Articles / Applying to College / Which Address Do I Use on My College Applications?

Which Address Do I Use on My College Applications?

Written by Sally Rubenstone | May 18, 2010

Question: I go to a boarding school, and I'm confused about what address to put for the college mailing lists. Do I put my boarding school mail address, or my home address?

The Common Application, which you are likely to use for many of your target colleges (as well as most other applications, too) will provide a space for both a "Permanent Address" and a "Current Address."

You will use your home address for the "Permanent" one and your school address for "Current." (Even if you are filling out the forms over the summer when you are not in school, you can use the school address for "Current.")

The Common Application will also ask you to give the name of your school and the dates you are in residence, if you are a boarding student there.

Once you see the applications themselves, then this will all be clear to you. Should you encounter an application that does not allow you to include both addresses, use your permanent home address on the form but then indicate in the "Additional Information" section or in a separate letter than you have a different address during the school year.

With so many colleges contacting students by email these days, it doesn't really matter where you are ... as long as you remember to check your email and don't rely strictly on text messages for communications, as my 13-year-old son seems to do. ;-)

Sally Rubenstone

Sally Rubenstone knows the competitive and often convoluted college admission process inside out: From the first time the topic of college comes up at the dinner table until the last duffel bag is unloaded on a dorm room floor. She is the co-author of Panicked Parents' Guide to College Admissions; The Transfer Student's Guide to Changing Colleges and The International Student's Guide to Going to College in America. Sally has appeared on NBC's Today program and has been quoted in countless publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Weekend, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, People and Seventeen. Sally has viewed the admissions world from many angles: As a Smith College admission counselor for 15 years, an independent college counselor serving students from a wide range of backgrounds and the author of College Confidential's "Ask the Dean" column. She also taught language arts, social studies, study skills and test preparation in 10 schools, including American international schools in London, Paris, Geneva, Athens and Tel Aviv. As senior advisor to College Confidential since 2002, Sally has helped hundreds of students and parents navigate the college admissions maze. In 2008, she co-founded College Karma, a private college consulting firm, with her College Confidential colleague Dave Berry, and she continues to serve as a College Confidential advisor. Sally and her husband, Chris Petrides, became first-time parents in 1997 at the ripe-old age of 45. So Sally was nearly an official senior citizen when her son Jack began the college selection process, and when she was finally able to practice what she had preached for more than three decades.