2017 Common Application

The 2017 Common Application will be going live on August 1.

When will the 2017 Common Application go live?

August 1, 2017. The 2017 Common Application will unveil at the beginning of August, with a refresh beginning on July 24th. So don’t be concerned between those two dates if you can’t access the Common Application since it will be offline, undergoing important updates. These updates include prompts that ask applicants to insert their specific courses and grades, the ability to upload the Personal Statement as a pdf, doc, or via Google Drive, the opportunity to delete or resend a request for a letter of recommendation to a teacher, a question changed to ‘sex’ within the profile, two additional activity types (social justice, internship), the ability for students to invite advisors to see their progress, and the addition of two new essay prompts.

2017 Common Application Essays

And while the Common Application annually undergoes updates, there is one change in particular this year that we must applaud. It’s a change we at Ivy Coach have been lobbying for over the course of years now: the return of the topic of your choice essay prompt. The new essay prompt reads as follows: “Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.”

Welcome back, topic of your choice essay prompt. We’ve missed you. Well, we never missed you terribly because there was an essay prompt in the intermediary years that essentially asked applicants to write about the topic of their choice. That essay prompt, which remains on the Common Application, reads as follows: “Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.” And if you’re curious about the other new 2017 Common Application essay prompt, it reads: “Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?”

Have a question about the 2017 Common Application? Post your question below and we’ll be sure to write back.