Our last two years of high school had arguably some of the most stressful moments in our high school careers. “The college process” is a time many of us will never forget. Going on visits with our families to several schools, receiving tutoring for the ACT and/or SAT and taking the tests multiple times and re-working our college essays to a point where we couldn’t any more. And It seems like it was just yesterday that our internet browser’s “History” tab featured our most visited website, The Common Application. Oh, the dear Common App. The Common App is arguably the most popular way one applies to colleges throughout North America since it seems virtually every college and university accepts it.
However, in the next couple of years, the Common App may be facing competition. Recently, “The Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success” application has been making headlines as the next go-to college application for undergrads. According to its website, the “Coalition” was created to “improve the college application process for all students as they search for and apply to their perfect college.”
The Coalition encourages high schoolers to begin thinking about college earlier than usual. The application is home to tools such as “the Locker,” a “Collaboration Space,” and an “Application Portal” which “seek to recast the process of applying to college as the culmination of students’ development over the course of their high school careers.”
Coalition’s “Locker” is a space where high schoolers can showcase their achievements such as graded papers and videos of performances. The “Locker” takes on a function similar to SlideRoom, the website that performers and artists use to submit supplemental work on the Common App. “The Locker” is nonetheless unique because it gives high schoolers the opportunity to upload their best works throughout high school; at no point will college’s be able to access this information. Through the website’s “Collaboration Space,” students can share these uploads with guidance counselors and others.
These unique online tools seem to be the only distinguishing factor between Coalition and Common App as Coalition still contains the standard “College Essay” section and college specific supplement sections.
Connecticut College is listed among the schools to accept the Coalition application for the 2017-2018 admission year. Other NESCAC schools that either are currently accepting this application or will be accepting it include: Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Colgate, Hamilton, Middlebury. With the news of this new alternative to the college application process, many have thought that Conn would be getting rid of the Common App once and for all; however, this is not the case.
Andrew Strickler, Dean of Admission and Financial Aid at Conn talked with TCV about this new alternative to the Common App.
The College Voice: Will the school continue to use the Common App in the future?
Andrew Strickler: Yes, the College plans on continuing its membership with the Common Application for the foreseeable future. We have no plans to discontinue at any point in time.
TCV: In the 2017-2018 admission season, Conn plans to utilize the new Coalition Application. Was there a specific reason that Conn decided to join this upcoming cohort of colleges?
AS: We were invited, based on a specific set of criteria, to join the Coalition Ap- plication just over a year ago and made the decision to do so. The initial membership criteria (guaranteeing to meet full demonstrated need and having a graduation rate in excess of 60%) created a very limited number of institutions that were eligible to be members (as I recall, the number was approximately 140). We made the decision to join based on two factors: we were open to creating an additional option and platform for students to use to apply to Conn and the opportunity to set us apart and join a select group of schools that meet a limited set of criteria were important to us. It is, however, important to note that the Coalition Application started THIS year, with schools accepting applications from it as we speak. However, we decided to wait a year before instituting it on our campus.
TCV: When this membership goes into effect, do you think that the number of Common App applicants to the college will diminish in number as a result? AS: Honestly, we do not know if Common Applications will decrease or increase when we introduce this new application option. We will show NO preference to either application; we simply want the very best students (and people) we can get here at Conn. TCV: What do you think the admission process to Conn will be like in the future once the Coalition Application goes into effect for the school? AS: We do not anticipate any changes in the admission process when the Coalition Application comes online for us in a year. We do not plan to change our reading procedures, how we evaluate students, or the decision making paradigm we currently use in admitting students.•
