Applicants will submit one essay with the main portion of the Common Application and then write short answers in response to two questions on the UVa screen within the Common App website. The first question you answer will depend on your answer to the question "To what school or program are you applying?" The second questions allows applicants to select a prompt from a list.
There was a point in time when Common App required every school using their application to put questions that required writing on a separate tab from their general questions. We quickly learned that some students didn't understand the connection between the question about choice of school and the first short answer question. There were also a slew of students who, despite us contacted them repeatedly about their incomplete application, never submitted the essay section. There were lots of complaints about the Common App being "too common" that year. Thankfully, Common App now lets each school decide if they wanted their essay questions to appear on the same screen as their general questions or on a separate tab. It makes much more sense for ours to appear right under the school choice question.
If you are applying to a few Common App schools, just know that some may still have their essay questions separated from their general questions and some will have combined the two.
Do you have any questions about essays?