Dubbed Common App 4.0, the Common App is about to undergo changes for 2013, some significant -- such as only being able to view one question (or a few, at most) at a time and the elimination (possibly) of the troublesome truncation of essays and short answers.

The New York Times published an overview of the overhaul at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/education/edlife/common-app-4-0.html, and the article is well worth the read.

Whether the bizarre means of submission (i.e., submitting the Supplement first, then making payment, leaving the main application to be submitted last -- oooops) will change remains to be seen, but students, parents and counselors will welcome an update to a system that has far too many quirks for a process that is already overly burdensome and frustrating to the extreme.

Will there be an autosave feature, lest your essay, extracurricular activities, or current year courses disappear from the screen mid-entry? Well, we will just have to wait and see.

Follow the reinvention of the Common App at www.commonapp.org, and stay tuned!