We appreciate the hard work the folks at the Common Application have been doing over the past few months as they continue to perfect Common App 4. We eagerly await the day—and we believe it’s coming soon—when its function matches its beautiful form.
But we know everything isn’t perfect yet, especially when it comes to those things that are—as our friend, Patrick O’Connor, associate dean for college counseling at Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School (Mich.) calls them—the “grown up” pieces of the application: the school report, transcript, teacher recommendation, etc. (Those things that grown-ups submit to support students’ applications.)
That’s why today we have launched two special portals at Lawrence—one for college counselors and one for teachers—to use as a back-up plan in case they run into snags submitting materials through the Common Application for their students who are applying to Lawrence.
Counselors and teachers, we urge you to give the Common Application the “old college try” first. If that proves not to work, then go ahead and use the Lawrence University portals.
Now might be a good time to remind everyone that the Lawrence University community abides by an honor code* and, therefore, trusts that the only people using these portals will be those for whom it is intended (i.e., college counselors and teachers).
*No Lawrence student will unfairly advance his or her own academic performance or in any way limit or impede the academic pursuits of other students of the Lawrence community.