Common Misconceptions of the Common App

Last year, a kid added the wrong Cornell to their college list.

The Common App portal, opening this weekend, has two main dashboards: one for the application itself, and another called My Colleges, where you build the list of schools you’re applying to. Add a school there, and you get everything you need to start that application: requirements, social links, contact info, all of it.

Plenty of schools use 'College' for their undergraduate division, like Yale College and Harvard College, so Cornell College looks at first glance like it could be the same kind of thing. It isn't. It's a separate school in Iowa, and mix-ups like that are exactly what we'll walk through live.

I’m hosting a free webinar next Tuesday Aug. 4 on the misconceptions we see most often in each section of the 2026-2027 Common App. We’ll go section-by-section and focus on where kids get stuck and where parents struggle to give guidance.

It’s an hour, with time for Q&A. If you’ve got a senior facing early deadlines, or a sophomore who wants to get an early start, join us. It’s free.

Sign up here

Have a question you want answered live? Reply to this email or drop it in the comments. We’ll take questions during the session.