While the Common Application is the most popular way for students to apply to colleges, it is far from the only option. While the Coalition Application is less popular, used by only 147 schools compared to the 700+ who accept the Common App, it is still used by tens of thousands of students each year when applying to colleges.
The Coalition App, however, is dedicated to only working with schools who provide generous financial aid, and to providing free assistance to students who are applying to colleges. The Coalition App also maintains a cloud-based storage service where students can keep essays, schoolwork, and other materials they may need.
In this guide we’ll go through each section of the Coalition App in order, with instructions and advice on how to fill each out. While not every section is required by the app itself, most sections are required by the majority of colleges, and so will be described here as well.
Sections of the Coalition App
Personal Information
Schools need to know who you are exactly, so they know they sent acceptance letters to the right people. You may need to look up your Social Security number; your parents should have it if you don’t.
If you are serving in, or previously served in America’s armed forces, your application fees will be waived.
There is a question on Community Based Organizations. The Coalition App wants to know if you are receiving free help from a community organization when applying to colleges, or filling out their form. If you have hired a private consulting firm (like us), then you don’t have to put anything here.
Contact Information
The Coalition App, and the colleges you apply to, need to be able to communicate with you. As with the section above, this should be fairly straightforward. Ask your parents or guardians if you are uncertain about the answers to some of the questions, like when you started living at your current address.
Your permanent address will only be different from your mailing address if you do not live at home; for instance if you attend boarding school.
Demographic Information
You are able to select more than one option when choosing your ethnic background. If you are unsure about your parent’s background, ask them, as accuracy is important.
There is then a place to list which languages you speak. As you are allowed to select a proficiency level, you can include languages you may not be totally fluent in. Do not overstate your fluency in a language; you may meet an interviewer who will want to speak to you in it. Only state you are fluent in a language if you are comfortable with that eventuality. There is no shame in putting down that you are merely learning a language; this lets colleges know your cultural influences and interests.
Citizenship Information
Colleges keep track of international applicants and students with dual citizenship. If you are a permanent resident or visa holder, or a DREAMer, then not having US citizenship will not generally hurt your admissions chances.
Family Information
Admissions officers want to understand you in context, and your family background is a big part of that context. Admissions officers want to know the unique quirks and possible challenges of your life, and those start with your family.
Schools also want to know where your parents, and any older siblings, went to college. Being the first in your family to go to college is seen as a sign of overcoming challenges, and is welcomed by colleges. Many colleges also give preference to students who are the children of former students, a process known as legacy admissions.
High School Information
Your academic record is the single most important aspect of how you are evaluated, and part of that is which high school you went to. Not all high schools have the same resources, or are equally challenging, and your academic performance is judged relative to your high school. The information you enter here is coupled with a report from your high school counselor.
12th Grade Coursework
While you may not have final grades for your 12th grade classes when you apply, colleges want to make sure you are continuing the academic trajectory you have shown in the rest of your coursework. On top of this, schools require a mid-year report, which is filed by your counselor.
9th-11th Grade Coursework
Schools want to see how academically prepared you are for college, and whether or not you have challenged yourself with the classes you’ve decided to take in high school. Taking the hardest courses available to you, and doing well in them, is the best way to impress colleges. You will need to report any classes you took in summer school as well.
SAT/ACT
Most colleges require standardized test scores, and even the schools which are test-optional will still accept these scores. For this section you will need to report all the times you have taken the test, and the scores you have received. Superscoring of the tests will be done by colleges themselves.
Some colleges will accept you only submitting scores from some sittings of the tests, but these colleges will want official score reports anyway, so there is no harm in reporting the scores here.
If all the colleges you are applying to are test optional, then you will need to decide if reporting your test scores at all is worth it.
College Information
This section is for students who have taken dual enrollment classes, or otherwise taken classes at a college level for credit while still in high school. AP and IB classes do not count for this, only classes which were administered by a college. This section does include online and summer courses offered by colleges.
Fee Waiver
It can cost a surprising amount of money to apply to colleges, anywhere from $50 to $90 per application. The Coalition App has several options for students to waive all of these fees. Students who fit the following criteria do not have to pay application fees:
- Students on the free or reduced lunch program
- Students who received a NACAC fee waiver
- Students who received a College Board fee waiver
- Students who received an ACT fee waiver
- Students participating in programs such as Upward Bound
If you qualify for any of these fee waivers, we recommend you take them, as college is expensive enough already.
Additional Tests
International students are required to prove English proficiency with the TOEFL or IELTS tests. Scores for these tests are reported in this section. If you are not an international student, you don’t need to worry about this section.
Honors and Distinctions
The Coalition App allows you to list five honors you have earned, of any kind. You enter the award you earned, when it was earned, and the level of award (i.e. local, regional, or national). You should be specific in the title box, as there is nowhere else to describe the details of the award. Do not use acronyms colleges are unlikely to be familiar with; NHS is fine, but write “Youth American Grand Prix” instead of “YAGP.”
If you have more than 5 awards you wish to mention, then list the most impressive awards. The more people who were competing for an award you won, the more impressive that accomplishment is.
Academic Interests
The purpose of this section is to let colleges know what majors you are interested in, and what academic subjects you are interested in pursuing. You may enter up to three, for those students who are undecided or interested in multiple fields. See here for how your choice of major can affect your chances of admission.
Activities/Experiences
This is where you can tell colleges about everything you are involved in outside of the classroom. While high grades are important, they are far from the only thing colleges care about. See our article here for more guidance on what colleges want to see in your extracurricular participation.
The Coalition App only gives 8 spots for activities, in place of the Common Apps’ 10. They specify that the first two you include should be non-academic. This is to give admissions officers a first impression of who you are outside the classroom. Each activity you enter is placed into one of 6 categories, chosen via drop-down menu:
- Academic
- Arts
- Club Activities
- Family Responsibilities
- Sports
- Others
Of course, one activity may well fit into multiple categories. In these cases, select the category which best fits how you interacted with that activity. You also input how long and how frequently you participated in this activity, any leadership positions you’ve had, and any individual distinctions earned related to the activity. You also get a single sentence to describe what you did as part of this activity.
This sentence should focus on what you did, while not covering any information you put in elsewhere in the form. You only get this one sentence, so you need to make every word count. Focus on the actions you took, the accomplishments you had, and the impact your involvement created.
The Locker
This is not a section you fill out per se, but instead a cloud based storage system similar to google drive, where you upload the various documents required by colleges. These include recommendation letters, supplemental essays, your resume, a portfolio (if relevant), and anything else required by schools.
There is no limit to the number of files you are allowed to upload to the locker, but there is a 50 MB file size limit per upload. Files are organized within sections within the locker, so your letters of recommendation are kept separate from your artistic portfolio.
Personal Statement
Just like with the Common App, you are expected to submit a personal statement when applying. The Coalition App recommends a 500-650 word limit, though they do not have a hard cap. Some schools do hard cap personal statements at 650 words, so we recommend keeping your personal statement below that length. What you write is far more impactful than how much you write.
The personal statement prompts from the Coalition App for the 2021-22 application cycle are:
- Tell a story from your life, describing an experience that either demonstrates your character or helped to shape it.
- Describe a time when you made a meaningful contribution to others in which the greater good was your focus. Discuss the challenges and rewards of making your contribution.
- Has there been a time when you’ve had a long-cherished or accepted belief challenged? How did you respond? How did the challenge affect your beliefs?
- What is the hardest part of being a student now? What’s the best part? What advice would you give a younger sibling or friend (assuming they would listen to you)?
- Submit an essay on a topic of your choice.
There is a great range of what you can talk about in your personal statement, but the most important part is to make sure it tells admissions officers something about who you are. For more advice on how to write an outstanding personal statement, see our article here.
Colleges That Use the Coalition Application
Here is a list of colleges that accept the Coalition App, but not the Common App. Some of these schools also have their own app portal, or accept applications through another system, like Apply Texas for Texas A&M. There are many other schools that accept both; research the schools you apply to see which applications they accept.
- Clemson University
- James Madison University
- Loyola University Maryland
- North Central College
- Rutgers University
- St. Mary’s University
- Texas A&M University
- University of New Mexico
- University of Florida
- University of Georgia
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- University of Maryland -College Park
- University of Montana
- University of Oklahoma
- University of South Carolina
- UT Austin
- University of Washington
Final Thoughts
Whichever application portal you choose, it merely serves as a vehicle for your application. The real substance universities want to see transcends the application itself; they want to know who you are, and the application is merely how they find that information out.
Applying to college is frequently stressful. There are many questions, new ways of writing essays, and details that seem confusing. If you want advice on which application you should use, which colleges you should apply to, or how to write the best possible essays, you should schedule a free consultation with us. We have a depth of experience helping students get into the school of their dreams, and are always eager to hear from you.
