There are several different types of college applications:

Individual College Applications -- Most colleges print their own specific application, asking a series of questions that relate to you about your biographical information and high school academic career. In addition, they will request information (and sometimes provide their own form but not always) regarding your extracurricular involvement, responses to their specific essay question(s), teacher and counselor recommendations and a Secondary School Report form.

The Common Application -- Frequently referred to as the Common App, this is an application that is used to standardized the admission process for approximately 175 colleges/universities. Students complete 1 Common App (either on-line or typed) and then photocopy it and submit them to participating institutions. The same holds true for the Teacher Recommendation and Secondary School Report sections. Many of the schools that participate in this program require supplemental forms to be submitted. Once you submit the common app, those schools will send you the supplement that should be filled out promptly. The participating schools in the Common App program state that they will not make any distinction between applicants who use the Common App and those who complete the university's own form. Deadlines for each school in the Common App program will vary. Each student must read the information and instruction sheet attached to the form and get deadlines in order. Please, visit the Common Application website at: www.commonapp.org

University System Applications -- Some state university systems, including New York and California, have centralized application processes. In these instances, students may apply to several branches of the university by filing 1 application within the central processing office. The central processing office then processes and distributes the form to the branches designated by the student.

Electronic Applications -- Many schools offer you the opportunity to apply over the world wide web to their specific site or participate in on-line services such as Embark.com, Commonapp.org, Peterson's, etc.  If you apply to schools on-line, be sure to print pages as you go through the application for your records and after you submit the forms electronically, follow up to the Admission Office to reassure yourself that everything has arrived. You will probably be sent additional paper forms by the college to complete.