Colleges Offer Application Alternatives Amid ‘Common App’ Bugs
With the U.S. college application season in full swing, some universities are informing panicked high school seniors about alternate ways to apply as technical issues affect the system used by more than 500 institutions.
Malfunctions in the Common Application propelled Princeton University to offer the Universal College Application. Southern Methodist University e-mailed thousands of potential applicants about its own online form and another through a group of Texas schools. Gustavus Adolphus College is informing visitors that the Minnesota school has an online tool.
Students and colleges alike have experienced problems using the Common Application, with only weeks before the deadline for early applicants. The website, which lets students apply to multiple colleges with one form, rolled out new software on Aug. 1. The site has been down at various points and students may not know if their materials are being received. Colleges’ reliance on one application company has exposed a flaw, said Jeff McLaughlin, dean of admissions at St. Olaf College.
“We do not have a strong Plan B,” McLaughlin said in an interview from the Northfield, Minnesota-based school. “That’s not good planning on our part. We had gotten complacent because there had not been problems with the Common Application” in the past, he said.
St. Olaf has been encouraging students to fill out Part One of the application on the school’s website so it can at least communicate with them, even though they must still use the Common Application.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-16/colleges-offer-application-alternatives-amid-common-app-bugs.html
