If you’re weighing an undecided college path, the strongest options include New York University, the University of California, Los Angeles, Brown University, and Amherst College. These schools give students real time to explore before committing to a major, without putting graduation at risk.
Author: Dan Godlin
Dan Godlin
Dan Godlin is the Founder & CEO of CollegeCommit, a NYC-based boutique college admissions consulting firm serving high-achieving students worldwide. Over the past 14 years, he has guided 600+ students to top universities, including Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Yale, Columbia, UPenn, UC Berkeley, UCLA, and USC. Dan holds a Bachelor’s degree with honors from NYU, where he studied psychology with a focus on emotional intelligence and human behavior, and now leads a team of senior strategists and mentors who provide highly personalized, data-driven admissions guidance.
Change in Progression is a field in the Education section of the Common Application that asks whether a student’s high school path followed the standard four-year timeline.
It appears after the high school and grade information. Most applicants select “No Change in Progression” because their timeline matches the usual schedule. Anyone who graduated early, needed more time, or plans a gap year before college chooses a different option. They also add a short explanation.
Several well-known schools, including MIT, the University of California system, and the University of Texas at Austin, do not use the Common Application at all.
Georgetown University has also run its own separate process for years. That will change soon. According to Georgetown’s own admissions office, the university will join the Common App for the 2026–2027 admissions cycle.
Most colleges allow students to submit their applications before recommendation letters arrive. Applications and letters go through separate tracks.
The short answer to Can I submit my application before my recommendations is yes, in nearly every case. Your file starts as soon as you submit, and recommendations attach to it once your recommenders complete them.
Career-Oriented is an activity type in the Common App activities section. It includes paid work, internships, or skill-building for a specific career path. This includes jobs, freelance work, and structured job shadowing, whether or not the position paid a salary.
So what does career-oriented mean in Common App terms, specifically? It means the activity’s primary value comes from professional experience rather than academics, athletics, or volunteer service.
For most students applying to many schools, the Common Application saves time. It does not change how admissions officers review your file. It is best to apply through the Common App or directly based on the school’s requirements. Some schools require their own portal and do not accept the Common App.
Common App is where students submit applications as part of pursuing higher education, but it’s not where they learn the outcome. The platform stores your materials and tracks if each school received them. Colleges and universities decide admissions on their own, not Common App.
So when students ask, “Does Common App tell you if you get accepted?” the answer is no: acceptance news comes directly from each college through its own portal, email, or mail.
Search “what are the 12 Ivy League schools,” and you’ll find plenty of pages listing exactly that: 12 names. The real number is 8.
Rice University is a private research university in Houston, Texas. It is not part of the official Ivy League.
The Ivy League includes eight schools in the northeastern United States. They share an athletic conference. It is not a ranking of academic quality.
Purdue University is not among the eight schools known for that title. The confusion often starts with Forbes’ “New Ivies” rankings. They use the word “Ivy” but measure something different. It is not about membership in that conference.