How to Edit Common App Essay AFTER submitting Early Action

By Quetzal Mama • December 2, 2016

Check you out. You’re all “Done, son! Just submitted my Early Action application. Now who gets to take her time to finesse Regular Decision apps during my holiday break?”

But hold up. Yikes! You just pressed “submit” . . . which means, you cannot edit your Common App essay for Regular Decision! And here you were, gushing in your essay about how much you love Stanford. But, wait! What about Georgetown and MIT? Dang! Now they’re going to read that essay and . . . noooooooooo!

Up until last year, you could not change your Common App essay after you submitted your Early Action or Early Decision applications. You were stuck. But, THANK goodness for some really smart person (probably a woman) over at Common App central, who said, “Hmm. That sucks. We should do something about that.” Well gracias Epifania for doing that! (OK, I just made up that name, but let’s go with it. Epifania is a cool name, plus it kind of sounds like epiphany).

You can now make unlimited edits to your essay, after you’ve submitted your first application. To do it, just follow these steps. First, click on the tab, “Common App” (see below).

Next, once you are in the Personal Essay area, click the “Edit Link” to start making changes to your existing essay. Make sure to save your changes by clicking the “Continue” button when you finish.

Sweet. Now, stop eating that third tamale and get to editing your essay for all Regular Decision applications. Oh, and while you’re at it . . . don’t forget about the Supplemental Essays.

If this tip was helpful, like this page! And, if you want to learn more tips to NAIL your Common Application essays, get the book that won the 2016 “Best Educational Young Adult Book” award. Get “Nailed It! Quetzal Mama’sToolkit for Extraordinary College Essays” on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.