The biggest con of the Common app is that it is tied to Naviance or your school. You don't add teacher recommendations from your Common App account, the school sends it there. In our case, the school sends them to Naviance, and Naviance send it to Common App. May not seem like a big deal, but let's say right before you are ready to submit your application, you change your mind on which teacher rec is best for that school... you CANNOT change which teacher rec you want sent from Common App... Its like the account is NOT yours. You then go to Naviance to take that teacher off that particular school, and it tells you that you cannot do that... You have to go to that teacher or counselor and tell them to remove themselves from that school on your account. What kid wants to do that??????? It would be like, "Hey, Mr. So and So, I no longer want you to be my recommender for this school.. Could you please kindly remove yourself from that school on Naviance for me?" Also, if you attended more than one school, only your current school can send recs to the Common App. If you want a teacher from another school to submit a rec for you (like if you took a course at a college), you have to download the teacher rec form, and ask that teacher to submit it individually to each and every school you are applying to.... YIKES!!! On Coalition App, you send out your recommendation requests from the portal, and then the teachers ONLY have to send it once to the Coalition App. When you go to submit your application for each school, you can use the drop down menu and pick and choose which recs you want sent. You don't have to go to any teacher and say you changed your mind and don't want their rec for a particular school. It is YOUR account, and you can make your own choices before you click submit. Also, while Coalition only has room for 8 extra curricular activities, they give you so much more freedom to write about your contributions and role in your clubs. It is a much better opportunity to express to colleges your whole self. Yes, Common App allows for 10, but really do you need all 10? And we found that it is easy to merge a couple to one category and still had plenty of room to write about them (e.g., listing two community service clubs or activities into one category and then writing about all the things done for each). The extra space to really sell what you did in the clubs more than makes up for 8 vs 10 categories. My son had 10+, and was able to nicely cluster them into 8 and talk more about all of them than on the Common App, which we HAD to use for a few schools that didn't take Coalition. We used both, and learned a lot!!! Now, if you participated in 10 clubs with very little to say about your contributions, Common App may be better. In our case, there was lots to say about all the roles, projects, contributions, awards, etc... so Coalition was much better for my 10+ activities kid. Also, my son applied in a COVID year, and had a large group of colleges he as exploring... It was helpful having them all on the application, and then slowly removing the ones he didn't want. You can do this on Coalition, but if you are exploring more than 20 school, on the Common App - too bad, you can only have 20 on there at a time. My son found it very helpful to have his initial, large list on Coalition, so he can open up all the essay prompts to learn more about what each school required. In the end, of course he eliminated many, but it was nice to have a place to list them while being able to see what they asked in their applications. We had to use the Common App for some schools, but it really didn't take that much time to fill out the basic info. As for essay choices, as long as both applications allow you to "choose an essay topic of your choice," you can take a prompt from the other application as your option. That is a non-issue. No school is going to say, "Hey! you wrote about a topic listed on the Common App for your Coalition App essay!" and penalize you. You have the choice to write about ANYTHING or ANY TOPIC you like. Also, Coalition ALLOWS you to list college courses and the grades along with your listed classes. On Common App, you can try to list those classes, but their drop-down menu WON’T allow you to choose the college as the institution where you took the course, even though those colleges were listed on the application as schools attended. The drop down menu on the section where you list your courses only lists your high schools. For example, my son took some classes at a local college, and when he went to list those classes, he couldn’t on Common App, because he would have been forced to list those classes as having occurred at his high school. On Coalition App, you can fill in the classes and it allows you to choose from all the schools you listed as ones you have attended, even the colleges. For a kid who did well in college classes taken outside the high school, this was a definite PLUS. It allows the colleges to see all his course-work in one place. For a traditional student, only taking classes at one school, this may not be necessary, but that's the thing with Coalition... it isn't designed to keep you in a box... you have more FREEDOM to show who you are. We emailed Common App to confirm this, and yup, it is a limitation. Also, there were several folks who wanted to see my son's application to give feedback, etc. On Coalition, all you have to do is make one click to get a pdf of your entire application and send it to whoever. Do you think you can do that with Common App??? NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! You have to click each and every one of the small categories of info, take a screen shot, and then put them all together to create one copy of your application... Royal PIA!!!!!!!!!!! Why Common App can't understand that kids have interested parties that want to take a look I don't get. I counted 32 SEPARATE pages you have to open to screen shot all your info into one cohesive application. Might be easier if Common App at least allowed you to view your entire application on one page, but no, you have to click Continue 32 times to see each little segment. Each time you want to show someone your updated application, be prepared to click, screen shot, paste, and compile 32 times!!!! Coalition, just a simple click to make one pdf of your application, and download it from your locker.. Thanks, Coalition .. you are so friendly and understanding of the needs of your users. People keep writing about Coalition being for disadvantaged or underprivileged students... I'm still confused about that. Sure, Coalition may offer extras for that, but I did not see where the Coalition App can only be used for certain students, and I've heard that in some areas, it is the most commonly used app by ALL students. ANY student can use this much more superior application. All in all, coming from a family that fully used BOTH applications, Coalition was a better on so many counts, while no benefits of Common App over Coalition stood out. The only thing, some schools only take Common App, and again, once we had gotten our info together to fill out Coalition, it only took minutes to fill out the basics for Common App.
there is a lot of coalition slander in these comments, and I will not have that lol. the site is so cute and inviting and the little locker part is rlly nice. I've used both and coalition was a better experience :)
Is there any difference in the way schools view your application if you use coalition or the common app? Say, a university is on both platforms, would they view my application any differently from one app to the other (yes I do require financial aid)?
@@skewd2528 my favorite part is that the essay portions do not cut after bloody 650 exact words -- so I was able to extend it a tad bit more without sacrificing quality
YALL PLZ JUST TELL ME IF THIS IS GOOD OR NOT “She is a sore sight to look at, covered in scrapes and dents. Chipped icy blue paint envelopes her hard exterior while the windshield wipers emit that music-like “arrrrghhh” (this is actually italicized in the essay) screech, a noise so fond to me now. She is Rhonda, a 2002 Dodge Grand Caravan, an heirloom in my family, passed down from my parents, to both my sisters, and finally, to me.” FIRST PARAGRAPH LEAVE ME A COMMENT PLEASE
Now I have to use the common app, because the coalition app only has 8 activities slots, and common app has 10. That’s 2 more slots for the biggest factor in college admissions 😭😭!!!
The common app is way more user friendly than coalition. And it gives you confetti at the end when you apply.
We are simple people
I am with Sat prep with your course which means I see you more than my mom.
Yohana F hahaha
J.J. Wang I am not even kidding I called my sister Brooke
@@yohanaf6819 hahaha LOL that's so funnyy
I think Coalition App is for those who have filled all the 20 schools in Common App and looking for more
WHY ARE YOU DRAGGING ME!!!!!!! I did not deserve this LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOO
same here lol
Literally me right now 🤦🏾♀️
FR😂 I am a low-income international student so don’t have so many chances and that’s why I am trying to apply as much as possible
The biggest con of the Common app is that it is tied to Naviance or your school. You don't add teacher recommendations from your Common App account, the school sends it there. In our case, the school sends them to Naviance, and Naviance send it to Common App. May not seem like a big deal, but let's say right before you are ready to submit your application, you change your mind on which teacher rec is best for that school... you CANNOT change which teacher rec you want sent from Common App... Its like the account is NOT yours. You then go to Naviance to take that teacher off that particular school, and it tells you that you cannot do that... You have to go to that teacher or counselor and tell them to remove themselves from that school on your account. What kid wants to do that??????? It would be like, "Hey, Mr. So and So, I no longer want you to be my recommender for this school.. Could you please kindly remove yourself from that school on Naviance for me?" Also, if you attended more than one school, only your current school can send recs to the Common App. If you want a teacher from another school to submit a rec for you (like if you took a course at a college), you have to download the teacher rec form, and ask that teacher to submit it individually to each and every school you are applying to.... YIKES!!!
On Coalition App, you send out your recommendation requests from the portal, and then the teachers ONLY have to send it once to the Coalition App. When you go to submit your application for each school, you can use the drop down menu and pick and choose which recs you want sent. You don't have to go to any teacher and say you changed your mind and don't want their rec for a particular school. It is YOUR account, and you can make your own choices before you click submit.
Also, while Coalition only has room for 8 extra curricular activities, they give you so much more freedom to write about your contributions and role in your clubs. It is a much better opportunity to express to colleges your whole self. Yes, Common App allows for 10, but really do you need all 10? And we found that it is easy to merge a couple to one category and still had plenty of room to write about them (e.g., listing two community service clubs or activities into one category and then writing about all the things done for each). The extra space to really sell what you did in the clubs more than makes up for 8 vs 10 categories. My son had 10+, and was able to nicely cluster them into 8 and talk more about all of them than on the Common App, which we HAD to use for a few schools that didn't take Coalition. We used both, and learned a lot!!! Now, if you participated in 10 clubs with very little to say about your contributions, Common App may be better. In our case, there was lots to say about all the roles, projects, contributions, awards, etc... so Coalition was much better for my 10+ activities kid.
Also, my son applied in a COVID year, and had a large group of colleges he as exploring... It was helpful having them all on the application, and then slowly removing the ones he didn't want. You can do this on Coalition, but if you are exploring more than 20 school, on the Common App - too bad, you can only have 20 on there at a time. My son found it very helpful to have his initial, large list on Coalition, so he can open up all the essay prompts to learn more about what each school required. In the end, of course he eliminated many, but it was nice to have a place to list them while being able to see what they asked in their applications.
We had to use the Common App for some schools, but it really didn't take that much time to fill out the basic info. As for essay choices, as long as both applications allow you to "choose an essay topic of your choice," you can take a prompt from the other application as your option. That is a non-issue. No school is going to say, "Hey! you wrote about a topic listed on the Common App for your Coalition App essay!" and penalize you. You have the choice to write about ANYTHING or ANY TOPIC you like.
Also, Coalition ALLOWS you to list college courses and the grades along with your listed classes. On Common App, you can try to list those classes, but their drop-down menu WON’T allow you to choose the college as the institution where you took the course, even though those colleges were listed on the application as schools attended. The drop down menu on the section where you list your courses only lists your high schools. For example, my son took some classes at a local college, and when he went to list those classes, he couldn’t on Common App, because he would have been forced to list those classes as having occurred at his high school. On Coalition App, you can fill in the classes and it allows you to choose from all the schools you listed as ones you have attended, even the colleges. For a kid who did well in college classes taken outside the high school, this was a definite PLUS. It allows the colleges to see all his course-work in one place. For a traditional student, only taking classes at one school, this may not be necessary, but that's the thing with Coalition... it isn't designed to keep you in a box... you have more FREEDOM to show who you are. We emailed Common App to confirm this, and yup, it is a limitation.
Also, there were several folks who wanted to see my son's application to give feedback, etc. On Coalition, all you have to do is make one click to get a pdf of your entire application and send it to whoever. Do you think you can do that with Common App??? NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! You have to click each and every one of the small categories of info, take a screen shot, and then put them all together to create one copy of your application... Royal PIA!!!!!!!!!!! Why Common App can't understand that kids have interested parties that want to take a look I don't get. I counted 32 SEPARATE pages you have to open to screen shot all your info into one cohesive application. Might be easier if Common App at least allowed you to view your entire application on one page, but no, you have to click Continue 32 times to see each little segment. Each time you want to show someone your updated application, be prepared to click, screen shot, paste, and compile 32 times!!!! Coalition, just a simple click to make one pdf of your application, and download it from your locker.. Thanks, Coalition .. you are so friendly and understanding of the needs of your users.
People keep writing about Coalition being for disadvantaged or underprivileged students... I'm still confused about that. Sure, Coalition may offer extras for that, but I did not see where the Coalition App can only be used for certain students, and I've heard that in some areas, it is the most commonly used app by ALL students. ANY student can use this much more superior application.
All in all, coming from a family that fully used BOTH applications, Coalition was a better on so many counts, while no benefits of Common App over Coalition stood out. The only thing, some schools only take Common App, and again, once we had gotten our info together to fill out Coalition, it only took minutes to fill out the basics for Common App.
Bro.. stop speaking so much
Thank you for your input, this info will help me greatly when applying. Thank you so much!!!
Thank you so much for taking the time to detail your exact observations! I will take your arguments into consideration
this is truly helpful
Thank you so much for your great observation ❤
please make videos about questbridge!
The common application has helped me so much for applying for colleges so I personally would say use Common app. It's very helpful and understandable.
Use me as a 'video on international students' button.
there is a lot of coalition slander in these comments, and I will not have that lol. the site is so cute and inviting and the little locker part is rlly nice. I've used both and coalition was a better experience :)
I did both!
Is there any difference in the way schools view your application if you use coalition or the common app? Say, a university is on both platforms, would they view my application any differently from one app to the other (yes I do require financial aid)?
I love your videos and you're also nice. Like the way you explain things.
can you do a live stream like the one of last year ..mine is within December first SAT and I'm hoping for a +1300
what if i do not have a transcript because i am an international student
Hey international student here! Your high school counselor will provide it for you, it’s basically your report card
video starts at 2:00
Is naivance a program similar to parchment? My school uses parchment so I’m just curious
Skincare Junkie In naviance we can request our Letters of Rec and share our college list with out counselors. Not sure if that’s similar or different
Skincare Junkie It’s a way to request for things to be sent to colleges, but for me it’s free
Would specializing in something in HS help in admissions? (Like taking every single class about music, or computer, etc.)
Possibly if the class was an honors or ap like ap computer science
I will use both...😄
Can I use both of them?
Can a postgraduate student apply through both?
Can I apply both?
Coalition is the Walmart CommonApp.
I hate having to put in Every single class I’ve taken one by one....like it’s so tiring and I wish I could just submit by transcript but NoOoo
They both need massive UI improvements
Coalition >>> Common app -- No comparison
Why tho?
@@skewd2528 my favorite part is that the essay portions do not cut after bloody 650 exact words -- so I was able to extend it a tad bit more without sacrificing quality
@@subazakiyaps so in the coalition app, there's no word limit? is that what you're trying to say?
@@aamaravel2493 yea there isn't, check it up
@@subazakiyaps it could be both a good thing and a bad one. it depends on how much you can write
If you live in Texas do t do coalition DO apply tecas
Common app fee waivers confuse me. Do they accept college board fee waivers?
If you qualify for a fee waiver CB you should for common app, for example free reduced lunch qualifies you for both
@@stevencasner6183 yea I figured it out, thank you!!
Mam your email, I want to ask something
Clemson is on common app
YALL PLZ JUST TELL ME IF THIS IS GOOD OR NOT
“She is a sore sight to look at, covered in scrapes and dents. Chipped icy blue paint envelopes her hard exterior while the windshield wipers emit that music-like “arrrrghhh” (this is actually italicized in the essay) screech, a noise so fond to me now. She is Rhonda, a 2002 Dodge Grand Caravan, an heirloom in my family, passed down from my parents, to both my sisters, and finally, to me.”
FIRST PARAGRAPH LEAVE ME A COMMENT PLEASE
jessica skinner a heirloom* but apart from that i just realized i have no chance competing against people like you
I’d take out the “arrrrrghhh,” but otherwise it’s a good start.
Now I have to use the common app, because the coalition app only has 8 activities slots, and common app has 10. That’s 2 more slots for the biggest factor in college admissions 😭😭!!!
lol