With graduation this spring, many seniors have been in the process of searching for what is next after high school. Students have the option to apply through the individual schools website or to use the Common App and Naviance to apply for college.

The Common App is a standardized college admission application that more than 900 colleges across the nation use. The application is completely free to fill out and is all digital. Senior Jenna Dallenbach said, “It is a long process, but saved me time in the long run.” The Common App goes step-by-step to help save time and make applying less stressful and helps you to prepare for college at no cost. 

Naviance is a college and career planning website that is used by 40% of high school students in the United States. Naviance helps to prepare you for college with various college and career tests, personality quizzes and access to communicate with counselors to request transcripts and letters of recommendation. Naviance acts as an outlet to connect with the college and high school all in one place to automatically help connect your list of desired colleges to the application. Senior Jackson Hemann said, “I like how I can apply all at once and how the two sites (Common App and Naviance) connect almost seamlessly.” Naviance can also focus towards post-application work for finalizing your application if it is needed.

The digital application process allows you to apply to multiple colleges using the same information. Applying is fully digital and there is no longer a paper application option, which is a disadvantage for some. OHS counselor Ms. Tami Langlois said, “The Common App process is beneficial when applying to multiple colleges at once.” The Common App uses the same information to apply to more than one college at a time with only a few clicks.