Common App Archives - College Initiative

5 College Application Red Flags (and some Yellow and Green Ones!)

Jill Schwitzgebel — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 19:58:32 +0000

Occasionally, some college application "red flags" do pop up! Fortunately, I see mainly green flags, but there are some yellow ones too.

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6 Common App Mistakes to Avoid

Jill Schwitzgebel — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 20:02:18 +0000

If your student is finishing up their college applications on the Common Application platform, congratulations! Before hitting “Submit,” your teen might want to review some of the most common, Common App mistakes to make sure their application is ready to go. And if your senior has not yet begun working on their applications, it might...

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Should Students Agree to the FERPA Waiver for College Recommendations?

Jill Schwitzgebel — Mon, 02 Nov 2020 18:03:00 +0000

Most families have never been asked to waive their FERPA rights for any reason throughout their children’s years of school. And then suddenly, college applications contain a FERPA waiver that asks students to specifically give up their right to see a piece of their college application – their teacher recommendations. It may seem alarming. The...

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How to Handle a High School Suspension on College Applications

Jill Schwitzgebel — Sun, 03 Nov 2019 21:04:52 +0000

Let’s face it – teenagers make mistakes for all kinds of reasons. Our best hope is that the mistakes they make won’t be life-changing ones. Sometimes, the mistake they make will result in disciplinary action from their high school. And usually, that means that it will wind up on their transcript, which will be sent...

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How Important is Demonstrated Interest for College Admission?

Jill Schwitzgebel — Wed, 28 Aug 2019 21:00:34 +0000

Due to the ease of applying through the Common and Coalition college application platforms, students are applying to more colleges than ever before. And colleges are well aware of that trend. It makes their job more difficult because they want to admit the students who are most likely to attend. Maybe that makes the answer...

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What You Need to Know About Teacher Recommendations

Jill Schwitzgebel — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 20:12:58 +0000

If you’re reading this, you likely already know that colleges care about more than test scores and GPAs when it’s application time. The admissions team wants to get a full picture of who the student really is before making an admissions decision. One way they try to get an idea of what a student is...

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