Common Application
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Common Application (informally known as the Common App) is an undergraduate college admission application that applicants may use to apply to any of 315 member colleges and universities in the United States. It's managed by the staff of a not-for-profit membership association (The Common Application, Inc.) and governed by a 13-member volunteer Board of Directors drawn from college admission deans and secondary school college guidance counselors. Its mission is to encourage college "access" by promoting holistic admission (the use of subjective criteria like essays and recommendations alongside objective criteria). It promotes holistic admission by limiting membership to institutions that have committed to using holistic admission for their entire undergraduate full-time applicant pool, and then streamlining the college application process for students choosing to apply to those colleges. The questions on the Common App include factors such as the home life of the student, academic achievements, standardized test scores and other information that colleges use to evaluate students for admission. For example, Brown University does not accept common app.
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[edit] Supplements
Common Application members are free to require an additional supplement form of applicants to elicit questions not asked on the Common Application. These are typically questions that don't have "common answers" for all institutions, such as "Did your parent attend our college? Have you visited our university?" and the like. Member institutions may ask any additional question they'd like, and as many additional questions as they'd like, with only two restrictions: 1) supplement questions may not re-ask questions already asked on the Common Application (except identifying information like name, address, date of birth, etc), and 2) supplement questions may not ask questions that violate the NACAC Statement of Principles and Good Practice (such as "please rank order your college choices.").
[edit] Online & Print Applications
There is a first-year and a transfer application, and either may be submitted on online or on paper via mail: [1]
Both versions allow the application to be filled out once online and submitted to all schools with the same information going to each. Once the application is submitted to a college via mail or online, it cannot be changed for that college; the student must contact the college directly if they wish to correct an error or provide more information. The online application provides numerous organization tools that allows a student to submit and track other components of their application such as supplements, payments, and school forms. Some schools including Allegheny College, American University, Carleton College, Colgate University, Lewis & Clark College, Stevens Institute of Technology, University of La Verne and Wellesley College do not charge an application fee if the application is submitted online.
[edit] Membership
As of May 2008, the Common Application website lists 315 colleges and universities as members (see list here). Of these, approximately one third are "exclusive users" that use the Common Application as their only admissions application (listed here). Universities that accept the Common Application do so by choice. If they have a separate proprietary application, they are required to give equal consideration to applicants using either form as a condition of membership. [2]
