There was a plethora of high school seniors this year who experienced heartache and nightmares attempting to complete their college applications on the Common Application. However, the creators of the Common Application for college admissions announced last week that they have made specific changes that will hopefully prevent any more snags and problems high school seniors had to endure this year.
The Common Application, which is now accepted by more than 500 colleges and universities across the country, allows students to apply to multiple colleges at one time. These new changes will definitely be welcomed as the Common App had a very difficult past year after it introduced new technology that was supposed to make it easier for students.
According to the Common Application, approximately 750,000 students submitted 3.3 million applications last year.
The officials at the Common Application explained that they have now hired a new interim chief executive officer, conducted an in-depth review of what specifically went wrong last year, and have implemented internal checks to make sure the same problems are not repeated.
According to the recent report released by the Common Application, the most common problems students experienced were related to essay formatting, difficulty submitting an application, and the inability to determine if students had paid the Common App application fee. In addition, colleges and universities complained that they were not able to pull up documents that students had submitted.
The problem became so major, that many colleges and universities actually extended application deadlines and even began accepting applications from its competing programs.
Eric Furda, the dean of admissions at the University of Pennsylvania said during a media briefing, “Given the year we just had, we can’t be complacent about any of this.”
Furda also explained that most of the problems the Common Application had were finally corrected by the end of 2013, but mentioned that challenges persisted.
An outside firm that conducted a review of the program determined that the technology the Common Application was using had been implemented without first being properly tested.
This is good news for the current seniors as the last thing they need to stress out about in the college application process is problems with a program they need to have faith in.
We excel with issues regarding the common application and can answer any of your questions. Please give us a call so we can discuss your college plans.