While both the well-established Common Application and its 2-year old rival the Coalition enable students to apply to college, there are countless variations between the two platforms. And for students (as well as parents and school counselors) who are familiar with the characteristics and structure of the Common App, be prepared that many of the features you know and love (and probably take for granted) on the Common App are regrettably absent from the Coalition. But fear not! Our 10 top tips below highlight our favorite suggestions for students applying to college with the Coalition Application.

‘Tis the college application season, and on the latest episode of Getting In: A College Coach Conversation, host Beth Heaton treats her listeners to a top five list of college application mistakes and the answers to a myriad of college admission and finance questions posed by our podcast listeners. 

Fun fact: There are approximately 185 different types of visas in the U.S.!

These 185 visa classifications break down into two main categories: non-immigrant for individuals who are here on temporary stays, and immigrant for individuals who will reside permanently in the U.S. For more information, visit the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs.

Everyone knows that (most) colleges will review your grades and test scores when determining whether or not to admit you, but what if you’ve already done most everything you can do by those measures? You’ve already got good grades and test scores. What else can you do to help your college application stand out from the thousands of other applications submitted by other students with equally good grades and test scores?

Guest Post By Judith Silverman Hodara, Fortuna Admissions

A few months ago, my Fortuna Admissions colleague interviewed an MBA graduate named Paul Heslop, who serves as an Operations and Planning Chief for the United Nations. Among Paul’s bevy of unique distinctions is directing peacekeeping efforts in 17 countries, clearing thousands of unexploded mines and bombs, and defending multi-million dollar budgets to the UN Security Council. Oh, and before pursuing the MBA at London Business School, Paul had the distinctive privilege of accompanying the late Princess Diana through an active minefield on her trip to Angola.

On the latest episode of Getting In: A College Coach Conversation, guest host Ian Fisher digs into the nitty gritty details of completing college applications, talking with his guests about the hazards of “over-packaging” yourself in the application and the role of extracurricular activities in supplemental essays. He wraps up the program with a detailed look at the requirements that students must meet in order to maintain eligibility for financial aid.

Divorce is complicated. Applying for financial aid is complicated. And when you combine the two, things get really complicated.

Determining which parent completes the FAFSA, however, is actually pretty straightforward, according to former Emerson College and Elms College financial aid officer, Stacey MacPhetres.

When I was a college Financial Aid Director, I saw MANY students taking longer to complete their degree than they—or their family—had planned. This cost the students and the parents additional time… and money.

Guest Post By Steven Tolman, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership and Higher Education Administration, Georgia Southern University

As a college professor, I have had the privilege of teaching undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students. Through these experiences, I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. I would like to tell you that I was an exemplary freshman in college. To the contrary, I was on academic probation and my advisor encouraged me to consider career paths that did not require a college degree. Like many freshmen, my failures were not due to a lack of academic ability, but rather to my inability to navigate the transition from high school to college. Based on my own experiences and those of my students, here are my suggestions for how to avoid the common mistakes of freshmen.

Using College Admissions Statistics to Your Advantage

There are a dozen websites I regularly recommend to college-bound students and their parents, including the College Board’s BigFuture for college searches, FairTest.org for a list of colleges that don’t require the SAT/ACT, and the Princeton Review for student descriptions of campus life. But there’s another source of information for families to learn about the fascinating world of college admissions. It’s called the Common Data Set (CDS). And although this collection of data requires a bit more digging to unearth, once inside CDS, you will find a veritable treasure trove of information, chock full of minute details and big picture data you never knew existed.