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 392 member colleges and universities in the United States. It is 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 the ranks of 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 opening membership only 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.
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[edit] Supplements
Common Application members are free to require an additional supplement form of applicants to ask questions not included 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?" etc. Additional essays may also be required by colleges with Common Application supplements. 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 and 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. A significant minority of member institutions waive the application fee if the student submits the forms online.
[edit] Membership
As of July 1, 2009 (for the 2009-10 admission cycle), the Common Application has 392 colleges and universities as members, including 37 public institutions (see list here). Of these, about one-third are "exclusive users" that use the Common Application as their only admissions application online or in print (listed here). If the member has a separate proprietary application, they are required to give equal consideration to applicants using either form as a condition of membership. [2]
