As the college application journey begins, you have heard the terms “Common Application” or “Coalition Application” as ways of applying to different schools. In case you’re unfamiliar about exactly how such application systems function, these portals serve as centralized locations to send your components to multiple institutions. If you fill out the different sections within these systems, you don’t have to fill them out for multiple of your schools. This makes the application process far more streamlined.
While essentially they all ask for similar information that can help colleges understand your context better – such as your contact information, family information, high school details, list of extracurriculars, and your personal statement, they also differ in certain areas. One difference is that a lot of schools don’t exist in multiple systems. But there are technical distinctions as well such as in word limits, essay prompts, number of activity list slots and more. To help guide you through these differences, we’ve laid out some of the ways in which the different application systems stand out from each other.