Peabody is the building, Jack is the dog, and I'm Dean J (she/her, btw).

There are years of posts here. The search box works well, but please consider the age of the posts when you find them. The college admission process changes every year!

References to emailing updates to your application are from the years when we didn't have the current applicant portal. Please follow the instructions in your portal to submit all updates.

Welcome to the blog and thanks for reading!

Thursday, August 15, 2013

An Application Tip: The Common App Writing Section

When you add UVa to your "My Colleges" list in the Common Application, you may be tempted to go directly to the writing section to look at the essays. If you realized that we post our application essays in June each year right on the blog, you might notice that something is missing.


Only one essay is showing at first.

You see, one of the essays is tied to the school to which you apply. To get that essay to show up in the writing section, you need to answer the academic questions. Luckily, the Common App is smart enough to alert you to the fact that you aren't done if you try to just fill in one essay and submit it.

Start at the beginning and fill out your academic information.

When you work through the questions and get to the writing section, you'll see that school-specific question on the page.


Good luck!