The Common Application

According to a recent article in The Brown Daily Herald (“Unique no more? U. may require Common App,” Apr. 9), there is a very real possibility that Brown will require its Class of 2013 to apply using the Common Application, and only the Common Application. Luckily, there has been very little complaining or controversy over this possibility, since it should be essentially a no-brainer: the University should certainly adopt the Common Application.

The Common Application, or Common App, is (according to its website) a “not-for-profit organization that serves students and member institutions by providing an admission application – online and in print – that students may submit to any of [its] nearly 300 members.” The site allows its students either to download paper versions of the application or to submit it electronically; last year there were nearly half a million applications submitted. Each member institution either uses the Common Application exclusively, or gives it and the college’s own application equal consideration. Membership is limited to colleges who evaluate their students using a holistic process, meaning they cannot use only objective criteria to evaluate their students: a school that relies solely on test scores and grades is not eligible. Some kind of subjective analysis must be done, including “at least one recommendation form, at least one untimed essay, and broader campus diversity considerations.” Any institution can also add additional requirements to the application; for example, many colleges require an additional short essay asking the applicant why he or she would like to attend that specific college. The Common Application also provides an easy way to report midyear and final grades, gives a template for a recommendation, provides essay topics, and even has supplemental forms for athletes and those involved in the arts. In short, the Common Application has everything the Brown application has, in a clearer format that is easier to use.

The Brown application requires the same set of personal and contact information as the Common Application. It asks for your high school grades in the same way, and leaves enough room to fill out all the standardized test scores received by the applicant, including space for the TOEFL, which is vital for many international students. Both applications ask for a list of activities important to the applicant, awards received, and work experience. The Brown application does not list a specific essay prompt, like the six listed by the Common Application, but this should not be an issue, as the sixth essay prompt on the Common Application is, literally, a “topic of your choice.” The prompts are there essentially to help an applicant to think of a topic, if that is where he or she is struggling.

The Brown application includes a section asking about how the applicant became interested in Brown, and several additional forms if the applicant is applying for specific academic areas (such as chemistry, computer science, physics or engineering), or to the Brown-RISD dual degree program, or the Program in Liberal Medical Education. These forms, clearly, are unique to Brown, but most of the colleges and universities participating in the Common Application require a supplement. Certain aspects of the Secondary School Report also ask for an additional assessment of the student’s character, but these questions can also be addressed in a supplement, and a majority are already addressed as concerns in the Common Application’s teacher evaluation and secondary school report.

In adopting the Common Application, Brown would be doing nothing but eliminating unnecessary paperwork. There is no reason for a student to spend any additional hours (or even a few minutes) filling out basic information like an address or a school phone number or SAT scores. The Common Application’s website phrases it perfectly: “[The Common Application] allows you to spend less time on the busywork of applying for admission, and more time on what’s really important: college research, visits, essay writing and senior year coursework.” And to say a willingness to fill out Brown’s “unique” application shows a dedication to the school is just silly; a (potential) dedication to Brown can be found in the short answer portion of the current application asking the student why he or she chose to apply. This section would normally be found on a supplemental form, anyway.

Additionally, although this is probably not a significant part of the deliberations over adopting the Common Application, the application is available only to schools who use a “holistic” approach to admission: there must be some subjective criteria on which the student is evaluated, one of which is a consideration of “broader campus diversity considerations.” For a university so unconcerned with test scores that students can take every class S/NC, this seems like a great idea to support. Although it may be ironic for unique Brown to adopt an application that over 300 colleges already use, its principles are nearly perfectly in line with what Brown promotes.

Brown prides itself on what makes it unique: among others, its grade options, its lack of a core curriculum, its writing requirement – and it is true that what makes Brown different is what makes it great. However, there is no reason to force students to fill out unnecessary forms simply to retain a “special” application. The Class of 2013 should be allowed to fill out the Common Application.