How to Make Your Common App Uncommonly Great
For 2026 families:
You're invited to a brand new webinar tomorrow night, How to Make Your Common Application Uncommonly Great.
August 1 marked the release of this year's "refreshed" Common App...
...but what I do not find refreshing are all of the god-awful admission-crushing mistakes that kids make each year, often egged on by Reddit, Tik Tok, other know-it-all parents or misguided, hapless guidance counselors.
Applying to college today is about how you market yourself, it's not a meritocracy.
How good is your guidance counselor at marketing?
I'll answer that one for you: about as competent as your average DMV employee.
I've been called a marketing consultant trapped in a college advisor's body. Yeah, I know how creepy that is, but it's accurate.
I'm always thinking in New York Post-style headlines. I can't help it, it's just the way I'm wired.
Here's what I told a prospective client yesterday: "You're not Madeline, random kid applying to colleges versus 50,000 identical competitors. You're the MARKETER of Madeline, applying to college."
Fair? Nope.
But who cares? It doesn't matter what you or I think.
College admissions was never designed to be fair in the first place, notwithstanding every college's flowery sales copy slathered all over their websites, brochures and social media posts.
Tomorrow night, we level the playing field between you and the overpriced, rip-off, hypocritical colleges.
And give your child The Edge over tens of thousands of competitor-applicants.
I'll walk you through the highlights (poor word choice) of the new Common App, with commentary designed to multiply odds of admission to the colleges your kiddo is dying to get into.
Here are some of the specifics on tap:
*How to craft a college essay so compelling that admissions officers will (practically) crawl buck naked over broken glass to admit your student
*Your essay isn't original -- now what?
*How to steer clear of eye rolling, cringy mistakes in the Honors and Activities sections
*"Hidden" supplemental essays that you simply cannot overlook
*ChatGPT: friend or foe?
*The simple way to keep track of EVERYTHING -- deadlines, requirements, test optional policies -- so that you never blow a deadline or get blindsided minutes before your drop-dead date...even if you're not one of those color-coding, formula-obsessed spreadsheet nerds
*How to avoid "Admissions Armageddon" and handicap your TRUE odds of admission, instead of relying on your guidance counselor (if you've met with them), Naviance, SCOIR or whatever lame software your high school uses (warning: this discussion will be blunt, yet non politically-correct)
*The Additional Information section: how to make sure it actually adds to, not subtracts from, your Common App
*Your questions -- I'll hang out and do Q&A as long as you've got 'em
The tuition for this class is a whopping 29 bucks. It's a steal, in my biased, shamelessly self-promotional opinion.
We'll send out a recording after the live event. (Current advisory clients will receive a copy "on the house.")
Here's where to mosey on over and sign up for this one-time event:
After you check out, you'll be directed to do two simple things:
1. Create a password to access the recording
2. Enter your info into our webinar system to access the live class
See you in class!
- Andy "The Comminator" Lockwood
P.S. Please share this invitation with anyone with a class of 2026 kiddo, who could use some candid clarity and confidence, instead of confusion and chaos!