as postgraduate, but this is actually where you're signifying that you continue to participate postgrad if you are currently a senior in high school. So that is the activity section. Again, order matters and you have 10 slots. So we want to make sure that we use them strategically. And we will continue. And so the writing with the common app is the personal statement. And so um the first thing that you'll do here is select the topic that you have chosen to write about. So there's all these different ones. And then you have here where you will copy and paste your essay in. So one of the things you want to look out for is that you have a limit of 650 words. And so you want to make sure that you are a within that limit and b that everything is in here as it needs to be. So the secret that I like to tell people is that up here in the corner there's a preview button. So this is what it's going to look like for the reader. And one of the things that I always look out for is that a lot of the time the Common App will add extra spaces in between where you have entered down to a new paragraph. And so if that's the case, you can just go back in where you pasted your answer and take those spaces out. And then here we're looking for this is the first sentence. This is indeed. We go down, make sure the last sentence is as it should be. And it is. And so now we know that it is formatted correctly. The first sentence and last sentence are both as they should be. And we are within the word limit. So that is how you kind of double check to make sure everything is good with your personal statement. Um, so we can continue here. And then as far as additional information, so this is an area where you would put um any context surrounding your grades, surrounding your um other activities or awards or just anything that you might not have had the space to do inside the application itself. And so if I select yes here, we've got a maximum of 650 words that we can use. And this is really, like I said, additional information that didn't have an other natural place within the application itself. Also, if you need to explain any low grades, you know, you can use this space to explain, you know, why in ninth grade you got a C in something, um, this would be a good area to do that. Yes. Yeah, exactly. Um, so, so basically just giving the reader a little bit more context about anything that might be a question in your app. The other thing that you want to make sure with the additional information section is that it answers questions rather than creating more questions. So, if there were any uncertainties within your app or things that an outside person might lift an eyebrow at, this is the place to really solidify those answers. But you shouldn't put something in here that's way out of left field and then not explain anything about it because that's just going to leave the reader with more questions than answers. So we will go to continue here. And then the last section is courses and grades. And so this is something that you are going to enter directly off your transcript. So make sure you have your transcript in front of you. And so you click yes, continue. So, when we're adding courses for ninth grade, this is what it's going to look like. So, you can select from the high schools that you listed in the beginning. Um, your school year. So, this is when you would have been in 9th grade. The grading scale. So, there are some schools that do the traditional A throughF system 1 through 100. Um, so there's options there. Your schedule, so trimester, semesters, anything like that. And then this is where you want to look at your transcript really closely. So if I'm entering a course like calculus and let's just say that and then it's advanced placement. And so we would click continue here. And that's what it would look like. And not all schools require this um section. So, if it doesn't show up for you after you add your colleges, it's just because the colleges you're applying to don't don't require this. Yes. And the other thing I would say too is that with these, if you are on a semester system, it will often give you, and I'm going to see if I can pull it up here, it'll give you the option to add in your grades. So, this is where you really want to look closely at your transcript. So, if your transcript offers you final grades for semester 1 and semester 2, but not a final grade, don't put anything for the final grade. Just leave that blank because it's blank on your transcript. Um, and for credits, same thing. If it gives you the credit total for each semester, but not a listed final, you would put the number of credits that you got and then leave this blank. Um, the other thing is that if you only took a course for one semester and the second semester you didn't I mean it was just a one semester class again just leave it blank and that'll signify that you were not in a class for that semester. Um, and then obviously you'd want that to match. So that is inputting courses. So we've got 9th grade, 10th grade, 11th, 12th and other courses. So, this is where you're going to put any summer courses or anything um that you might have taken in middle school. So, if you took a a language class in middle school or a math class to try to get ahead, this is where you would list that. Um and so that is courses and grades. And again, you can go up to this preview section and that'll kind of give you a bird's eye view just to double check and make sure everything is as it's listed on your transcript. So I will get out of there and then that's the common app. So a lot of information for you to enter but a lot of it will be directly from your transcript. And the other really helpful thing is that if you fill out your student journey tracker, a lot of that information will be in there as well. So, um, if you're filling out your if you're listing your activities and your grades and everything like that as you go, it'll it won't be something that you have to go back and then collect all the information over again. Yep. And and then um, which Christie can, you don't go to college search so they can see how you added the colleges there. Yes. So just coach Kristen Kristen's going to type in a college name. It'll pop up for you if they use it. If they use the common app. So if they don't, it's not going to be there. But when it pops up, you just click the add button and it'll add it to your list of schools. So now you go to my colleges, that tab, and you can see the colleges you've added there. If you click the each college, so let's click, I guess, Harvard, it's actually really helpful because it has all of the college information, contact information, it has application fees, the standardized test policy. This will all be updated though. Um, and then it tells you what recommendations are required, if it uses the school report, counselor recommendation if that's required, if it uses the midyear report. So, all kinds of great information here. It also has all the social media links um at the top. And then the writing requirements. Yeah. So, writing requirements is where you can see if it has a supplemental essay, if it requires a common app essay and how many, you know, supplements it has, um how many additional questions this college requires. So, it has everything on this first page. Um and then yeah so you can also go to the questions these are the specific questions for each college. So preferred start term you know make sure you fill that out so that the deadlines update um because it well not that the sorry the preferred um yeah okay so the preferred start term which right now um hasn't been updated. So preferred admission plan go ahead and and yeah if you're applying early action or regular decision that makes a difference in the deadlines. Okay. So that's what I was uh referring to. So the admission plan is going to update the deadlines and you know when the application is actually due and then are you living on campus? Um do you need financial aid? So these are all questions that this particular college wants to know about the students that are applying. And then you know it has its different sections uh other questions about academics about activities contacts and this this information here only goes to Harvard for example. Okay. So everything on the common app tab that we went through earlier goes to all of your common app schools but these individual questions are for that individual college only. Um coach Kristen did I forget anything? Do you have anything to add here? Nope. That that sounds good. Yep. And then um if you look each college has the recommenders in FURPA too. Oh, sorry that we're still here. Okay. The recommenders. Sorry, I thought we moved on. Okay. So, yeah. So, academics, field of study, you know, just like the majors. Um, and this particular college wants you to rank, you know, on a scale what you prefer like the as far as your extracurriculars or what you're planning to get involved in in their campus and so forth. So, very specific to this college. This is the information, like I said, that will update come August 1st. And some of some colleges will change this, others will leave it the same, but you just don't want to fill this out yet because if you fill it out, you you're going to lose this information. Okay. So, it's good to look at it so you can plan so you can get a good idea of what they, you know, will probably ask for, but um don't fill it out yet. And then, yeah, short answers. You can see the supplements or the questions that they're um the additional questions they want you to answer for them specifically. And again, this is another section where you can use this preview button up here just to make sure everything is formatted as it should be. um make sure that your um your spacing is all good and that your first sentence and last sentence are both there and you're within the word count. So that preview button will definitely become your best friend when you're putting in your essays and short answer questions. And then this next section here is for your recommenders and furpa. So, I know that there are some schools who use automated systems such as Naviance to do this. And so, that'll be done directly through that program. Um, but if your school does not use a program like this, this is where your letters of recommendation will come and you um can choose which ones you want to add depending on the requirements or restrictions that the school has on letters of recommendation. So, some schools will want two teachers, some will want one, but have one that is also um an extra one that's allowed. So, it just kind of depends on the school itself. Um and then Furpa is the um basically just a release of information. And so, we are going to click here. And so we're acknowledging that every school we release this information. I wave my rights and then you'll go through here, signature date and everything like that. Um and then once that's all filled out and your letters are here, you'll be able to select which ones that you want to submit to the individual school. And and then and that's really it. So this is basically once you have filled out everything and again your common app each of these sections will need a green check mark next to it in order to successfully submit to a college. And then once you get here and your Common App is good, your questions are all answered, your recommenders are all listed, um, this page will allow you to kind of review your information and signify that yes, I authorize that this information is all correct. And then you'll hit that submit button and then your application will be off. Um, and depending on the school too, there may be an application fee. Um, that's another thing that just depends on school to school. Um, so there may be a payment screen within this review and submit as well. But that's that's the common app. Coach Sarah, did I did I miss anything in that end stage? Um, no. I just want to point out that on the top right you can see your common app ID. So if you ever need to like after you submit this for whatever reason you need to refer to your common app to a school just make sure you include your common apps ID which is on the top right. Um I think got everything. Uh fin there is a financial aid tab just talks a little bit more about financial aid and maybe some scholarships it'll recommend um if you fill out some information. Uh but I think those are the main parts and like we said you can start filling it out. Um there as you can see there's a lot of information and a lot of just details to this and that's something that we hope we help students with and co coach Kristen and I actually did a some sendoff calls which is what we call when we actually check these applications for students before they submit and we just make sure that everything was filled out correctly. So that's really important. Yeah. And then this dashboard section here is a really nice kind of at a glance for where you're at. So it'll tell you, for example, this deadline has passed. Um these are both rolling admission. So you can add your application, which is in progress. Um more details. So this is kind of similar to that page that Coach Sarah was talking about, finding out what's required, things like that. But this is more just kind of at a glance without all the detail. So, there's a ton of functionality on the common app page. Um, so it's all about just kind of knowing what's there and utilizing it to to the best of its ability. Fantastic. Well, that was a great training. I learned a lot myself. It's always nice revisiting this doc. Uh, really quick, I believe Kosen, you have a free gift for everyone here today. Is that is that is that correct? I do. So um and I'm going to share my screen one more time. So we have the um workbook from last year which is the the common application workbook. So this is an area where you can keep all of that information kind of like what I was talking about keeping it all in one place as you go so that you don't have to do it all at the same time later. Um, and so what we have now is the 2024 2025 workbook, but the application is set to stay pretty much the same this year as it was last year. So that workbook will still be valid. Um, it'll just have some some wonky numbers in there, 24 and 25. But if you text workbook to this phone number here, um, our team will send that link to you so that you can make a copy of that document and enter your information. Um and then you can also have the opportunity to schedule a 15minute call with our team just to kind of chat about um your college plans and the pathway there. So um that is an excellent tool for you to use just to keep track of everything. Awesome. Fantastic. Kudos to you get a little shout out for coach Kristen, coach Sarah in the chat. We do have a few questions that we'll run through really really quick uh as well. So those who dropped a question in the chat, thanks for doing that. I'm going to run through it really really quick here. First one I'll try to answer a few and I'll throw some questions that I need help with over to you YouTube. Uh first one someone asked how much can you write in the title section. Uh so they're referring to I think in the activities right in the activities how much in the title section itself. So it depends per area right. So usually in the position the leadership area it's typically 50 characters. The org is around 100 characters. Tell right there tells right there as well too. Uh, and the last one is 150 characters specifically. So that's going to be that um the limits for each one. Okay, next one question here is honors. Is the honors something you took or academic honor? So these are academic honors. So like if you did if you guys some of you guys got national mayor scholars, honoral, AP scholar award, that's that's what the honors are. It's not saying I took honors English. That that's not what the honors is supposed to be uh there. Okay. Uh, next one. Someone asked, "Do you need to report all of your AP?" A similar question. Do you can you leave out a test that you don't have to report? So, technically, right, it's almost like a self-reported system. However, here's the however part. There are going to be certain schools that will ask for official scores. When they ask for official scores you submit and whatever is attached to that thing, they will see each one there. So, just a heads up for those folks here as well. Um, someone asked when how would you enter your transcripts to the things? The reason why I think coach Kristen mentioned this of the have your transcripts heady handy is you're almost writing it literally to the tea. Right. Right. Exactly what the transcripts are and you don't want the readers later on to like try to pick and choose like is this right? Is this a different class? It has to match almost. Just copy what your transcript says is kind of the the easy go-to for this one here. And then next one is there as a wreck under each college tab. Yes, I think I think coach Sarah reviewed over that. It's on the fura. Make sure make sure you wave your right. That's the important one here. Wave your right. The other one means that you get to see your letter before it gets sent. You don't want to do that. You want to wave your right, meaning you do not see uh what the other person wrote for you and then they'll send it off there as well. Uh someone asking I think you you one of you two can take one. Does the common common app the common app personal questions change every year? So typically yeartoyear they're going to remain the same. Um, a hot piece of advice when it comes to the Common App personal statement is to really start writing without looking at any of the prompts because when you're writing your your personal statement, you want it to be about something that you are passionate about, something that is integral to knowing who you are as a person. And so when you start to write, um, you don't want to be limited by the scope of the question. You really want to get into all of the different pieces of what you're going to write about. So start writing and get a good start down. Get everything out that you want to say and then you can go back later and figure out which of the prompts fits your question best. So it's kind of a reverse. But like I said, you don't want to be limited by the scope of the question. So get out everything you want to say first and then find out which one fits your response the best. Awesome. Uh if you can help me with the next question as well too. Someone asked about Navvian of like uh their school uses like their school has Navian but they don't use it much. Can you I think you talk about it in the context of recommendation letters. Yeah. So I had a few students use Naviance um in this past application cycle and it is basically a system that connects into the common app but it is it's a separate system from the common app. So, um, the letters will kind of be housed within the Navian system rather than the common application and everything is done through there. Um, it it's something that your counselor will work with. So, your counselor would be the best person to kind of explain how your school uses it and things like that, but that's the place where your letters of recommendation are going to be housed and and where the all the work will be done from, I guess, if that makes sense. Perfect. Awesome. Next one here. Someone asked about uh there was a section you guys talked about parent backgrounds as well too. Should we fill it out or uh not all the fields? So this is more for demographics information doesn't affect admissions uh in any way. So this is you know you know when you guys look up the data online and they give you trends it's because of that and you know the people who are unknown who's the unknown is people who left a blank. So that that's what the unknown is. And the next one what if you don't remember the exact AP test dates. You don't have to know the exact AP test dates as long as you get the month and the year correct. That's the most important part with the AP test states there. Uh last question here. Uh when should students start drafting the essays for a common app? What do you guys think for that question? Um I think now at the end of um junior year. So you can start uh kind of you know the the essay is going to go through a bunch of you're going to go through a bunch of drafts. So, um, you know, just start writing. Start, you know, trying to get your story down. And the personal statement is a story. It's a story you're telling college admissions about you. Like, what about you do you feel they need to know? And it's not, you know, going through all listing all your activities or all your awards that you've ever gotten. That's not what the personal statement is. this is something other than what's already in your application that you feel like they need to know. So, you can start, you know, juniors can start right now at the end towards the end of junior year, definitely over the summer, um you know, writing these rough drafts um and then they'll be able to just better finalize it um you know, as the we get closer to the beginning of of senior year. Awesome. And on on that note as well, we also have an event called the college app intensive where our first event. Our first set is called Kickstart. Kickstart is a really really cool event. We're actually starting this Saturday. I think I will be there. I believe one of our coaches will be there as well. Coach Kristen will be there as well too. So if those of you who are signed up, you're going to be hanging out with me and coach Kristen. Super super fun. Uh we're going to basically students will come in with nothing. You'll leave with all your first drafts done. How cool is that? So it's a very structured step-by-step event. Uh, I'll be leading it uh as well too. So, super super pumped. So, exactly what coach Sarah said, you don't have to wait. The prompts are out. By the way, officially the prompts are out. They officially announced this upcoming year's prompts did not change. So, if you want to start doing that, you are good to go. Uh, fully comments 99.999% sure same prompts as well, too. So, you can definitely do that. If anyone's still interested in getting started, we have a few uh we're all sold out in April. So for those you guys who are like to join, April sold out this weekend, next weekend, next weekend, next next weekend. All the Aprils are gone. So if you guys want to get started that we have a few in May, a few in June still available. If you guys are interested, uh go to collegeappointensive.com. Um if not, just text the word like kickstart to our team. That's 9497750865 and they'll send you the information on that uh as well too. Okay, that is pretty much it. Any final words uh Kosher, Coach Kristen, before we um I think just uh a word of advice, just uh start early on college applications. Don't wait. Um you know, you definitely don't want to wait till the beginning of senior year to start filling out all this stuff and writing your essay and doing all that stuff. Start early and you'll see how it is possible to get everything done by the end of summer. And you know, submit your applications early. Don't wait. Yeah, and I would say kind of piggybacking off of that, uh, make sure that you are counting applications and essay writing when you are thinking about your summer activities. I think yes, this is something that people don't think is going to take a lot of time. It does and it should. Um, so make sure that you are giving yourself ample amount of time during the summer. Um, and not overloading yourself with, you know, 16 other things and then this kind of goes on the back burner. this is this is important and um it should it should be considered as a priority for your your junior to senior year summer. Yep. Awesome. That is pretty much it for this training here. Again, thank you every for joining me uh and joining our two incredible coaches. Shout out to coach Sarah, shout out to coach Kristen. Thank you for another amazing training. Again, if you guys are interested in the free common app workbook, so you guys can kind of plug in your information and copy into the app. Text the word workbook to our team 9497750865. If you haven't chatted with our team or you haven't redeemed your free 15minute coaching call yet, type text the word coach to that same number. If you guys are interested in kickstart, text kickstart as well, too. Right. I'll see you guys in the next training.