Recently, SCHS’s college application process has shifted between the previous services, Naviance and Common App, to now completely Common App and Californiacolleges.edu. Despite the final transition to Common App, both platforms continue to provide resources such as chats, letters of recommendations and college applications.
Within the Common App, many seniors and staff on campus have noticed design differences after using the program. Senior Matthew Van explained that the program is easier to navigate and keep organized.
“I think it’s nice because everything’s all in one spot,” Van said. “If you ever have a question on how to do something, it’s easy to ask a counselor, or look it up online.”
While using Naviance in comparison to the Common App service, many have noticed different tools and features between the two programs.
“For the counselors, we have to update. We have to add the transcript manually for each student,” counselor Katy Weeks said. “When we used Naviance to send our recommendations, we batch uploaded every transcript with one click. We didn’t have to do that individually.”
For student use, an individual can organize their single Common App username and password in order to apply for private college applications through their portal. College and Career Center advisor, Anthony Butler, discussed the benefits of using another website called Californiacolleges.edu.
“If there’s just one streamlined service that’s going to be able to help you to keep track of your applications, keep track of every aspect, then we (faculty) want to make it as easy as possible for students,” Butler said. “After going to some workshops, it seems like that’s going to help… you can do your financial aid… FAFSA applications, you can use that same service, and then you still get the same updates.”
As a student applying to schools for the first time, Van is only familiar with using Common App for his college applications. He described Common App as more organized than individual websites where students may need to apply to other colleges using more than one platform and the specific school websites.
“I prefer using Common App because it’s just standardized… It’s easy to see a bunch of colleges, not having to try to figure out a bunch of different websites,” Van said.
Senior Dheshnaa Madasamy described a disadvantage she found while using Common App.
“The thing about every college using it is that it tends to crash, especially towards a deadline. So you kind of have to plan it out when you’re submitting. But I feel like it’s easier than inputting the same information again and again,” Madasamy said.
Van recommends preparing for applications in advance and asking for help from counselors, enabling students to stay on top of multiple differing application deadlines. This way students can encounter problems and find solutions before application deadlines.
“You can go to the app chats that counselors use, so you know how Common App works and make sure you’re not forgetting anything,” Van said.