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The Common App steps up for transfers

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Eastern Mennonite University is one of nearly 40 colleges joining the Common App for 2017-18.

At its annual “Member Summit” last week in northern Virginia, the Common Application announced the release of a new transfer application specifically designed to accommodate students taking alternate pathways to college.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), “traditional” students or those enrolling immediately after high school and attending college full time, represent only about 15 percent of the current undergraduate population. The remaining 85 percent, or about 15 million undergrads, includes students who begin their post-secondary careers at two-year colleges or are military and veteran students, adults returning to higher education to complete degrees or certificates, and adults beginning post-secondary education for the first time

Recognizing that these nontraditional students are very different from the teenagers ordinarily associated with the college application process, the Common App for Transfers will provide a “modern interface, an intuitive flow, and a user-friendly portal” for applying to multiple programs with one set of application materials.

“Providing a dynamic and robust application for this important, but under-recognized group of learners will promote inclusiveness and expand educational opportunity for more individuals who are seeking post-secondary education,” said Jenny Rickard, President and CEO of The Common Application.

The new application will be released in collaboration with Liaison International, a leading admissions management and enrollment marketing group with particular experience in graduate admissions management.

“We are excited to be working with Liaison on these initiatives, which will support access both by expanding the student population we serve and by providing our member colleges and universities with the data insights they need to better understand overall enrollment patterns and achieve their goals,” adds Rickard.

According to the Common App, the new transfer application will better serve returning adult students (over the age of 25 and representing 38 percent of undergraduates) and students applying from two-year programs (43 percent of all undergrads), by presenting a more streamlined and simplified application experience, as admission requirements are often different for these applicants.

The new transfer application will be available in early 2018 for an “early adopter” group of 10 to 12 colleges and universities, with a full release set for August 2018. New data analytics tools, which will provide insights about both first-year and transfer applicants, will be available this fall. To support this initiative, the Common App will be convening a Transfer Advisory Committee in early June 2017.

Along with the new Liaison partnership, the Common App recently announced the addition of nearly 40 new members as well as  several innovations to the current platform including Google Drive integration, a self-reported transcript, advising and recommender enhancements, and additional Spanish language resources.

“Throughout its history, The Common Application has continuously leveraged technology to evolve from a paper-and-pencil application to an online resource and innovative application center used by more than 3 million prospective students, applicants, and recommenders annually,” said Rickard.

And the new transfer application addresses an important and growing population of students seeking ways to discover and link-up with “best fit” four-year programs.

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The single best guide to all things that ‘matter’ in admissions

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In the months immediately following publication of the third edition of Admission Matters, Sally Springer, lead author, was quite certain there would be no fourth edition. As Springer freely admits, “Updating a book like Admission Matters takes a great deal of time and effort and it essentially takes over your life for many months.”

Springer is right of course. But lucky for us, she and her co-authors, Jon Reider and Joyce Vining Morgan, had a change of heart and recently got back together to produce the fourth edition of Admission Matters—the single, most useful college guide currently on the market.

“Admission Matters is not just comprehensive, it’s a paper version of a great college counselor,” commented Maria Furtado, executive director of Colleges That Change Lives.

Jennifer Delahunty, former dean of admissions and financial aid at Kenyon College, agrees, “Filled with both common sense and sage advice, the fourth edition of Admission Matters is the only guide any high school student—and his or her parent—will ever need.”

Since publication of the last edition in 2013, there have been remarkable changes in financial aid, standardized testing and application platforms. Application numbers have exploded, pushing selectivity to the limits of comprehension at a number of elite colleges. And the skyrocketing costs associated with a college education continue to far outpace annual increases in the cost of living.

From the outside looking in, the entire process of selecting and applying to colleges appears totally out of control—characterized by neither predictability nor humanity.  And instead of looking forward to their next chapter, high school students and their families have come to dread even starting the conversation.

But along comes Admission Matters with a reassuring message—“College admissions does not have to be, and should not be, an ordeal.”

To back this up, the Admission Matters team worked hard to update information and incorporate changes in an easy-to-understand narrative designed to give readers confidence in themselves and their ability to master the process and not have the process master them.

While the fourth edition of Admission Matters will look familiar to those who have read and relied on the third edition, there is a good deal of new material “sprinkled throughout” in addition to thorough updates—some even made at the page proof stage, when they were important enough.

 

As someone who annually reads and reviews a considerable number of college guidebooks, I’m very choosy about which ones I recommend.  In fact, the list is very short.

Since I discovered Sally Springer and her book at a NACAC conference several years ago, Admission Matters has been and remains at the top of that list. This is because I want to recommend a guide that is up-to-date, accurate and offers the kind of advice I offer to families, in user-friendly terms.

Following its predecessors, the fourth edition of Admission Matters is thorough, crystal clear, and very direct about what college applicants need to do and how to do it.

The authors are seasoned professionals with more than 100 years of experience in secondary and higher education in the roles of high school teacher and college counselor, college admissions officer, college professor and administrator, and independent educational consultant. They are parents themselves who have undertaken the college admissions journey with their own kids.

Admission Matters covers all the nuts and bolts of college admission—from developing a balanced college list to applying for financial aid. Tucked into appendices, there are worksheets, an application timeline and an annotated list of additional resources.  And to keep Admission Matters as current as possible, the authors are maintaining a website with free updates and additional materials.

I highly recommend Admission Matters to anyone with a college-bound student going through the process this fall or anyone wanting to be a little bit better prepared for the future.

And this recommendation goes for admissions professionals in colleges, schools, or working independently.

You won’t find a better, more comprehensive admissions guide on the market today.

Admission Matters is available online (on Amazon via the image below) and in bookstores everywhere.

James Madison University goes ‘test-optional’ for 2017-2018

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James Madison University

Joining a growing number of colleges and universities, James Madison University (JMU) will be rolling out a test-optional admissions policy for 2017-18. Students seeking admission will no longer be required to submit tests results from either the SAT or the ACT as part of the JMU application process.

Unlike other Commonwealth universities, which have also decided to downgrade reliance on standardized tests in admissions, JMU will not be adding any “strings” to their new policy. There will be no minimum GPAs, similar to test-optional policies in use by Christopher Newport University, George Mason University or Virginia Commonwealth University.  Applicants will be entirely free to decide whether they want to include test scores along with their applications.

“We’re providing applicants to Madison the opportunity to build their best application which could include test results, recommendation, or personal statement,” explained Joe Manning, JMU’s Associate Dean of Admission. “We’ve determined that our students’ high school curriculum is a more consistent indicator of their academic success.”

As the university works to update their website to reflect the change in policy, information on the application process for the coming year has been communicated during on-campus information sessions, including one for counselors last month.  In a nutshell, JMU will only require that applicants submit an application for admission (one choice will be the Coalition Application), a high school transcript, and a senior schedule of classes. An applicant can also submit, if they choose, a personal statement, a letter of recommendation and/or standardized test results to be used in the review of their application. Because this is a substantial change from how things were done in the past, JMU is developing a method for applicants to request the university delete test results that may already be on file in the admissions office.

The new policy didn’t come as a huge surprise to counselors who have worked with Madison over the years. It’s been evident by their decisions that application readers placed significant importance on information conveyed via the transcript—grades and consistent rigor of coursework throughout high school. Test results, while considered, appeared to be of secondary importance in Madison’s admissions decisions.

And JMU is joining an impressive group of colleges and universities that have made the decision to reduce the role of scores in admissions.  According to the nonprofit National Center for Fair and Open Testing (FairTest), the list of test-optional schools has grown to more than 950 accredited institutions awarding bachelor’s degrees, with more than 275 highly “ranked” in their “tiers” by U.S. News, including such familiar names as Bowdoin, Mount Holyoke, Pitzer, Smith, Trinity College, Wesleyan, Wake Forest, Providence and College of the Holy Cross.

In addition to James Madison, the most recent schools to announce test-optional policies are Emerson College in Boston, University of the Ozarks and Wofford College in South Carolina.  In the DC/Maryland/Virginia region, American, Catholic, Christopher Newport, GMU, George Washington, Goucher, Hampton, Hood, Loyola Maryland, Marymount, Old Dominion, Radford, Roanoke, Salisbury, St. John’s College, Trinity Washington University, Mary Washington, VCU and Washington College have either test-flexible or test-optional policies in place.

There appear to be a number of reasons for the recent “surge” in test-optional colleges. According to Robert Schaeffer, public education director for FairTest, “Admissions offices increasingly recognize that they do not need ACT or SAT scores to make good decisions. They know that an applicant’s high school record—grades and course rigor—predicts undergraduate success better than any standardized exam.”

6 reasons to tell a college you will NOT be attending

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As the days tick down to May 1—College Decision Day or the deadline by which many colleges expect responses from admitted students—a key part of the admissions process tends to be overlooked by excited applicants anxious to move forward with their lives.

Beyond simply showing gratitude and good manners, students really need to reach out to those colleges they will NOT be attending in the fall to let them know the final decision.

“Say ‘Thank you’ as well as ‘No, thank you’,” said Tara Anne Dowling, director of college counseling at the Rocky Hill School in East Greenwich, Rhode Island.  “Thank you for taking time with my credentials, thank you for answering my questions, thank you for offering me a scholarship—all of it!”

In the afterglow of finally making a decision and sending in a deposit, students tend to forget about the other schools that showed enough confidence in their credentials to make an offer.  Sadly, they fail to see how much of an investment colleges have in the students they invite and lose an opportunity to reciprocate the goodwill.

It’s normal to feel a little awkward about communicating to a college that you are basically “rejecting” their offer. Humans are wired to avoid confrontation and communicating bad news seems to fall in this category. But don’t let this stop you from doing the right thing.

And why does it matter so much?

  1. They care.  According to Ms. Dowling, admissions officers very often become “invested in the students they are recruiting.”  They’ve read your file, recommended you to the admissions committee, and sometimes fought on your behalf for your admission.  These same folks may have also nominated you for a scholarship or otherwise extended themselves professionally to advocate for you.  It’s disappointing when someone who believes in you doesn’t receive the courtesy of a response.
  2. Institutional memory.  Admissions representatives build relationships with high schools and counselors that allow them to take chances on candidates for whom the school advocates. These tend to be those applicants whose grades or scores might be below the usual admitted student profile. You help future applicants when you reassure colleges of your gratitude and respond with respect. Similar to many other organizations, colleges can have long institutional memories and one bad experience may take a long time to forget. And by the way, these institutional memories can extend to a younger sibling or a friend who may apply to the same college in the future.
  3. Continued investment.  All that mail and all the phone calls you may be receiving represent a continued investment in you. They cost both time and money. While you might find some of the recruitment tactics annoying, they should be a signal that at least one step in the process remains undone.  If for no other reason, eliminate the daily barrage of emails and uncomfortable phone conversations by letting someone know you’ve made a decision.
  4. Wait lists.  The sooner you let a college know you’ll not be attending, the sooner the admissions office can make arrangements to free up space on the wait list, if that looks like a possibility.  “Think of kids on wait lists who are dying to find out if they can have that place that is currently being held by you,” suggests Ms. Dowling.  “You can help colleges clean up their records and make room for other candidates!”
  5. Constructive feedback.  Once a college knows your decision, it’s likely they will want to know which offer you selected and why.  This is your opportunity to provide a little constructive feedback which might help them formulate future policies in areas such as scholarship or financial aid. You could also help them improve recruitment or change admissions policies to be more applicant-friendly in the future.
  6. Transfer.  If none of the other above-listed reasons to let a college know you’re not attending fails to move you, consider the possibility that you may be circling back to this same admissions office and asking for reconsideration in the form of a transfer application. It’s entirely possible that what attracted you in the first place may come to be more important after a year at another college.  Don’t lose the opportunity to maintain good relations with an admissions office that may have a second opportunity to admit or deny you.

It’s not hard to let a college know you won’t be coming. You can use the assigned online portal to accept or decline the offer or you can email or text anyone in the admissions office with whom you’ve been working.  OR, remember that big packet you got in the mail?  There may be a postcard asking for you to respond—thumbs up or down.

And by the way, don’t forget about all the others who helped you along the journey—counselors, teachers, school administrators, transcript clerks and outside recommenders. They’ve cared enough to support your applications, and they deserve to know your options as well as your final decision.

Never miss an opportunity to make a good impression.  Let everyone who has believed in you know what you’ve decided as soon as possible.  And then go out and celebrate!

Don’t Be Perfect and Other Tips for Your ZeeMee College Admissions Video

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Your story matters.

During the college admissions process, sharing your story as part of your application provides context and gives you the opportunity to introduce yourself. In the past, this has been accomplished by submitting at least one essay with your college application and at some schools, scheduling a personal interview.

Thanks to technology, today’s Snapchat Generation can also submit a concise video specifically geared to the college admissions process via digital video manager ZeeMee.

ZeeMee’s smartphone app helps you create a three-part video that can be viewed in a minute or two. It’s free of charge. Students own their content. Privacy settings prevent a student’s video from being searchable. And no special equipment is needed to make the video beyond access to an iOS or Android smart phone.

“Selfie-style is genuine and real,” says Courtney Vaughn, an admissions officer at Elon University in North Carolina. “Don’t hire a professional — keep it casual.”

Vaughn credits the ZeeMee videos with helping her “connect with applicants on a deeper level.” When she can glean additional knowledge about an applicant from their video, she says she will “take that nugget of information to the admissions committee” to advocate for the student.

To be clear, Vaughn says that “the students who are in the middle of the applicant pool at Elon benefit the most” from submitting a ZeeMee video. Providing the additional information, as well as taking the time to show interest and effort, says Vaughn, contributes another positive layer to an application that might need the extra boost.

Other ZeeMee partner schools may also consider a student’s submission to help them create a well-rounded class; or to select among applicants for competitive honors programs or majors. If you are applying to a school that encourages submission of a ZeeMee video or you would otherwise like to create one, here are some additional tips.

The Basics

There are three parts to a ZeeMee video: your Profile Information, the Video Feed and the Photo Album.

Your Profile Information features a snapshot of you with your name, high school, and graduation year, superimposed on a default image. (Later, you can select the photo you want in the background.)

The Video Feed gives you the opportunity to tell colleges, in your own words, what you want them to know about you. You have the option of recording a brief introduction, for example, and/or speaking about a topic of your choice. Optional question prompts on the Chat tab can help you decide what to share. Some examples of ZeeMee question prompts are Describe your high school and what you like most about it. Or, Who would win, Batman or Spider Man? Or, How would your friends describe you?

These prompts can get you thinking more about how to best showcase your character and values. Are there certain topics that resonate with you?  Do you have a compelling anecdote to share? What motivates you; or challenges you; or captivates you?  Take some time to think about what you want to say. And if you change your mind and want to delete or rerecord your video, you can!

Videos (whether your own, or responses to prompts) are limited to no more than 26 seconds each — but you can record as many as you like. You’ll make your own decision about how many videos compose your Video Feed; just remember that a shorter one is more likely to be viewed in its entirety, so try to keep your points succinct.

If you are camera-shy, no worries — not only is ZeeMee always optional, there are a variety of ways to tell your story — for example, a teacher, friend or slideshow can serve as your introduction.

Use the Photo Album section to bring your activities to life with images that showcase who you are and what you do. These images can spotlight your athletics, talents, hobbies, projects, skills, jobs, ideas, interests, family, and more! You’ll add captions of up to 5000 characters to describe what is happening in each photo to help the reader get to know you better.

Details and Dimensions 

Once you have the basics in place, continue to refine your presentation. Layer your Photo Album with a variety of images to tell your story, not just the ones that show off your accomplishments.

For example, if you have discussed several types of art mediums you enjoy, include photos of each, as opposed to five pictures of your watercolors, even if watercolors are the only ones that have earned you accolades. (Because your whole story includes your efforts with chalk and charcoal, too.)

If you love soccer, five images of yourself scoring goals will be redundant. Consider adding a photo of you working out with your teammates; or of your soccer jersey collection; or of whatever conveys more facets of your story. (After all, your ten-year relationship with soccer surely isn’t primarily about the goals you’ve scored…)

Students with just one or two activities can showcase those activities more deeply. If you do only make drawings in watercolor, for example, feature images that express variety another way, such as subject matter or color choice or even a progression of your art throughout high school, as opposed to five similar watercolors you produced for the same project with the same theme.

Or, if baseball is your thing, include all of the ways you express your passion — sure, you have some great photos of yourself in action as your high school team’s shortstop, but what about all those impromptu neighborhood street games you started in the summer and the trips to your favorite professional team’s stadium and the hours you spend playing catch while chatting with your best friend? Those are part of your story, too.

(Note: If you plan to use photos that feature friends or family, get their permission first.)

Prepare, then Share

If you open your ZeeMee account early in high school, you can upload possible content to your Photo Album as soon as you want. Later, when you are ready to put your video together for college applications, you can select the best photos, add captions and record your video responses.

To share your finished ZeeMee video with colleges, you’ll paste your video link on your applications ‘s ZeeMee field for partner schools. For other schools, you can add the link to the Additional Information or Anything Else You Want to Share section.  Other options for sharing your ZeeMee video with colleges include adding it to your resume; mentioning it in a thank you note to the college; or emailing it to your regional admissions rep. Also consider providing your ZeeMee link to your school counselor and anyone who will be writing you a letter of recommendation — it can help them get to know you better, too!

Short and Sweet

The last tip is to make every second of your ZeeMee video count by targeting the things that are most important to your story; be thoughtful about every image, caption or video you include. And again, welcoming the viewer to your world from a more informal, homey, casual perspective will help you connect more authentically with your application reader. Think: heart and soul, not perfect and polished.

Will a well-done ZeeMee video alone get you admitted to a school? No, but it won’t hurt, and could help boost a borderline candidate’s admissibility or increase the odds for selection to a more competitive program.

It will also be good practice — it is highly probable that this college admissions video will be just one of many personal digital portfolios our technology savvy Snapchat Generation will create during their lives. In today’s world, says ZeeMee director Ethan Lin, “a digital identity is no longer an option.” Lin points out that students already have a professional side that their activities and academics and experiences all speak to; with ZeeMee, they can showcase their story in an easy-to-use smartphone app where they are in control of what they share.

Questions colleges don’t always like to answer

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The recent announcement of plans to drop four varsity sports from the University at Buffalo’s (UB)  roster of Division 1 offerings pretty much puts a face on what counselors and other admissions professionals have been warning about the impact of funding cuts on both public and private institutions.

UB recently revealed that men’s soccer, men’s swimming and diving, baseball and women’s rowing will no longer be sponsored. This decision affects 120 students currently on team rosters (30 other students on those rosters will graduate this year). Although UB’s athletes have been offered the opportunity to stay in school with scholarships intact, the reality is they won’t get to compete at the D1 level. And competition for athletes who have spent a lifetime honing skills is pretty fundamental.

For these athletes or department heads facing academic program cuts, it’s no secret that college administrators and boards are increasingly being asked to make hard choices as they struggle with demographic and economic realities in a battle for long-term survival and institutional health.

And a divide is opening between financially healthy colleges versus those that are not, making it imperative for students and their parents to understand how financial constraints affect colleges, application processes, and admissions decisions.

Given the current economic climate, here are some questions colleges don’t always like to answer:

  1. How has the admissions office been affected by budget cuts?
    Even in the face of increased numbers of applications to process, admissions budgets aren’t growing. As a result, admissions offices are making do with less. Glossy view books and travel allowances are becoming scarce, as colleges seek additional ways to trim budgets while continuing to respond to front office demands for more applicants. With tight budgets to manage, colleges are increasingly relying on enrollment management programs to guide and support the admission process, effectively allowing technology to take over recruitment and some elements of application review. As a result, students need to understand that their privacy is constantly under attack by colleges attempting to probe both qualifications and interest. Toward this end, seemingly benign third-party organizations seek to obtain and resell key pieces of information, ranging from standardized test scores to family income, to colleges hungry for data that can be fed into algorithms designed to assess credentials and guess at likelihood of enrollment. In other words, through skillful use of technology, admissions offices are not only saving money but also manipulating metrics important to ranking and outside perceptions of “quality”—both vital to long-term institutional health.
  2. Has the application process been affected?
    To gain better control over the process and factors affecting selectivity and “yield” (the percent of students accepting an offer of admission), colleges are experimenting with different early action and binding early decision plans. Rather than setting up a process that encourages a single windfall of applications late in the season, admissions offices are looking for a more even distribution of work from September to May. And the appeal of early decision candidates committed to attending at the front end of the process is undeniable for both management and yield. Some colleges find it more efficient to force hard decisions earlier by denying larger percentages of early applicants—it takes time and money to read and re-read applications. Others prefer keep all options on the table by rolling large numbers of applicants into the regular pool. And given uncertainties inherent in a process that indiscriminately recruits and makes it relatively easy to submit applications, colleges look for ways to cover all bets by enlarging and employing wait lists—secret weapons in the battle to improve yield and control investment in financial aid. Seeking an early understanding of policies and being aware of the institutional incentives behind these policies may help guide application strategies. But given the number of uncertainties affecting budgets, staffing and priorities, don’t be surprised if what you thought you knew is no longer true. It’s not unusual for colleges to make substantial changes in application procedures—sometimes late into the year. So feel free to ask the question.
  3. Are priorities changing in financial aid?
    While the new timeline imposed by an October 1 FAFSA start date and the use of “prior-prior year” income information for determining awards suggests a more sensible and timely approach to financial aid, the jury is still out as to how successful the new plan will be for both students and institutions. At the same time they are dealing with various logistical issues, colleges formerly boasting of “need-blind” admissions or “no loan” packaging are reassessing their policies to ensure adequate financial aid resources remain available to the greatest number of students. Most but not all colleges offer merit scholarships that are important recruitment tools in the process. But variations in the balance between grants and loans in financial aid packages make some colleges appear more generous than they really are. It’s not unusual for colleges to engage in “gapping” (not covering full need) when offering financial aid, but the gaps appear to be getting larger. And be aware that not all guarantee merit scholarships for four full years. To save money without harming published freshmen retention rates, colleges may not continue scholarships after two years—even if all academic requirements have been met. Although it really pays to be a savvy shopper before applying and committing to a school, keep in mind that financial aid offices ultimately hold all the cards and their incentive is to keep costs low while at the same time recruiting top prospects. Understanding the institution’s approach to financial aid from the very beginning could save disappointment later.
  4. Are budget cuts affecting programs?
    Ask Buffalo’s baseball players or Temple’s rowers or the swimmers at the University of Maryland why this may be important. While some cuts cannot be anticipated, others may be planned and colleges have a responsibility to make them public. Be aware that the question isn’t limited to sports. Responding to increased pressure to emphasize more marketable majors, colleges are re-configuring programs—cutting some and adding new opportunities. At a more basic level, colleges may be quietly increasing class size, making it more difficult to get some majors, relying more heavily on teaching assistants (TA’s), or offering specific classes less often—even eliminating them altogether. Short of finding that a program or major has been done away with, students may experience difficulty finishing in four years if classes are overloaded or simply unavailable, especially in areas where coursework is highly sequenced. And if the prospect of transferring sometime in your undergraduate career doesn’t appeal, make sure the programs (including athletic) in which you are interested are on firm footing with the institution.
  5. Will there be changes in requirements for graduation?
    Sometimes this can work in your favor. Loyola University of Chicago reduced the number of credit hours required for graduation from 128 to 120. But because AP/IB or other outside college credits earned during high school can mean significant money both to you and the institution, take the time to see how these credits may be applied (toward graduation or specific majors) and ask if the college anticipates changes in these kinds of arrangements. For example, Dartmouth no longer grants credit for AP or IB examinations. Placement and some exemptions may be offered instead. In other words, Dartmouth can now count on four years of tuition payments from undergrads. And the questions can be even more complex involving credit for internships, co-ops or research. If the goal is to graduate in four years or less, it’s worth investigating if there are plans under consideration that might affect your ability to graduate on time.
  6. What is the impact on student services?
    Applicants don’t always take into account the real value of the student services component when considering colleges. As schools discover they can make money from room and board packages, students may find themselves limited by restrictive housing policies and meal plans. For lots of different reasons—including financial—colleges are limiting students to on-campus housing for more years. The more captive the audience, the less risk involved in building glamorous new facilities. But beyond day-to-day living, services also include everything from library or gym facilities and hours, to tech support, career advising, health/mental health services or academic support for writing centers and math labs. These should be “growing” operations, and if they aren’t, budget cuts in these areas might be concerning.

Because colleges won’t always volunteer the information, it’s important that you do some in-depth research and ask the questions necessary to understand potential game changers.

Make it your mission to test whether the college “experience” promised today will be there four years from now, and make sure the process by which you get there is clear.

The Common App introduces new features for 2017-18

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While far and away the most popular and frequently-used online college application platform, serving more than three million students, parents, counselors and teachers, the Common App recently announced a series of “enhancements” that appear to directly respond to features introduced this year by the Coalition Application, proving that competition isn’t always a bad thing.

According to a statement from the Common App, “Many of the changes for next year’s application stem from the feedback we receive from the admissions, high school, and CBO counselors on our applications and outreach advisory committees and from the suggestions of the students and counselors who have used our platform.”

And it seems that some of the feedback the Common App has been receiving suggests the Coalition might be coming up with ideas that benefit the industry as a whole.  It’s evident that the Common App is taking the opportunity to look at what might be working to support their stakeholders—colleges, students, and counselors—and “go one better.”

So regardless of where you come down on the confusion caused by having multiple college application platforms, the one undeniable benefit is that competition encourages innovation.

Here are some of the new features recently announced by the Common Application (don’t be surprised if a few sound a little familiar):

Google Drive Integration: Students will now be able to easily access and upload documents, resumes, and school assignments while completing the Common App and college-specific sections of the application. Recognizing that many school districts have adopted Google Docs and Google Drive to enable their students and teachers to create, collaborate, and access shared documents from any internet connected device, the Common App is introducing a feature that looks remarkably similar to the much-maligned Coalition Student Locker, only possibly more efficient. Some students do not have personal computers at home but use Google Drive on school or library computers to store documents. And by using systems students are already using, the Common App is certainly making the process more accessible. But the Coalition’s Student Locker also supports video, pictures and other multimedia files (not just documents), so the jury may still be out on which enhancement has the greatest general usefulness.

CBO, Advising, and Recommender Enhancements: Students receiving support from advising and community-based organizations will be able to work with those counselors just as they work with their school-based counselors and teachers within the application. These individuals will then be able to manage caseloads and view student progress within the Common App system. In addition, any student who wishes to do so will be able to share a view of their in-progress application with their school counselor, CBO counselor, or other advisor. Again, the Coalition pioneered this kind of application management capability, which supports schools and counselors without Naviance or other similar systems.

Courses & Grades: At times, students are required to submit self-reported high school academic records when applying to some colleges and universities. With Courses & Grades, students will be able to self-report transcript information as part of their Common Application, just as they are currently able to do on the Coalition Application. By integrating the Courses & Grades section into the Common App, students who are already sending this information will be able to complete and submit it with their Common App, making the process of self-reporting transcripts more standardized and streamlined for students, counselors, and colleges. Courses & Grades will launch in limited release on August 1, 2017.

Spanish Language Resources: Key information for using the Common App will be translated so that students, parents, and other family members who speak Spanish as their first language can better understand the college admission process, including applying for financial aid and receiving virtual mentoring. This new tool will also benefit counselors who will be working with these families and need Common App materials in Spanish. This is one enhancement that will be of enormous benefit to some families and is truly unique to the Common App.

Colleges Reject Waiters and Accept Actors

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We’re not talking about servers at restaurants or performers on the stage. Instead, we’re focusing this pretty important pep-talk on students who WAIT to be asked to join a group or activity versus students who ACT on their passion without needing an invitation. Get more expert undergraduate admissions advice at http://admissions.blog.

The Common App brings back ‘topic of your choice’ for 2017-18

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With feedback provided by 108 member colleges and more than 5,000 other “constituents,” the Common Application has announced essay prompts for 2017-2018.  And the big news is that the Common App brought back ‘topic of your choice’ from a three-year hiatus during which both the Universal College Application and the new Coalition application allowed students the flexibility to write on topics of their own choosing.

This is no small concession, as the Common App invested significant energy defending their decision to do away with the ‘topic of your choice.’ According to the blog post announcing the new prompts, the Common App was “gratified to learn that 91% of members and 90% of constituents agree or strongly agree that the current prompts are effective.” And five of the seven prompts are either unchanged or edited versions of the 2016-17 questions.

Of the two new prompts, one asks students to “share examples of their intellectual curiosity.” The other allows students to be more creative by using an essay they’ve already written or one that responds to a different prompt or one that they design—in other words, for this prompt you may write what you want but keep it to within 650 words.

Beginning with the 2016-17 application cycle, Common App members had the choice of whether or not to require a personal statement as part of the application for admission. And out of nearly 700 members, 195, or about a third, elected to drop the standardized writing requirement as not particularly useful in the college admissions process. Others secretly confess that they either scan or totally skip the personal statement in their evaluations.

But still, the cottage industry that has sprung up around these essays continues to grow and flourish.

All that aside, here are the seven questions from which applicants using the Common App will be asked to choose to form the basis of a personal statement (new language appears in italics):

  1. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
  2. The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
  3. Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
  4. Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma-anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.
  5. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
  6. Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?
  7. Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

The announcement of essay prompts inevitably signals the start of a new year. College-bound juniors along with those who advise them can look forward to the challenge of coming up with personal statements that add dimension to other information provided in the body of the application.

And they have months to think it over before the Common App comes on line.

Note that the Coalition application announced 2017-18 prompts a couple of weeks ago.

‘Millions’ spent on lawsuit filed against the Common App might be better spent

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In a recent email to the nearly 700 institutional members of the Common Application, Jenny Rickard, the organization’s executive director, characterized the claims contained in the ongoing lawsuit with CollegeNet as “frivolous.” While seeking to assure members, who are currently being approached to renew contracts for next year, of the Common App’s financial security, she suggested that the “millions” spent on the lawsuit might be better spent in other ways—“to innovate and expand.”

To update the membership, Rickard outlined a timeline of “relevant events” related to the case:

  • May 2014: CollegeNET files lawsuit against the Common Application alleging antitrust violations.
  • November 2014: District court dismisses original 103-page complaint for failure to comply with the federal rules. The court allows CollegeNET to re-file.
  • May 2015: District Court dismisses CollegeNET’s complaint on the merits. The court finds that CollegeNET failed to allege antitrust injury.
  • September 2015: The Coalition for Access, Affordability and Sccess announces its choice to work with CollegeNET to develop an online undergraduate application for admission for its member schools.
  • December 2015: CollegeNET files its opening brief to Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
  • April 2015: CollegeNET rsponds to the Common Application’s opposition brief (briefing cycle complete).
  • 2016-2017: appellate court to determine date for oral argument and list of judges to preside over hearing.
  • 2017-2018: Appellate Court to issue ruling.

In the meantime, both the Common App and CollegeNET are continuing to make serious financial investments in their respective application platforms to earn what has grown to be a multi-million dollar online college application business increasingly dependent on innovation and customer service.

Toward this end, the Common App recently announced the launch of a “strategic planning process” to outline a “long-term roadmap” for the organization. While asking for input on topics such as gender identity, criminal history and school discipline, the Common App has indicated that plans are taking shape to make adjustments for the coming year, including the “limited release” of a new feature allowing “students to self-report transcript information.”

At the same time, the Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success, which uses CollegeNET as its technology developer, has loosened membership requirements and plans to grow by as much as 30% over the coming year. And through ongoing improvements and enhancements to its technology, the Coalition pledges to continue supporting the “individual and unique admissions processes” of member institutions.

With limited budgets and increased reliance on enrollment management technology, colleges are looking for application platforms that are reliable, responsive, and state-of-the-art. And whichever product can help colleges craft incoming classes in the most efficient and least expensive way possible is likely to earn the business, regardless of how the lawsuit comes out.