Many applicants to the most selective university programs share high grades, high test scores, solid recommendations and generous doses of community service and volunteer activities. Yet, if they want to set themselves apart from the pool of exceptional students, a significant research experience in STEM or the social sciences helps.
A number of colleges don’t like the current admissions process.
What ignited their angst and reform desires was the launch of the new Common Application (called CA4) in 2013, which was so buggy that early application deadlines had to be extended, and worse, many colleges were exclusively tied to the Common Application: they had no alternatives.
For this coming admissions season, the nonprofit Common Application is under a new interim CEO, Paul Mott, and he is intent on eliminating “pointless friction.”
Consequently, the Common Application is reaching out to its applicants and its college members with a more hassle-free and productive application.
The UCA application site, https://www.universalcollegeapp.com/, went live on July 1st; feature-rich, stable, reliable, dependable and efficient—UCA launched a full month before the Common Application is scheduled to flip on the switch.
Yet before you rejoice or yawn, let’s recapitulate last year’s launch of the Common Application’s new version called CA4.
