Nominally a one-player game, Common App quickly becomes a family endeavor involving one or all parents and unhelpful commentary from siblings, aunts, uncles, work colleagues, and, especially, in-laws. Affluent families may also hire a professional consultant who is, unfortunately, equally unhelpful.
Common Application centers around character creation and world-building. The key player, a college-bound high school senior, is encouraged to create a character based on themself but augmented with multisyllabic adjectives. For example, a stint as a hall monitor in middle school became their “periodic internship in hyperlocal law enforcement with attention to dilatory intent.”