My DD started filling out the Common App today. It’s been 3 years since DS did it, but it only took about 5 minutes to remember why I loathe it. How many institutions did I attend? Where? When? What degrees? Did I ever work for a university? Where do I work? What to do when the full name of my employer won’t fit in their text box? Repeat for my husband. Then more questions about my DS, who is currently in college.
None of this information should have any bearing whatsoever on how her college application is evaluated … and if it does, then WTH kind of a process have we created? So why is all this information required for a completed Common Application? Because they know they can hold students’ applications hostage to provide data for them to mine. Oh sure, she could get out of providing information about her parents if she listed us as, “unknown.” But she can’t do that, because her conscience won’t let her and being dishonest on a college application is Not A Good Thing. All of this info is redundant to what is contained on the FAFSA … they do not need it as a part of the application for admission. If she doesn’t want their financial aid, she should never have to tell them anything about us at all. It should be just about her.
So aside from collectively flooding them with emails telling them to cut out the intrusive family questions and focus on the student’s own information, how can we collectively revolt against this coerced invasion of privacy? Not that it will make a difference for this year’s applicants, but maybe we can get them to change it for the future…
90 minutes ago, I was thinking the EXACT SAME THING!!! And maybe I just don’t remember some of the from when Kid 1 went through it (btw, when was the question added on what gender you identify with and 'what gender were you assigned at birth?")
On your question, i would say that a fair number of parents love this part of the Common App…particularly those who feel their job titles might help (btw, we should start a separate thread on this…I have 2 or 3 friends who are fairly well known in their fields and I remain convinced that it helped their kids to be noticed during the application process).
In any case, there’s no choice…AFTER your kid is done with the process, I think a letter like that outlined above would be great…but there’s nothing to be gained now, ya know?
Re: #1: Not necessarily. But the questions about us as her family have no bearing on her application and are not a necessary part of the Common App, other than that Common App has deemed it so. Are you implying that providing information about our family is the price associated with using the Common App? If so, then yes, bring on the individual applications. They’re not nearly so convoluted and complicated, in our experience.
The only thing is that I’ve heard legacy students do get some perks at some colleges. For instance, my boyfriend is an out of state student, but he pays in state tuition because his mom went there.
Anyone here remember many years ago when some kid put “mindless bean counter” or something like that for his father’s occupation and then forgot to fix it?!?!?!
An email to the Common App is not an email to the schools to which she is applying. Maybe I’m naive, but emailing Common App directly to give them feedback on their application platform shouldn’t be out of line even at this point.
Information about parents is required unless you list them as “unknown.” She started down the path of self reporting test scores and quickly decided it wasn’t worth it. That is optional, and she took the better option.
It gives the admissions office some idea of where she starts in life and what advantages she has had. A student with more advantages (parents with high levels of education especially) has a leg up from the get go in life. A student who comes from a more modest background has farther to go (and possibly is more impressive to admissions officers if they have equivalent statistics to a kid who has had a lot of advantages). It is likely that some schools take that into account, and others don’t in their decision making process.
You have choices – don’t apply to schools that ask those questions. There are some that don’t use the Common App, or possibly might have individual school applications that don’t ask those questions.
Re: #3 – I have such a philosophical problem with the parentage of a student having any bearing on their admission. IMHO, they should be nameless before adcoms … viewed only based on their test scores, GPAs, and their own activities, accomplishments, and information communicated in their essays.
if you read posts here on CC it is easy to discern student who come from college educated parents versus those who don’t. Professional parents can guide their kids through the process. And I don’t necessarily mean hiring an admissions consultant.
Lots of colleges on the Common Application use legacy preferences. Even though you and others may think that is inappropriate or not applicable to the specific colleges being applied to, those questions are there because some colleges using the Common Application want them.
@SouthFloridaMom9 - Thanks. But your situation is part of why this seems so intrusive. To apply to one school, you had to provide all this information about your family to Common App, which is a separate entity from the schools to which it funnels applications. So whether your particular school cares about that info or not, your student has to provide it. I’m cynical, I suppose, but I tend to think Common App wants the info for their own purposes more than the schools want or need it for their admissions purposes.
Then let the individual colleges that want it ask specifically for legacy identification in a college specific supplement. Don’t ask in general where everybody went to school and when, and where they currently are employed.
Or, even better, have a check box for “Legacy to Common App Schools” similar to the choice to self-report test scores. If checked, then the student further checks which schools are legacy and provides the relevant information. Also have a check box for first generation college student. Otherwise, move on, no additional information required here… There are so many ways they could collect the relevant information from those who want/need to report it, without gathering it from everyone. But they gather it from everyone probably just because they can and they (Common App) want it for themselves.
I admit I have no experience with this year’s Common App but my D used it last year for 8 out of 9 applications. I didn’t find the questions intrusive nor did I experience any discernible effects of data mining.
I believe the Common App is only used by private colleges which for better or worse can ask whatever questions they please, similar to Profile.
The student’s choice is to apply elsewhere or in some cases, there may be an alternate application available.
