Introducing CA4:The Next-Generation Common App

Scott AndersonSenior Director for PolicyThe Common Application

Agenda

• Association Overview

• 2012-13 Review

• CA4: The Next-Generation Common Application

• Your Questions

The Association

• Not-for-profit membership association founded in 1975

• Mission: to promote holistic admission as a path to college access

• Free services for applicants and secondary schools

• Volunteer Board of Directors– 9 chief enrollment officers– 4 school counselors

• Two Advisory Committees– Applications: primarily admission operations professionals– Outreach: school and CBO counselors

2012-13 Statistics (Projected)

Applications• 730,000 unique applicants (+10%)• 3.1 million applications (+10%)

School Forms• 20,500 high schools represented (+10%)• 350,000 school officials will submit an online form (+15%) • 9.5 million school forms (+22%)

2012-13 Averages

• 4.4 online applications per applicant• Without transfers and singleton ED apps: 4.6

Public schools account for 74% of applicants

NE INTL MID-AT WEST SW MW SOUTHSCHOOLAVG

IND 6.5 5.9 6.5 6.2 5.4 5.5 4.8 5.8

CHART 6.0 5.2 5.2 4.2 4.4 5.7 3.9 5.0

REL 6.2 5.3 5.4 4.7 4.1 3.8 3.8 4.8

PUBLIC 5.2 4.9 5.0 4.0 3.6 3.3 3.3 4.2

HOME 4.7 5.0 4.1 3.6 3.5 3.5 3.1 3.9

REGIONAVG 5.4 5.4 5.2 4.3 4.0 3.6 3.6

New Members

33 new members (518 total)•47 states plus DC (1 new: Hawaii)•16 international members (5 new)•7 countries outside the US (1 new: Austria)•17 public flagships (3 new: Purdue U, CU Boulder, U. Oklahoma)•81 public institutions (15 new)•6 HBCUs

Why CA4?

• Current system is 6 years old• Significant changes since 2007

– New technology– Membership: 527 compared to 315– Applicants: 730K compared to 318K– Applications: 3.1M compared to 1.4M– School Forms: 10M compared to zero

• $8M investment to accommodate anticipated volume

The Application

• Online only, paper discontinued• Smart, dynamic questions presented one at a time• Address verification• Arts supplement replaced: Slideroom or institutional form• Athletic supplement discontinued

Payments

• Payment and application submitted together• Online payment for international students without a US credit card

or US-based checking account• Simplified fee waiver process

School Forms

• Paper still available, but applicants must obtain forms from within their accounts

• New demographic info on School Report• No current-year courses on School Report• International and Homeschool Supplements discontinued as a

standalone forms• Transfer school forms

• Online: Revised College Report and Instructor Evaluation• Offline: Mid-term and Final Report/High School transcript

Member Supplements

• Standalone forms replaced by two new sections• Member Page

• Expanded, customized version of Future Plans• Members select questions and permitted responses• Submitted with Common Application

• Writing Supplement• Short-answer or essay-length responses to member questions• Uploads permitted for members willing to receive resumes,

research papers, and graded assignments• Smart essay prompts• Submitted after Common Application

• August 1st launch for all information for every member college

Writing

• Essay, Additional Information, Required Explanations• Five new essay prompts, reviewed annually• Short answer moved to Writing Supplement if member wants to ask• Enforced 650 word limit for all sections• Enforced 250 minimum for essay only• Uploaded documents replaced by text-entry• Basic formatting available (bold, italics, underline and accented

characters); cut and paste retains formatting

For Naviance Schools

• New online system for “Other Recommenders”• Peers, employers, clergy, coaches, etc.• Colleges control if and how many they accept• Cannot be submitted through eDocs• Requests made via Common App invitation process• Some teachers may have non-teaching roles that require them

to use the Other Recommender process

• FERPA waiver/release authorization completed in CA• Guidelines for students explaining implications of choice

Single landing page for all users

Home of all support resources

Live social media feeds

Application Sections

• Common Application– Common Questions asked by all members

• Dashboard– Status overview for all colleges

• My Colleges– Page where students take action for specific colleges

Tabs help students navigate through the application to complete various tasks.

Left navigation menu displays main pages within the Common App.

Each page contains several sections but displays only one at a time.

Help Center displays articles relevant only to the task at hand.

Smart, dynamic questions – Example below shows display for married parents.

Changing marital status to “Divorced” prompts new questions.

New school lookup makes finding a high school much easier.

Accurate address and CEEB information will automatically populate in the School section of the Education page.

If the school can’t be found…

…the student can enter the information manually.

A similar process exists for Home Schooled students.

Testing page is driven by what a student wishes to report.

Testing page is driven by what a student wishes to report.

Testing page is driven by what a student wishes to report.

Activities page remains largely unchanged.

Activity type uses the same picklist as today’s application.

The Activity name picklist appears if a student selects Athletics as Activity type.

Up and down arrows let students rearrange the order of their activities, just like today.

150 character text field

50 character text field

150 character text field

50 character text field

Activity type and Activity name do not count against the character count since they are derived from picklists, not free text.

Essay Changes

•New prompts•New instructions•Text entry or cut-and-paste replaces uploads•Maximum 650 word count is enforced

The application displays a word count.

Students receive an error message if the essay is too short…

…or too long.

If cutting/pasting, the text box will accommodate the full amount of text even if it exceeds the word count.

Dashboard displays an overview of theapplication status for each college on a student’s list.

Clicking the triangle next to a college’s name expands the view to show the status in greater detail.

My Colleges is where students go to take action ontasks specific to each college.

Each college gets to select the questions it asks…

…as well as the responses a student can provide.

The Writing Supplement allows each college to ask short answer and essay questions. Responses can be either text

entry or upload—or both—depending on the college’s preference.

Note that while a college’s specific questions are submitted along with the Common Application…

…the Writing Supplement is submitted afterward.

CA4 Info Page

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