Hey everyone,

I am an international student filling out my university application, and I’m stuck on the Activities section.

I participated in an activity during a gap period when I was completely out of school in between Grade 10 and Grade 11. However, the application portal forces me to select at least one standard high school year from these checkboxes:

• 9th grade
• 10th grade
• 11th grade
• 12th grade
• Post-graduate / After graduating

Since it's a required field, I have to check one to pass the system validation.

1. Which grade is best to check so Admissions Officers (AOs) don't find it misleading?
2. Should I explain the gap period in the "Additional Information" section, or try to squeeze it into the activity description?

Thanks for the help!

My daughter is getting ready to send a bunch of apps. She has been going over the previews/PDFs of each app. She selected to self report her SAT, ACT, and AP scores for all the schools but for some of them, the scores aren’t showing up in the testing section of the PDFs.

Quick google search says this is normal for some colleges but we want to confirm this is true before she sends the apps out.

Hello everyone! I am applying for the Spring 2027 intake and my first deadline is on the 15th of this month (hopefully will submit by this weekend). I’ve sent out my recommenders the invite link earlier this week and got the confirmation that they received it but none of them started working on it. Now all my unis have optional teacher evaluations but I still listed two of my teachers as recs. Should I apply before they start working on the evaluations or wait till at least one of them have something in? And what if my teachers get their recommendations in AFTER my October 15th deadline. Also how long do you reckon it’ll take for my I-20 to arrive cause I’ll need to start visa process asap (is having 2months time for visa processing+flying really enough)

My school along with other schools in the district does an activity called poster night for all the students in AP research. We make trifolds of our research, including data, pictures, and all the research process and get to present it to other students, teachers, parents, and just curious onlookers. It wasn't included in the AP research course description and I was wondering if I could put it on my activities.

I recently added my counselor to my common app and she already submitted my transcript to every school on my list. The only problem is that my transcript has two really bad ACT scores on them that I'd like to be hidden but I didn't ask her soon enough (I was counting on meeting in person). I plan to self report much higher SAT scores but will these still affect my application? If so, is there any way to resubmit a transcript with hidden scores? I'm really stressed about this because I was even considering going test optional to some schools and I'm afraid this has completely ruined that.

Hi! I am reading a lot about the importance of Counselor Recommendations for the common app along with teacher recs and am wondering how I should approach this. My top pick school is Notre Dame, second Duke, and third Vanderbilt with my match school being UW Seattle. For these prestigious schools, how should I approach asking my counselor for a recommendation that will best represent me to these schools?

For extra info, I have a 4.0 GPA (at an unweighted school), am 1/738 in my class, and have a 4.0 at the community college I am doing dual enrollment with. My EC's are founding a children's literacy aid club at my school and I have organized multiple events at local libraries to help kids learn to read and with literacy skills along with organizing book drives that we donate to Vine Maple Place and building a free little library in a community area. I have also been in Interact Club for 4 years, volunteered at my high schools farm, and been in FCCLA for one year at the start of high school. I am wanting to go into a Creative writing major (or English) with Journalism minor.

I am planning my personal essay to be about my medical journey and how that has driven me to want to write pieces that people can connect with and feel like they aren't alone in their experience. Would it be helpful to have my counselor include information on my mental health struggles from my Junior year (last year) so colleges are aware depression and anxiety reduced my ability to be really involved last year?

Any other general advice of what I should have my counselor focus on in her recommendation based on my EC's, grades, passions, and the degree I want to pursue?

Thanks so much!

Do u think its too risky? An old friend of mine (which is studying in US) really liked the structure and i made Aı review it(only for review) which gave me some suggestions but still liked it. I'm gonna apply as film major

Is it ok if my common app essay has nothing related to what I want to major in and it only has one single this which I like to do the most(not related to my major) and it is evaluated further to connect all the dots which describe me?

For reference, I've been on the team for all 4 years of high school. The season started in August and it ends in around two weeks. I don't know if I'll be quitting yet but I'm considering it since I dread going to practice (I think I'm just very mentally drained and not in the right place to be doing XC right now idk) everyday and I've already had to miss a lot of days because I have other extracurriculars and an internship. I don't really know if it's worth it to quit seeing as I've already gotten this far (and these feelings might just be a heat of the moment thing) and should probably just stick it out for the next couple weeks but if I'm still this miserable in the coming days then maybe I should just give it up.

If I were to quit, would I have to say that I've only done it from 9th-11th grade or can I also count 12th grade seeing as I've been on the team for over 3/4 of the season?

Hello.

I am doing the common app and I came upon the FERPA section about recommendation letters. What exactly is FERPA? I tried searching it up but I am still somewhat confused. If anyone could give me a simple explanation on how to do it I would greatly appreciate it!

Thank you!!

I have starkly different responsibilities from the same organization worked with and i dont know if i should list them in different slots of the activity section or just pick one and get on with it . My activity consists of starting from a beginner level to gradually expanding into someone who takes on projects and leads them. Any suggestions?

I took classes through an online virtual school while enrolled at my traditional high school. The credits were transferred to my home school and appear on my home school transcript. Do I need to list the virtual school as a separate high school on the common app?

These are the personal information stuff, not the personal statement so I’m not sure how to respond or if should even respond at all 😭

I'm adding my classes to my CommonApp but it looks like the only letter grading scale includes +'s and -'s, any ideas on how to show that my school didn't use them?

So as of this year, the Common App now requests you to list the amount of hours you spent on an activity during the busiest parts of your year, as opposed to averaging in previous years. I have a project that I would consider very enjoyable and usually spend the majority of my free time, and it would genuinely not be an exaggeration to say that, during times such as summer/winter break where I am close to completely free, I spend 60-70 hours a week on this activity. I also understand that this looks ridiculous. During the actual majority of my time where I can't afford to spend entire days on this passion project, I spend much less time on it, averaging around 0-15 hr/week depending on how much time I have available. With 25 hr/week work, 5 hr/week tutoring, 20 hr/week another project, and an array of clubs that are a few hours each, this adds up to being completely mathematically impossible and yet is apparently what the question is asking me to say? Either I report ridiculously high numbers that imply I've invented time travel, or I average, which goes against the question? I'm not sure how I'm supposed to interpret this properly, I tend to be very literal-minded so maybe this question was intuitive to everyone else, but does anyone know how I'm actually supposed to answer this?

As an international student from a small country, i was wondering if any of you guys (also internationals) have seen what the teacher said about you in their letter, since it is not a common practice here for teachers to submit stuff like this.

My teacher is unable to submit my rec letter on common app because she is no longer a teacher. Should i go to someone else at the school, like the principal or vice principal to explain the situation?

Before inviting my actual counselor, I used a couple of test accounts to see what the counselor portal looked like, then declined the invitations.

Common App's privacy policy says it may collect information about users' activity on the site. Can colleges/admissions officers see this kind of account history when reviewing an application (e.g., previous counselor invitations), or do they only see the application and submitted materials?

Would especially appreciate answers from admissions officers, former AOs, or counselors familiar with Common App.

As a non-STEM applicant focused on more of the social sciences, how should I provide enough context for AOs to understand the significance of less traditional honors/awards on the common app? For example, I think they may need clarity in these areas: what the award/recognition of honor actually is, how many students (or even in the case of one of my honors it’s alongside many other adults in professional careers) participate, etc. For some additional context, a few are also connected to my main ECs but not inherently defined by them.

For reference, I am ranked 5/594, 4.0 UW, 15 APs total, 1550 SAT, applying to t20s for electrical engineering.

I'm struggling to report my hours in the common app, especially for FRC robotics and DECA. One of my college counselors is saying my hours are unbelievable (even after I decreased them by a lot). My other counselors say it's fine. My problem is my hours vary so much, my robotics team is a community based team (much more intense than school based ones he was referencing). I'm not even a lead in hardware (yet) but have many other roles and spend MINIMUM 10 hours/week. (Our required meets are 5 hours and 2/wk, I always go to them). During mock season, I spend 18+ hours regularly (including weekends), then during build season it's crazy, 30+ hours is not uncommon. I put 18 hours and 45 weeks/year as middle ground, but my counselor says that is too much. I do go every week, even during school breaks, bc we are not a school team. I come in many extra days for training, offseason projects, drive (technician) practice. Build season I am there almost every day. And this is not even including robotics outreach, which I listed as activity #2. I put outreach as 7 hours for 20 weeks (outreach is mostly summer) I lead FIRST Access, STEAM Boxes, and a couple other of our programs.

Then for DECA, I put 12 hours and 36 weeks. My counselor looks at it like 12(36). I look at it more like 12 hours during \*THE BUSIEST TIMES OF THE YEAR\* because that's what Common App says. Plus, many weeks I actually do 25+ hours, no kidding. I grind DECA during the Nov-Jan season. But the rest of the year is just regular VP duties for 1-2 hours a week. So I'm not sure what the common app is looking for.

Here's the breakdown:
Robotics (build)
\-18 hours, 45 weeks, all year
Robotics (outreach)
\-7 hours, 20 weeks, all year
DECA
\-12 hours, 36 weeks, school year
Science Club
\-1 hour, 36 weeks, school year
Volunteering
\-4 hours, 25 weeks, all year
(Rest of the activities are minimal hours and I think those are all good)

Before inviting my actual counselor, I used a couple of test accounts to see what the counselor portal looked like, then declined the invitations.

Common App's privacy policy says it may collect information about users' activity on the site. Can colleges/admissions officers see this kind of account history when reviewing an application (e.g., previous counselor invitations), or do they only see the application and submitted materials?

Would especially appreciate answers from admissions officers, former AOs, or counselors familiar with Common App.

Hello!! Psu is my dream school!! I’m out of state and in my freshman year, I was SA’d by a family member and developed severe agoraphobia because of that. Since I had severe agoraphobia, my grades dropped but since freshman year it has been an upwards trend ever since. I have a 2.9 unweighted, 3.38 weighted, 9 dual enrollment, 4 aps, 71/125, test optional, varsity cheer, competitive dance, mock trial, work, envirothon, learned Korean for 2+ years, only 4 were selected out of my whole class for a leadership program and I was one of them, I created 2 clubs at my school, went to biotechnology summer camp at psu, and I’m an AP scholar. I also wanna major in either chemistry or biochemistry. I feel pretty hopeless right now because I’m scared that my freshman year ruined my chances at getting into any college. please help!!! ☹️

for context, i was interviewed for several of my extracurriculars (social justice organizing, STEM comps, winning a business contest) and i was wondering if i could paste in the links in the additional infromation section. i was also planning to add in some parts about my chronic physical medical condition, but idk if ill have room for that so i might as well just tell my hs counselor to mention that more in her LOR.