By MARYANNE MURRAY BUECHNER	E-mail this article to a friend

August 4, 2003

Submitting your application online   saves you time and that stressed-   out trip to the post office just   before the due date PHOTODISC

Years ago, high school seniors applying to college had to haul out the typewriter and stock up on Wite-Out to complete the forms each school required. Now virtually every institution accepts some type of electronic application, prompting a growing number of students to handle the process online. And the schools are doing a better job at their end, making the digital docs easier to work with and otherwise catching up with the technology. "The whole system improves dramatically year by year," says Scott White, a guidance counselor at Montclair High School in New Jersey.

But while online apps can be less tedious than the paper versions, not to mention perfectly in synch with the technical sensibilities of today's teens, students need to complete them with the same amount of care and consideration, several college admissions officials and counselors say. "An online application gets the same scrutiny, and if it appears hurried and has errors, that will work against you," says Andrew Flagel, Dean of Admissions at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

SOME THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND  Choose a medium and go with it. If you've applied to a school electronically, don't print out and mail an identical hard copy; it could confuse the admissions office and lead to a duplicate student record.  Don't worry if you can't fit all your clubs and awards in the extra-curricular activities box. Many schools allow online applicants to submit supplemental information as an attachment or as a separate mail-in. Better to do an addendum than to squeeze in items using abbreviations only your own classmates would recognize. But don't go overboard, advises Peter Farrell, Director of Admissions Outreach and Technology at New York University. Mention your interest in rock climbing and move on. "There's a saying," Farrell says: "The thicker the file, the thinner the candidate."  Anything you submit separately from your main application should have your name and Social Security number. Be consistent with your use of middle initials and other identifying details.  Compose your essays and short answers in a separate word-processing program on your computer, then copy and paste them into the appropriate fields. This way if you encounter similar questions on other applications, you will have something to draw from. (You will also be able to use the spellcheck, which many online app programs don't provide.) If you do repurpose your essay, don't forget to change the name of the school wherever it appears in the text. The folks at Boston College don't need to know that you would be thrilled to attend Vanderbilt.  More and more schools are letting students save early versions of their online apps and to log in and out so that they don't have to do it all in one session. If this is not an option, save the app as a local file on your hard drive — and keep saving as you go along — to avoid losing everything if your computer crashes  Print out a hard copy for your records before you hit the Send button. Proof-reading on paper also helps catch typos that you might have missed onscreen.  The last-minute advantage of applying online is a myth. Sure, you could start an online app on the day it's due and still make the deadline, of course, but your high school guidance counselor still needs time to snail-mail your transcript and other supporting documents — and won't appreciate your panicked request to overnight them.  The medium might be informal, but your email correspondence should not be. Watch subject headings, and use an e-mail address that won't raise eyebrows. (YourName@YourISP.com, good; DevilSpawn@YourISP.com, not good.)  Schools are getting better at emailing students to confirm receipt, but if you don't hear back in a few days, call the admissions office. HELPFUL LINKS:  Commonapp.org  PrincetonReview.com  Supercollege.com  Xap.com

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