The Common Application: Can it Hurt My Chances in Admissions?

In my last blog, I discussed some reasons why your college application might be denied. The world is changing, and as an increasing number of students graduate high school and go on to higher education, the competition heats up for college admissions. But the level of difficulty students are now met with is due to more than a larger number of young people graduating high school. It is also tied to the Common Application.

What IS The Common Application?
The Common Application was developed in 1975 as a pilot program, consisting of only 15 institutions. These schools agreed to accept a "common application" from students, making it easier to apply to multiple colleges. It took some time for the Common Application to take off, but now over 500 colleges accept this form of application.

As you can imagine, this has changed the number of applications flooding into institutions. But what else has increased their number of applicants? The Internet.

Online Applications & Their Impact on Admissions
In past years, students not only had to create unique applications to apply to each college, but they also had to submit them all in hard copy form. It took much longer to send requests through the mail, especially with each one being unique. Today, college applications are almost exclusively online, making it even simpler to submit a Common Application to multiple colleges in one sitting.

The Good & Bad Impacts
While the Common Application and ease of Internet submissions have helped many students apply to the colleges they are interested in, it has also contributed to the craziness of college admissions and decreased the percentage of students accepted, particularly to elite schools.

In my next blog, we will explore more of the reasons admissions have become so selective, so stay tuned! If you would like to learn more about college admissions and being intentional in YOUR journey, check out my book, ADMISSIONS BY DESIGN.