Guide to Completing

the Online Common Application Form

Before you start, you will need
• Credit card for payment of application fee
• Email address of your School Counselor. You will need to approach a suitable teacher to write
the school report for you. Note that your school counselor should be a teacher who knows you
well both academically and non-academically e.g. your Civics Tutor. The school counselor is
NOT Mrs Celine Lim.
• Email address of 2 teachers (preferably subject tutor, if not CCA teacher) who can write a
reference for you. Most top universities will require references from at least two teachers.
• Official transcripts of ‘O’ level, PW, MT, Promo and Prelim grades (scan both sides, combine
the transcripts and email no more than THREE pdf files to School Counselor. Each file
size must be less than 500kb)
• SAT / ACT Test results and other test results
• Predicted grades if you are a current student.

To get your reference, please approach your teachers to be the School Counselor and Teacher
recommender by 29 Aug 2014 (for Early Action/Early Decision) or 10 Oct 2014 (Regular
Decision).Do NOT send them the email link before approaching them personally.

To get your predicted grades, please email Mrs Celine Lim at leow_kiat_peng_celine@moe.edu.sg
by 10 Oct 2014. The predicted grades will be sent to your School Counselor for upload into the
Common Application Portal. Predicted grades are confidential and will not be divulged to you.

Important deadlines to note:

• Most US universities’ Regular Decision deadline is 31 Dec 2014 / 1 Jan 2015. However, please
verify this by checking each university’s website.
• The Early Decision / Early Action deadline is 1 Nov 2014. ED can only be used for 1 university.
Once accepted, you are legally bounded to enrol in the university. EA can be used for more than
1 university and not legally bounded to enroll.

A. Account Registration
1. Access the Common Application web site here and register for an account.
2. Upon successful registration, you should get an email from Common Application.

B. Selection of Universities
1. Click on "College Search" to start finding the
universities you wish to apply to.
2. After you have added all the universities, go back
to “My Colleges” page. You should be able to see
all the universities that you have selected and
added.
3. When you click on each university on your list,
you should be able to see what questions and
forms you have to complete for each university.
4. One of the questions may be “Do you intend to
pursue need-based financial aid?”. Please state
“No” unless necessary as unless the university
has a need-blind admission process, applying for
financial aid may lower your chances of
admission.
5. Some universities will also require you to submit
supplementary forms.
6. The School Report, Midyear Report and Final
Report will be uploaded by the School Counselor
and Teacher Evaluations will be uploaded by your
Subject or CCA teachers.
C. Assigning of Recommenders
1. Click on “My Colleges” and select the first
university.
2. Click on “Assign Recommenders”
3. You will have to complete the FERPA release
authorisation. You should waive your right to
review all recommendations and supporting
documents. Sign the waiver by typing your
name, and click 'Save'.
4. You will be returned to the 'Assign
Recommenders' page. Click on 'Invite Counselor'.
5. For 'Type' select 'Counselor'. Then enter your
Civics Tutor’s email address Click 'Send Invite'.
6. Repeat the process to invite teachers who will be
writing your subject recommendation letters.
7. Once you have completed your invitations, click
'Close' at the bottom of the page. You will be
returned to the 'Assign Recommenders' page.
8. Click the 'Assign' button next to your subject
tutors' names to assign them as your subject
recommenders.
9. Note that “Teachers” are preferably your subject
teachers while CCA teachers fall under the
category of “Other Recommenders”.

D. Common App Form – Profile and Family

1. Under Profile, when you are asked if you qualify
for application fee waiver, say No

E. Common App Form - Education

School
1. Click on “Find School” and search for “Nanyang
Junior College”
2. Fill in the following:
Date of Entry: January 2013
Is this a boarding school? No
Graduation Date: 31 December 2014
3. Under Counselor, fill in your Civic Tutor’s name
and contact details

Other School
1. Indicate your primary and secondary school
2. You will need to provide some information about
your previous schools (Name and Location of
School, CEEB Code (leave blank if the system
does not have it), Dates Attended)

Education Interruption
Do not check any boxes
College/University Courses
Indicate zero
CBO
Indicate zero
Grades
1. Under Class Rank Reporting, click None
2. Under Graduating class size, type 800
3. Leave GPA fields empty

Current Year Courses

1. Include Project Work, H3, and Mother Tongue, if
taken in JC.
2. The average student who doesn't take H3 will
report 7 courses.
3. H2 courses are considered AP equivalent, and
H3 courses are honors equivalent. H1 is not
equivalent to anything
For example:
– S-C GCE Cambridge General Paper H1
– S-C GCE Cambridge Physics H2 (AP
equivalent)
– S-C GCE Cambridge Mathematics H3
(Honors equivalent).
4. Leave course level blank
5. Enter '0' for credit value.
6. Courses schedule is Full year.

Honors
1. Enter any academic awards you have received,
such as prizes awarded by the school, Singapore
Olympiad e.g. Singapore Chemistry Olympiad
2012
2. Grade level:
– Secondary 3 = Grade 9
– Secondary 4 = Grade 10
– JC1= Grade 11
– JC2=Grade 12

Future Plans
Enter accordingly
F. Common App Form - Testing
Tests taken
1. Click Yes (if you want) to self-report standardised
test scores. If not, you will need CollegeBoard to
send the results to the university
2. You may enter results for more than one test. You
need not take TOEFL/IELTS if you are
Singaporean
3. For “Is promotion within your educational system
based upon standard leaving examinations given
at the end of lower and/or senior secondary
school by a state or national leaving examinations
board?”: Indicate Yes
4. Fill in your test scores accordingly
5. For 'Number of Senior Secondary Leaving
Examinations', enter 0 if you are a current
student. If you have already graduated, enter the
number of A level subjects you have sat for (H3 is
considered a separate subject) and enter your
actual grades.

• Check each university for additional test

requirements e.g. SAT, BMAT etc
• Singaporeans generally do not need to take
TOEFL or IELTS. Please check with the
university on this.
• All tests should be taken latest by early Dec
(much earlier if you opted for Early Decision i.e.
Oct)

G. Common App Form – Activities, Writing

1. Enter your CCA and work experiences since Secondary 3
2. It is advisable to type your personal essay in Microsoft Word before copying and pasting into the
form
3. Only one essay per application so try not to choose courses that are too different as it will affect
the focus of your essay
4. Please approach Mrs Koh Siew Leng (HOD of PE and CCA) or Ms Siva (from General Office)
for SGC and CCA Record. Give one week’s notice.

H. Common App Form – Submission

Once you have completed the form, you can submit the form under “My Colleges” for any of your
selected colleges. To do this, click ‘Submission – Common App’. At this point of time, you will need a
credit card to make payment (USD 25 – 75 per university)

After payment, do not forget to submit the supplementary essays to the colleges under ‘Writing
Supplement’.

NS Deferment
You need to check if the university accepts NS deferment
In general,
• Email the university regarding deferment
• Apply next cycle if 1 year deferment allowed