Common Application

The Common Application

More and More colleges are using a standardized application form

Everyone who has applied to college knows that the admissions process can be an arduous, time-consuming task. In an effort to simplify this process, hundreds of private colleges and universities across the U.S. Noe accept the Common Application. In the past, the typical high school senior who applied to multiple schools often had to fill out redundant forms and compose a number of challenging essays. Now the student can fill out one form and answer a single essay question and then send copies to schools such as Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Swarthmore, Pomona, New York University, and so on.

When Harvard began accepting the Common Application in 1995, it experienced a 16 percent rise in applications, although that increase was not enitriley due to the Common Application. But Harvard admissions officials credit the Common Application with improving the geographical diversity of its admissions pool and increasing the number of applicants with top grades and test scores.

This is the wave of the future. Photograph by Elena.

The Common Application is proving popular with many overburdened high-school teachers and administrators, who need not submit as many versions of teacher evaluations and secondary school reports as a result. Some high school guidance counsellors worry, however, that students will be too cavalier about the number and types of schools they apply to as a result of the easier application process.

Just because a college accepts the Common Application doesn't mean that it is limited to asking questions that appear on the standard form. Many also require a supplemental form. Harvard, for example, require candidates to identify more completely special academic, extracurricular, and vocational interests, to list non-academic honors, and to provide advanced placement test scores. The university also allows the candidate to send music tapes, slides of artwork, or samples of academic work, and gives applications a chance to answer a second essay question should the topic required by the Common Application seem limited.

While the Common Application eliminates unnecessary paperwork, applications that are completely paperless will soon be common. The National Association of Secondary School Principals, which distributes the Common Application, has also made the forms available online introducing the electronic application system. But not all colleges and universities have joined the program, and till our days some of them accept only a printout of the application.

Everyone can obtain a copy of the Common Application in the Internet.