Folks, it's official. At 9:07 p.m. on Wednesday, November 18, 2009, I became a REAL college applicant.

For the past few months, I've been doing research, writing essays, taking standardized tests, doing interview preparation, and (I think it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway) stressing, all in preparation for that glorious moment when I would get to click that little yellow "Submit" button. And this week I did it not once, but THREE times.
That's right, I'm a high roller.

With three down, I now have about five to six more applications to submit. Nearly all of the schools to which I'm applying allow applicants to use the Common Application for freshman undergraduate admissions. Of the (roughly) eight schools on my list, the only school which doesn't use the Common Application is UConn. Go figure.

Non-Common Application schools generally don't have a system that allows a guidance counselor to send transcripts and teacher recommendations digitally. Thus, all of these documents must be sent via good ol' snail mail. Luckily, UConn was one of my Turkey Week Three, so, from this point forward, all of my applications will be submitted online through the Common Application web site, which is like the hybrid car on the college admissions sale floor.

For those of you who:
- Aren't currently applying to college
- Have not applied to college within the course of the past 35 years- Are not a guidance counselor helping students apply to college
- Are not a teacher writing recommendations for students applying to college
- Don't have a child/family friend/friend-of-a-friend/niece/nephew/grandchild/great-grandchild/family pet applying to college
- OR, otherwise, have no reason for being familiar with the Common Application,

…the Common Application is "a membership association established in 1975 by 15 private colleges that wished to provide a common, standardized first-year application form for use at any member institution" (www.commonapp.org).

The Common Application allows students to complete a single, streamlined application they can send out to whichever "member colleges" they'd like. (UConn uses a similar, but much smaller, system called "CT Mentor," an undergraduate admissions membership organization used by nearly every other college in the state.)

Prior to the Common Application's rise in popularity, the colleges who are now member schools each had their own application system. This was cumbersome, to say the least, for a student applying to multiple schools; said student would have to format and reformat their application to correspond with each college's individual application.

The advent of the Common Application standardized and simplified the college application process, and the advent of the internet has expedited the process. A student may submit their application, school transcript, teacher recommendations, and application processing fee to a school all with a few mouse clicks. And, if they would like to, a college can have students supplement the Common Application with a document called a "Supplemental Application" (who'da thunk?). Students may submit this document, once again, through the Common Application web site.

Since my Common Application is complete, this is my current endeavor – knocking out supplemental applications one at a time.

I still have a lot more work to do, but now I feel like I actually have something to look forward to. I'm not just working on applications anymore; now, I'm working on college applications and waiting for admissions decisions.

Up until this past Wednesday, I had done the job, but hadn't been able to claim the title just yet. And now I can. Pressing that little button made me feel like an understudy who suddenly gets to play the lead role when the star actress comes down with a case of the flu. Or like an athlete who gets pulled off the bench when he's asked to sub into a game for the first time. Or like some sort of college-bound Mariah "Mimi" Carey, like a diva who gets signed on for a major recording contract after being bound by years of back-up singing servitude.

So, this is my emancipation (sort of). You may call me ReRe, if you'd like.