THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 8, 1995 TAG: 9512080060
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTIE AMBERMAN, HIGH SCHOOL CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
ATTENTION underclass-men! Do you know seniors who are frazzled because they have five different college applications to fill out and five different essays to write?
Well, here's some fantastic news: You do not have to share their fate and become another sad statistic of application overload. There is a cure and it's called the Common Application. By using this one form, you can make your life 10 times easier during senior year.
The National Association of Secondary School Principals worked with 156 colleges and universities to simplify the application process. The result was the Common Application. Instead writing out the same information on numerous forms, students can simply fill out one application.
The Common Application is easy to use. It consists of a personal data sheet, one teacher recommendation form, a school report form and a personal statement sheet with three essay choices.
All the student and guidance counselor have to do is photocopy the completed applications and mail them off to individual colleges.
A step-by-step guide to filling out the Common Application is included in ``A Student's Guide to College Admissions: Everything Your Guidance Counselor Has No Time To Tell You'' by Harlow G. Unger. Unger offers practical advice, including the fact that colleges do not accept photocopies of signatures. He recommends leaving that signature and date areas blank on your master copy so each form can be signed individually.
It is also important to note that all the colleges listed on the Common Application require their own application fee, and many of them require supplementary information such as an additional essay, teacher recommendation, or school report form. Harvard and Radcliffe, for example, send both the Common Application and their supplement to students who want to apply.
Does this still sound too good to be true? In order to quell fears that colleges might look down on applicants who don't use the school's own application, the Common Application directly states that: ``Members encourage its use and all give equal consideration to the Common Application and the college's own form.''
So there you have it. Instead of joining the ranks of seniors pulling their hair out, you can be one step ahead. MEMO: Christie Amberman's column on the college admissions process is
published monthly in Teenology.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo
PORTER MASON
Christie Amberman is a senior at First Colonial High School.
by CNB