I'm a senior this year and I was wondering if it was better to apply to colleges using Common App or straight through the college's admissions website. I've heard different opinions on both. Do I have a better chance depending on which I do?
Hi @teaganshea,
Thanks for your question. Just like colleges are completely agnostic to whether you submit an SAT or ACT test score, they are completely agnostic to whether you use the Common App, the Coalition App, apply through Questbridge (if you qualify), or through their own proprietary App (if that is available).
My advice to you is not to assume you can game the app format to your advantage if there are different choice options. However, I would say to you that if you have more ECs or honors, I think the Common App has more slots (like 10 versus 8) than the Coalition app. And proprietary apps have their own unique formats so I would pick the best one that suits the kind of information you want to share with them. Also, if you have a lot of documents you want to share like examples of CODE, portfolios, and pdfs. of creative writing, awards, honors, etc. the Coalition App has something called the "locker" which allows you to upload a whole slew of things to their version of the "cloud" which you can permission to colleges, your counselor, teachers, and your parents or mentors if that helps.
Everyone is looking for some sort of edge these days because college admissions are so competitive but the edge comes from figuring out how to best present your narrative rather than finding some loophole or shortcut. There are none.
Good luck.
It depends on how the direct application looks like. If common app better showcases accomplishments, then use that. I honestly think that neither impact chances of getting accepted and it all depends which makes your application look stronger.
To keep this community safe and supportive: