During the 2013 college admissions cycle, many students found that the Common Application - intended to make applying to multiple schools easier - became more of an obstacle than a tool. Problems were so severe that some schools, such as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, had to push back their early application deadlines, Inside Higher Ed reports. Others sought ways around the issues by offering Common Application alternatives.
Application Alternative
Princeton University allowed students to use the Universal College Application, which has been dwindling in popularity in recent years, university representative Martin Mbugua tells Inside Higher Ed. Other schools showed interest at a recent meeting of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, Universal College Application Founder Joshua Reiter told Inside Higher Ed. Since last year's Common Application debacle, other institutions, such as the University of Chicago, Vanderbilt University and Rice University, have also begun using the Universal College Application.
Christiana Quinn, founder of College Admission Advisors, raised questions about the wisdom of relying on one major application service in the long term, given that glitches like the one that occurred last year could lead to such turmoil.
"Colleges, high school counselors have sort of accepted this idea that we should rely on one system. And I think that's really dangerous. I think that we do need more competitors in the marketplace and less of a monopoly," Quinn tells Insider Higher Ed.
Building a Backup
One year later, it seems that Quinn wasn't alone in wishing for an alternative application. Early in 2014, some institutions announced interest in building a system that could compete with the Common Application, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports. Among the members of a coalition to field proposals for such a move were the University of Chicago, Vanderbilt University and Princeton University, all of which have also embraced the Universal College Application, The Brown Daily Herald reports.
In all, 14 institutions were named as interested parties in a preliminary document, with the intention to attract more. Prestigious universities such as Yale and Harvard were among the initial members. To use the proposed new application system, private schools would have to offer full-tuition financial aid to first-year students, and public schools would have to offer a tuition that many students could meet. Institutions of both types would be considered only if they had low default rates for student loans and high graduation rates for associate's and bachelor's degree students.
Member colleges could use the proposed system in case of future problems with the Common Application. Much like Quinn, members of the Consortium on Financing Higher Education, which first proposed a Common Application alternative, see the goal as creating an alternative to the Common Application rather than replacing it, according to Inside Higher Ed.
Fixing Common Woes
Many have also pointed out flaws with the Common Application that could make a replacement, or at least a second option, more attractive. For instance, the Common Application doesn't allow students to choose their own topic for admissions essays, a feature that the Universal College Application has in place, according to The Brown Daily Herald. Applicants also lack the ability to upload essays in the format of their choice, meaning that they can't add illustrations.
The Common Application has historically placed a number of restrictions on colleges that use it, including what information needs to be collected from applicants, according to the Chronicle. Although some restrictions have been removed, the proposal for the new alternative applications stresses that it will remain customizable and allow each institution that uses it to maintain control over their version of the application.