Abolishing the Common App?

[Anonymous]

The only people who want fewer applications in the system are those that wish there to be less competition.

Until the colleges themselves decide there needs to be fewer applications there will continue to be more applications. Get used to it.

[Anonymous]

"But, also, it does hurt the system bc the admissions office can devote very little time to each application. My kids college office is pretty’s ire big state universities are using computers to name decisions. I would rather have my kid’s app read by a human."

UCLA had almost 150K applications this year. Even if that were cut in half, there's no way that humans will read all of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TBH, I think there should be a cap on the number of applications a student can submit in any given year. Ratchet down the pressure, the stat juking, the anxiety, etc.

As acceptance rates plummet, kids are incentivized to increase the number of applications. The colleges are incentivized to get kids to apply, only to reject them.

This is a collective action problem.

Nonsense. This supposedly is a free and free market economy, not some centrally planned totalitarian dictatorship. Customers (students) have every right to solicit as many offers as they want from vendors (schools).

Your “free market” is some rich white boy fantasy. Await the revolution in fear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TBH, I think there should be a cap on the number of applications a student can submit in any given year. Ratchet down the pressure, the stat juking, the anxiety, etc.

As acceptance rates plummet, kids are incentivized to increase the number of applications. The colleges are incentivized to get kids to apply, only to reject them.

This is a collective action problem.

Agree.

When I applied (early 90s--yes I'm that pp that hand wrote the UC applications) almost every school had a significant application fee too. Now, so many schools have no application fee. But I remember Rice in Texas was one of the few universities that did not have an application fee--so almost all of my classmates at least considered applying to Rice--just because it was free! Then we saw that Rice's application required THREE lengthy essays...and we all reconsidered!

15-20 college applications is pretty absurd. Maybe it would be better if students put more thought and effort into a select handful of applications. And I know a bunch of posters will protest "but it's a crapshoot!" They need to "cast a wide net!"
Well, maybe if colleges had more "standards" and less of a "holistic" approach, students would have a better perspective on their chances of getting into specific schools and could narrow their choices better.

We did that many in the 90's to make sure we go tin somewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, I would want all colleges to be using the common app. And I want more colleges currently with Common App to be better integrated with it. Why do we need to input the course list and grades in the college portal after submiting the CA.

But, if we had to have a better system - let every student put in their stats, interests, ECs on a platform and let the colleges that want to take them, make an offer. Let it become like an EBay of college admissions with students being the products and sometimes even the colleges becoming the products.

The entire process could be improved if it was more of a "match" system. In addition to applying on CA, have the students include their rankings/lists of interested schools. Instead of schools competing for every top student, create a process where they bid for top students. Guarantee every kid a place.

I hope you realize that is exactly how it works now, except that the student may be able to make a choice in addition to the colleges that accept them.

No. I meant a system where the student gets placed at one institution based on both their own rankings and the college's rankings for students. Like the med-school match process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. I meant a system where the student gets placed at one institution based on both their own rankings and the college's rankings for students. Like the med-school match process.

So student still "applies" to a colleges by "ranking" it, and then it is a draft system for the colleges?

Again, exactly how it works now, except in your system the kid get stuck at one college he ranked instead of having a choice of the colleges that wanted him? Which he has to attend without admitted students day, or seeing merit offers? And he has to visit all the colleges on his list before he applies?

Who does this benefit, exactly?