Private & Out of State Universities

A private school is a college or university that often operates as an educational nonprofit organization. It does not receive its primary funding from a state government. Private schools generally are smaller than public schools and have smaller class sizes than public schools. Students can apply directly to each university or use the common application. Out of state universities means that the students are from some other state and do not reside in the same state as that of the public college. Students from out of state must pay the tuition fees for out states candidate almost double the amount paid by in-state candidates. However, for private universities, the tuition fees for all candidates are the same regardless of where you come from.

SAHS College Board Code : 053235

Common Application

What is the Common App?

The Common Application is an undergraduate college admission application that applicants may use to apply to any of more than 800 member colleges and universities in 49 states and the District of Columbia, as well as in Canada, China, Japan, and many European countries.

Instead of filling out an individual application for each school, all you have to do is fill out the Common Application once and send it to whichever colleges you want to apply to that accept it.
Many colleges have additional supplements you have to submit. These are forms with additional questions and sometimes an extra essay.
Most colleges have application fees.
Common Application only accepts colleges that use a holistic review process. Common Application colleges look at each applicant as a whole, taking into account grades, SAT/ACT scores, essays, extracurricular activities, letters of recommendation, etc. Because of this, all of these components are part of the Common Application.
While the Common Application is used by many private universities, some public school systems, including many schools in the State University of New York (SUNY) system, accept it as well. However, you should be aware that public schools tend to have their own application systems or the coalition for colleges.

The Common Application is accepted by the following top colleges and universities:

All eight Ivy League schools (Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale)

Many other highly selective schools, including Stanford, the University of Chicago, Caltech, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Rice and University of Southern California.

Click here for the Common Application.

Click here for a complete list of Common app schools.

Common App Essays

1. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, please share your story.

2. The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

3. Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?

4. Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma — anything of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.

5. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.

6. Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging 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?

7. 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.

How to Create a Common Application

https://www.commonapp.org/apply/first-time-students

Steps to Creating your Common Application:

Gather Materials - Transcripts, list of activities, awards, employment, achievements/honors, and parent/legal guardian information.
Create an Account
Add Colleges
Letters of Recommendations
Each college will require separate documents.
Essays - some colleges will also have supplemental essays.
Submit Application

Letter of Recommendation

Who should I ask?

The best recommenders, are people who “ know their students and can speak with authenticity and conviction about the students.” That means you should ask teachers, coaches, counselors, employers who know you well, and with whom you have a good relationship.

WHY DO COLLEGES ASK FOR LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION?

Colleges ask for letters of recommendation to learn something about you that they can’t easily get from your transcripts, test scores, or résumé. Specifically, they want to understand:

Your Character: Are you a person of integrity? Have you shown character traits that are important to college success, like resilience and grit?
Your Class Participation: Do you participate a lot in class, or relatively little? Do you speak up, or are you shy? Are you a leader on your team?
Your Intellectual Traits: Do you have traits colleges value, like leadership, initiative, or academic curiosity? Colleges want to know how you showed creativity on an assignment, or how you organized a group to solve a problem. Those kinds of stories say a lot about who you are.
Academic Capacity: Will be able to handle the academic work the university will require of you? Students sometimes get good grades just due to the amount of help they get from tutors or teachers. But colleges want to know how much you’re capable of the work yourself. Can you handle the strain of a full academic course load at college easily?
Ability to Overcome Challenges: Have you faced and overcome challenges, either academic or personal? A good letter of recommendation will talk about how a student responded to adversity, as that is an important factor in admissions decisions.

How to ask for a Letter of Recommendation

Start Early: For college admissions, as in life, the process of getting a recommendation starts long before you ask. Build relationships with teachers in school. If it’s a subject you enjoy or a teacher you have a good connection with, build a relationship that could eventually lead to a letter of recommendation.
Look Carefully at the Requirements: Sometimes, colleges ask for letters of recommendation from specific people. Sometimes they want a recommendation to address a particular topic, especially if you are applying to study the sciences, math, or visual and performing arts. If so, make sure you follow the rules.
Give the Writer All the Relevant Information: Create a complete, well-written résumé and send it to your recommender. Then they can see everything about you—academics, extracurriculars, colleges, and majors—all in one place, and write a letter that best encapsulates their case for you.
Make it Easy for Your Recommender: Don’t make the writers search through their email to find your résumé or the requirements for the letter. Make it easy for them, and you’ll benefit. If you’re sending an email, put all the information in a single email.
Respect Your Recommender’s Deadlines: Many teachers have individual deadlines as to when they need all the information for a recommendation. Many also have a maximum number of letters they will agree to write. So ask early, and when you do, make sure you ask when the teacher needs the material. And be sure to be on time.

CSS Profile

What is the CSS Profile ?

The PROFILE form is administered by the College Scholarship Service (CSS), the financial aid division of the College Board. The CSS PROFILE is required by many private colleges and universities to determine your eligibility for non-government financial aid, such as the institution's own grants, loans and scholarships. Not all colleges/universities require the CSS Profile.

Click here to register for the CSS Profile.

Click here for a list of schools that require the CSS Profile. https://profile.collegeboard.org/profile/ppi/participatingInstitutions.aspx
Submitting your CSS Profile to one college or scholarship program costs $25. Additional reports are $16 each. First-year undergraduate college applicants whose parents live in the U.S. may be eligible for a CSS Profile fee waiver. Fee waivers are provided to students who qualified for an SAT fee waiver; or to students whose parental income reported on their CSS Profile falls within the federal reduced-price or free lunch program guidelines; or to students who are an orphan or ward of the court and under the age of 24.

Coalition for College

What is the Coalition ?

The Coalition for College is a diverse group of more than 150 distinguished colleges and universities across the U.S college application system.

Some out of state colleges will require students to apply to their university through the coalition for college website.
Many of the Coalition schools have application supplements you have to submit, which can be anything from a couple of informational questions answered with a drop-down menu to multiple additional essays.
Because of the Coalition for College Access's commitment to affordability, there is a mix of both public and private schools who use the Coalition Application, including schools in the University of Washington (WA), Rutgers (NJ), and SUNY (NY) systems.

The Coalition Application is accepted by the following highly selective colleges and universities also:

Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale.
Stanford, University of Chicago, Caltech, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, and Johns Hopkins.
Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Wellesley, Bowdoin, Carleton, Pomona, and Middlebury.
College of William and Mary, University of Florida, University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), and University of Texas, Austin.

Click here to apply to the Coalition for Colleges.

Refer to each college website for the preferred application tool.

Coalition Essay Prompts

Tell a story from your life, describing an experience that either demonstrates your character or helped to shape it.
Describe a time when you made a meaningful contribution to others in which the greater good was your focus. Discuss the challenges and rewards of making your contribution.
Has there been a time when you’ve had a long-cherished or accepted belief challenged? How did you respond? How did the challenge affect your beliefs?
What is the hardest part of being a student now? What’s the best part? What advice would you give a younger sibling or friend (assuming they would listen to you)?
Submit an essay on a topic of your choice.