Uncommon Requests from Common Application Member Colleges

Stanford University

One of the more curious aspects of the new Common Application is the extent to which member colleges and universities have been allowed to individualize their applications by tailoring questions on their member pages and creating unique prompts within their writing supplements.

It’s almost as if some of the 517 Common Application members went to a candy store and emptied the shelves in their quest to fashion uniquely probing packages for applicants to complete.

Although some creativity is evidently at work, colleges were given a fairly comprehensive bank of questions and answers from which to select member-specific questions.

And these questions were supposed to result in greater standardization among applications and a general simplification of the process of defining interest in academics, living arrangement, residency, honors or majors.

But at times the questions are repetitive to the point of tedium, and a frequently heard refrain from applicants has become, “Why do colleges keep asking me the same questions over and over again?”

But in addition to that which is repetitive, there is a goldmine of uncommon requests from Common Application member colleges. To see a few, click here.