The Common Application is no stranger to technological issues. When the Common Application first released its CA4 system in August of 2013, it faced a lot of controversy regarding glitches within the system. There were complaints of formatting issues, essays being deleted, payments being duplicated, etc. By the end of the 2013 application season, everything was up and running smoothly.

As with every year, there have been slight changes to the app again this year, with the main change being the “optional” personal statement. As with technology, nothing works perfectly the first time. With several students this year, we have noticed that, when using copy & paste, the Common Application deletes the final paragraph of the personal statement. We’ve also noticed a similar glitch when posting supplements.

Bottom line? Double check that everything on your application is correct! The word count of your writing in your word processor should match the word count in the application. Hit the preview button at the top of each page and read through everything! At the end of the day, it is your job to make sure that your application is correct. You’ve already done the hard part – make sure to take a couple of moments to double check that you’ll get all the credit for doing it!