Hi! I am currently a senior in an American high school, currently going through the applications process (US and UK).
First, while Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and many other USA unis are on the CommonApp, MIT is not. Applications, whether on the the CommonApp or on a separate portal are largely the same.
Ivies have two deadlines: the Early Action/Decision deadline, which is November 1st and the Regular Decision (RD) deadline which is sometime in January. Early Decision (ED) means that you receive your offer earlier, but you are contractually obligated to attend that college/uni. On the other hand, Early Action (EA) allows you to receive your offer early, but no contract. Private schools usually have Restrictive Early Action, which, depending on the school, may not allow you to EA to other private schools. ED-ing means you can only ED to one school, everything else must be EA or RD.
The CommonApp has that "personal statement," which is more story-like than the UCAS statement. For example, you might choose to write about a struggle you overcame or a metaphor for your life. Whatever you choose, it must showcase your personality, not your achievements (that's what the activities section is for). Furthermore, Ivies and other top schools require that you write supplementals, which tend to be on the shorter end (Harvard's are about 100 words each) and are more tailored to your major/course and the school rather than your personality.
Beyond essays, you have the recommender end of the application. While UCAS has the reference, the USA has the Counselor Report and the Letters of Recommendation. There is one counselor letter and usually up to two teacher letters (one is required for Ivies). I am not too sure how it looks for students who have finished high school, but you will request these letters within each school on the CommonApp, where the counselor submits your transcripts, letter, and other additional information the school requires. The teacher letter, from my understanding, speaks about your character and your achievements within the classroom. Such letters also must be requested from a pertinent teacher. Assuming you are applying for something STEM-related, you will request your math, science, or other related teachers for recommendations. You The most important step here is
to WAIVE YOUR RIGHTS on the FERPA agreement. Schools will not take your recommendations seriously if you did not waive your rights and it will hurt your application. I would speak with your school to figure out who will handle the counselor letter, since each school might handle it differently.
Since you are sitting the SAT, you must send the score to the schools early enough to ensure you meet the Nov 1st/January deadlines. Do not leave the score sends until two weeks before since they take a while to send (unless you want to pay shipping, which is extortionate). SAT scores sends cost 14 dollars each to send, but fee waivers exist, and there are plenty of ways to qualify.
The activities section on the "CommonApp" portion of the application allows you to submit 10 activities, which include paid work, volunteering, and anything else you spend time on outside of school. You are given 150 characters for each description, and you are absolutely allowed to use abbreviations and shorthand to fit everything. You rank these in order of most importance.
Since you have already registered for the SAT, I assume you have a Collegeboard account. That should be the only extraneous website you need to sign up for.
Unlike the UK, you cannot keep track of your offers and decisions on the CommonApp. Colleges will have you make an account on their portal once you submit their application. This is where they will request additional documents, portfolios, and further information, as well as where you will receive your offer. American colleges have varied offer days; the dates should be posted on the websites. By
MAY FIRST, please make sure you submit a deposit for ONLY ONE COLLEGE (we do not have insurance unis here).
Some extra tips:
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Create a special email for applications since colleges LOVE to spam email you. Don't make the same mistake as I did by using my personal email to sign up for Collegeboard; my email has never seen a day without 20 spam emails.
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Use CollegeVine to calculate your personal chances based on extracurriculars and scores.
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Use CollegeSimply to see various data points for colleges such as the 25th/50th/75th percentiles for the SAT and rankings.
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KEEP A SPREADSHEET. I have so much data I need to keep track of, such as deadlines, fees, recommendations, and submissions, that I need a visual to look at to stay sane.
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Do not leave anything for the last minute. The application sites commonly go down near deadline dates and you do not want you application to go to waste.
If you have any other questions, feel free to message me!