Applying to College, The New Way

All students who have applied to college are familiar with the Common Application. However, an alternative online college application process will begin in 2016. The Coalition for Access, Affordability, and Success will be available to freshman, sophomores, and juniors in high school next year.

This new system for college admission involves three core tools. First, a “virtual locker” will enable students to store their best academic and nonacademic work over their high school careers. Second, a collaboration platform where the students can share items in his or her locker with trusted adults for feedback and comments will be included. Lastly, an application platform will be available where students can apply directly to colleges participating in the Coalition and upload items from the locker directly to the schools. Over eighty public and private institutions are already participating in the Coalition, including the eight Ivy League universities, and they all hope to improve the admissions process for students.

Audrey Smith is the Vice President for Enrollment at Smith College. Along with her admissions career, Ms. Smith is on the Board of the Coalition. “The creators that formed the Coalition first began talking during a time there were several problems with the Common Application,” she explains in regards to the origin of the idea of this new system.

Overall, The Common Application is a successful program; however, it has a history of problems. There are hundreds of instances each year regarding technical issues related to the Common App. The glitches include not being able to paste an essay from Microsoft Word into the application to not knowing for days if their application has been completed. In extreme cases, these technological downfalls have caused applicants to miss deadlines. Due to the inconsistency of the platform, it is crucial for students to plan ahead in order to not risk their application.

Olivia Foster, sophomore at Cornell University, experienced this firsthand. She explains, “My Early Decision deadline was pushed back because so many people were having technological difficulties regarding the Common App.”

Jason C. Locke, Vice Provost for enrollment at Cornell University, says in The New York Times article “Online Application Woes Make Students Anxious and Put Colleges Behind Schedules” that although he has been a supporter of the Common App, “in this case, the program has really fallen down.”

These recent dilemmas have caused college admissions officers to work overtime to be able to go through each application. Sometimes admissions officers must recruit more staff to complete the task. However, despite all of the efforts to finish everything on time, some colleges still had to push back their early decision deadlines, similar to what Ms. Foster experienced when she applied.

Whenever something is created and rolled out, such as this new version of the Common App, “There are going to be glitches,” Kate Murphy, the President of the National Association for College Admissions Counseling told The New York Times in 2014, “But this is the worst year by far.” Colleges are coming together with the intentions to improve the college process.

“The intent of the Coalition was not necessarily to support high school students at places like Williston where you have access to outstanding college counseling resources,” Ms. Smith further explains in the mindsets of the Coalition group members prior to creation of the system. However, the goal was to “provide information to students in environments where going to colleges—especially those with very high graduation rates and strong financial supports for students—was not the norm.” she notes.

The Coalition is going to be a positive change in the college application process; however, it is going to drastically change the mindset of younger students who most likely have not put a significant amount of thought into their college futures. Nicole Foster, an 8^th grader at the Williston Northampton School, has two older sisters. One is a sophomore at Cornell University and I am a senior at Williston. Foster has overheard many family college discussions over the past several years, but she did not believe it was time for her to start thinking seriously about college for herself- she hasn’t even graduated middle school. But, the Coalition may accelerate the time that students begin their college application process.

Starting in just a few months, Ms. Foster is going to start her “virtual locker.” She says, “I feel nervous but excited to start.” Nicole is fortunate to have older sisters and to have already gone on college tours. Because she went to the tours with her sisters. She says, “I am more aware of the different kinds of colleges and which types are more for me.”

My sister, Olivia Foster, went through the college process fairly recently. She has always been a hard worker. She knew at a young age that she wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps and go to Cornell. Olivia says, “So many high school students start things for college during senior year. This does not show the drive students have, so I believe it is a poor representation of how successful they will be in college.” She continues, “for me, I did not even have enough room on my Common App, so having a larger space over a larger period of time would have been a positive thing for me personally.”

Although this is going to help students strive to be successful and know where they want to go earlier in their high school careers, Olivia says, “this could make the application process much more competitive. However, on the other hand, this will distinguish the more driven students from the students who do not work as hard.”

With the increase in students starting their college journeys, high school college counselors will also be affected by the Coalition. Mr. Tim Cheney, Head College Counselor at The Williston Northampton School, says, “It will definitely increase the workload for college counselors.” Mr. Cheney is a believer in the Coalition and says “it only seems natural to believe this change will be for the better.” The opportunity for success that the Coalition holds is large, however, Mr. Cheney says, “It will take years to effectively measure and evaluate whether or not this venture is going to be successful.”

The media has covered the Coalition in different spotlights. Ms. Smith says, “There has been more media coverage than I would have expected, and I think some has been accurate and some has reflected a misunderstanding of what the Coalition intends to offer.” The product has not yet been fully developed which is part of the reason some of the reports are not providing correct information. The program is still going through feedback phases so they can have several different opinions before they release it in the spring. Ms. Smith explains, “A group of college counselors has been working with Coalition members to provide feedback on the locker portion, and another group is about to share the first iteration of the application with the membership.”

She continues, addressing her hopes for the future, “I hope that once this information is more broadly shared that it will address the misunderstandings that have been presented this fall. An example of a misunderstanding is a rumor that colleges will go into student lockers. This was a concern many had; however, colleges are unable to access the lockers.” Of course, Ms. Smith is talking about the virtual lockers present on the Coalition Application.

From the perspective of the Vice President of Enrollment at Smith College, Ms. Smith says, “I hope this will allow high potential students who had not previously considered Smith to do so (as well as colleges like us).” There are so many under-resourced schools, so Ms. Smith also hopes that it will help students from these schools prepare more in-depth applications.

While the Coalition is a very young organization, having just formed this summer, it will continue to evolve.  It is important, Ms. Smith says, “for students to know we would not have a preference for one application over another. The student should submit the application that makes the most sense for him or her.” No one activity or approach is going to fully address the challenge of increase the college enrollment among students from less-privileged backgrounds. “We need multiple approaches,” Ms. Smith says, “but I do believe that by working together, the colleges in the Coalition can make a positive impact on this critical priority for our country.”