Tips for Your Common Application

The primary purposes of the common application are to collect your biographical information, your personal statement, your experience history, your coursework history, and your letters of recommendation.

Your common application will be sent to all of your schools. You will be asked to create a comprehensive list of every college-level course you have ever taken. You must have each of your schools send听official transcripts to the common application service, which will verify that each of your听coursework entries is听accurate. Once your coursework entries have听been verified, the professional schools are able to receive听just one verified list of coursework for each applicant, rather than multiple transcripts. It also allows the common application service will run a number of GPA calculations on your entire college-level coursework history.听For most of the common application services, you can submit your application before your letters of recommendation have been submitted.听

Please refer to the Quick Facts guide for your profession in the Profession-Specific Details听section of our website to find the name of the centralized application service(s) for your profession.

Transcript Tips

Do this several months before you intend to submit your application!听When you fill out your common application, you will need to enter your coursework exactly as it is shown on your official transcripts.听Therefore, order personal copies of all of your official transcripts several months in advance so you can review them for errors and correct them, if necessary.

Yes! You must list every college and university in the U.S. or Canada that has any sort of academic record for you, even if you only went there for one semester and withdrew from all of the courses, or failed all of the courses, or took unrelated coursework on a pass/fail basis. If you participated in a study abroad program and those credits transferred to a U.S. transcript, even if you have no other affiliation with the school that granted the credit, you must list it. Upon acceptance to professional school, the admissions team will run a background check on all of the schools you have ever attended in the U.S. and Canada. If one comes up that you haven't listed, that is grounds for rescinding an acceptance. You do not need to request transcripts from any foreign universities outside of the U.S. or Canada, however.

The different campuses of the University of Colorado system are considered a consortium, which means all CU credits will show up on any CU transcript. However, you must still list the actual campuses at which the credit was earned when you fill out the Schools Attended section of your application. (Note that CU-Succeed credit is administered through CU-Denver, so that鈥檚 the campus you should report for such credit.) The various application services have different policies regarding the submission of transcripts when a student has taken courses at multiple campuses in a consortium system. Contact customer service for your application(s) for guidance听on how to proceed.

Tips for Success on your Common Application

  1. Refer to the official Instructions guide for your application听as you fill out each section of the application.听Everyone wants to jump right in, but it is wise to carefully read the instructions as you go. If you are applying to AMCAS, there are also great tutorial videos available on the AAMC website for听topics that tend to cause confusion.
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  2. The first section you should fill out is the 鈥淪chools Attended鈥 section, even though it is not listed first.听After entering each school, download the Transcript Request Form that the application will generate for each of your schools.听You will need to include that form when you ask each of your schools to send an official transcript to the centralized application service.听You can 鈥 and should! 鈥 do this step first well before you submit your application so that your application will not be held up later because transcripts have not been received yet.听(If you are taking spring courses, wait until your spring grades have posted before sending off that transcript request.)
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  3. As you fill out the Coursework section, enter the names of the courses EXACTLY as they are displayed on your official transcripts.听Read the instructions carefully to understand how to enter nonstandard forms of credit such as that for AP/IB or study abroad courses. The centralized application service will compare your entries to your official transcripts and will note any errors they needed to correct.听If you make too many errors, they will send your application back to you for corrections, which would dramatically impact your application timing.
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  4. Use a Word document or Google Doc to write听your personal statement, experience descriptions, and supplemental application essays, then copy-and-paste into your application.
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  5. Proofread everything carefully, then have at least two other people proofread everything again.听Errors would reflect poorly on your attention to detail and your commitment to听becoming a healthcare professional.
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  6. Please authorize the centralized application service to release your information to your Pre-health Advisor so we can best advise you throughout the application year. We will keep your听information strictly confidential.
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  7. Before submitting, make听copies of ALL parts of the application.听