Harvard Outreach Newsletter

107th Issue, July 2022

In this issue:

Online application forms for US colleges go live on 1st August

Most of the information in this month’s newsletter is directed at students who are at the end of, or have just left, the following year groups:
Year 12 (England and Wales)
S5 (Scotland)
Year 13 (Northern Ireland)

If you intend to apply to study in the US next year, the best time to put together your application is between now and September. The summer holidays are the ideal time to choose which application method you will use, and to put together as much of your application as possible. When you start the Autumn Term you will be very busy with your UCAS application, so the more of your American application materials you can compile beforehand, the better.

There are currently two main application platforms – the Common Application Form and the Coalition for College. Harvard and many other colleges accept both application types – but some will only accept one or the other, or have their own individual application forms. Therefore an important factor in your preparation is to find out which application methods are accepted by the colleges on your shortlist, as you will want to avoid having to complete more than one type of form if possible.

See below for further details of the two main application methods, together with links to the relevant web pages.

1. Common Application Form (Common App)

Although not all US colleges accept the Common App, it is nevertheless used by over 900 institutions, including all the top research universities, so most applicants are likely to use this method. The Common App goes live each year on 1st August, although students may register and complete the general application components before this date. Click here to create an account.

For students, the Common App website contains an Application Guide for First-Time Students (i.e. students currently in secondary school who will be applying for full-time undergraduate study for the first time). It starts with a video entitled What is Common App? and goes on to provide information about the following topics, each with an explanatory video:

Gather materials – the information you’ll need to complete your applications.
Create an account – get started at any time.
Add colleges – start building your My Colleges list.
Engage supporters – collaborate with teachers, parents and advisors.
Understanding requirements – keep track of each college’s unique application requirements.
Plan essays – organise and plan for the various writing prompts.
Submit your application – review and submit your application.

For teachers and university advisors there is a Common App Ready toolkit.

The toolkit has tips and best practices designed to help your students complete their applications successfully and on time. Each section has additional resources in the form of PDF downloads that will enable you to help your students with specific topics:

Getting started – getting to know the Common App and how the application works.
Preparing your application* – resources on getting organised and starting your application on the right track.
Telling your story – use the different features of the application to highlight what makes you unique.
Working with recommenders and advisors – learning how to find and communicate with your support network.
Paying for college – learn about application fees, fee waivers, and how to find scholarships. (Also see the sections on financial aid in the February 2022 edition of this newsletter).

*Note that the PDF document ‘High School Details Information Sheet’ that you can download from the ‘Preparing your application’ section is not suitable for a UK secondary school. If you need a School Profile template, we recommend that you download the one available on the US/UK Fulbright Commission website.

Scroll down the page and click on ‘you can download our example’ under the ‘School Profile’ heading.

The same web page also includes templates for your School Transcript – the official record of a student’s secondary school grades that you must send to all the colleges to which your student has applied. Separate templates are available for the different exam systems used in different part of the UK:

Students sitting A levels in England only
Students in England sitting a combination of AS and A level exams
Northern Irish A level students
Welsh A level students
Students in Scotland
IB students

The templates can be accessed from the School Documents page on the Fulbright Commission website.

Scroll down the page and click on ‘you can download our example’ under the ‘Transcript’ heading.

For recommenders/referees (who might be Head Teachers, Heads of Sixth Form, teachers or university advisors) the Common App website contains a Recommender Guide for those who need to provide recommendations or references within the Common App system. The Guide includes:

Get started – create an account to begin completing recommender forms in the Common App.
Learn about the system – take a tour and learn more about how the system works.
Complete forms – learn what information you’ll be asked to provide about your students.
Recommendation letters – get tips and best practices on how to do it right.
Submit forms – learn how you can submit forms and how they get to colleges.

Approximately two-thirds of Common Application member colleges will also want students to complete their own supplements, which all require short pieces of writing in addition to the personal essay in the main Common App. The supplements will be unique for each individual college and are located within the ‘My Colleges’ section of the form. You may wish to check the supplement section for each college you’re applying to, and consider all of the essays and the personal essay together to ensure you are not repeating yourself and that the various pieces of writing complement each other.

2. Coalition for College (Coalition)

The Coalition for College was started six years ago as an alternative to the Common App, and it currently has over 150 colleges signed up. From 1st August 2022, the Coalition is moving to a new online platform called Scoir (pronounced ‘score’) in order to ‘…simplify the college application process and deliver powerful tools to help students navigate their admissions journey.’ The application process will be in two stages: Step 1: Students will enter their basic application information just once in Scoir to apply to any participating Coalition member school. Students can begin working on this step as early as 9th grade*. *9th grade = Year 10 (England & Wales); S3 (Scotland); Year 11 (N. Ireland) Step 2: After finalising the basic application information, students will finish their application by completing any college-specific questions, which they’ll easily access from their Scoir account. The Coalition has discontinued its use of the MyCoalition platform, which contained the ‘Coalition Locker’ and ‘Collaboration Space’. The company that owns these services has rebranded them to the StandOut Admissions Network. Your account built on this platform still exists, and you can log in using the credentials you used to access your MyCoalition account. Click here for the new service. Useful information about the Coalition can be found on these web pages: Create your new Scoir account from August 2022My Coalition Counselor – information about different aspects of applying to college Essay Prompts – the new Coalition application essay prompts:FAQs about your Coalition application on Scoir

Making the most of summer 2022

If you are at the end of Year 11 or 12 (England and Wales), S4 or S5 (Scotland), or Year 12 or 13 (N. Ireland), you can use the summer holidays to enhance your enrichment activity profile in a way that will benefit your university applications both in the UK and the US. Given that nearly all students applying to top US colleges will be very accomplished academically, it is often your additional interests and achievements that will make the difference between being offered a place or not. You could do this by undertaking:

an internship or work experience in an area related to your potential future career
community service or other extracurricular activity that you have set up through your own initiative
a mini research project related to an area of interest, again that you have set up through your own initiative
a masterclass at a local university in a subject that interests you

If you are someone who only has limited opportunities for these activities – for example, if you are committed to paid work or family responsibilities – why not keep a journal of your observations and experiences during that time? Such careful thinking and reflection might well turn into the inspiration for your application essay (which we will be considering in more detail in next month’s newsletter). For more ideas, see the Prospect article: ‘How to make the most of the summer break.’

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