December 27, 2010
With college admissions deadlines fast approaching, many high school seniors are voicing frustration with the Common Application, the online admission form recognised by more than 400 colleges and universities nationwide.
According to The New York Times, college applicants have been expressing disappointment with the technical limitations of the popular application form, particularly when attempting to fit short essay answers into allotted spaces.
Even more, when applicants follow the program's instructions to do a "print preview" of their answers-which displays the actual version admissions officers see-their responses were consistently cut off at the margin, either midsentence or midword.
"It's form of ridiculous," said Max Ladow, a senior at the Riverdale County School in New York, NY. "I take computer science. I make a faint idea of how this may or may not work. I think it would be only such an easy matter for an error message, at least, to pop up."
By the January 1 deadline at many institutions, it is estimated that 1.9 million versions of the Common Application will be submitted, an addition of 27 percent over the preceding year, said Rob Killion, executive director of the Common Application.
Admitting that the Common Application is not without its flaws, Killion conceded that some of the technical difficulties students encounter can be arbitrary and frustrating.
"A great W takes up 10 times the place of a period," he said. "If a student writes 163 characters that include much of Ws and m's and g's and uppercase letters, their 163 characters are going to get many more inches of infinite than somebody who uses much of I's and commas and periods and spaces."
When asked why the job has not been fixed yet, Killion replied, "Believe me, if there's a way to do it, we'd do it. Maybe there's a way out there we don't know about."
Some admissions officials read the technological shortcomings of the electronic application and do not penalize students when seeing glitches.
"In a nutshell, I would sympathize with students' frustration," said Shawn Abbott, assistant vice chairman for undergraduate admissions at New York University. "A truncated essay is not going to be the end-all, be-all of an admissions decision."
According to independent college counselor Audrey Kahane, there are certain techniques high school seniors can use to relieve the anxiety of dealings with the Common Application's pitfalls, NorthJersey.com reported.
If students find that their short answers are being cut off at the margins, they make the pick of sending a perfect version to the admissions office; however, they should just do so if their answers are seriously compromised, she said. Once submitted, Kahane reminded students that they cannot modify or resubmit their application. If they are applying to additional Common Application schools, they can make an alternative translation of the diligence which they can then cut and submit.
Widely known as the Common App, the five-page form contains questions about family, citizenship, grades, courses, extracurricular activities and disciplinary problems, The Washington Post noted. Launched in 1998, the Common Application has seen its usage skyrocket in late years. Last year, about 500,000 students used it to take about 2 million applications.
Compiled by CityTownInfo.com Staff
Sources:
"As college applications get more efficient, some aren't cheering," washingtonpost.com, December 19, 2010, Larry Gordon
"To avoid errors, start applications early," northjersey.com, December 18, 2010, Audrey Kahane
"With Common Application, Many See a Technical Difficulty in Common, Too," nytimes.com, December 22, 2010, Jacques Steinberg
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