Common Application Inc

THE COMMON APPLICATION PROMOTES ACCESS, EQUITY, AND INTEGRITY IN THE COLLEGE ADMISSION PROCESS.

SEE SCHEDULE OCOMMON APP'S MISSION TO ADVANCE ACCESS, EQUITY, AND INTEGRITY IN THE COLLEGE ADMISSIONS PROCESS HAS NEVER BEEN MORE IMPORTANT. WE HAVE SEVERAL INITIATIVES UNDERWAY THAT ARE MEANT TO HELP MORE STUDENTS ACCESS, AFFORD, AND ATTAIN POSTSECONDARY OPPORTUNITIES.WHILE OVER ONE MILLION STUDENTS USE COMMON APP EACH YEAR TO APPLY FOR POSTSECONDARY OPPORTUNITIES, THE PATH TO HIGHER EDUCATION HAS CHANGED. THERE IS STILL MAJOR INEQUITY IN THE COLLEGE ADMISSIONS PROCESS, AND THE PUBLIC'S CONFIDENCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION CONTINUES TO DECREASE. OUR DATA SHOWS THAT LOW-INCOME APPLICANTS ARE STILL SIGNIFICANTLY UNDERREPRESENTED IN COMMON APP'S APPLICANT POOL. WE ARE COMMITTED TO HELPING MORE STUDENTS FROM LOW-INCOME COMMUNITIES ACCESS OPPORTUNITIES.ACCESSING OPPORTUNITIES: CONTINUING TO GROW AND SERVE OUR MEMBERSHIPSINCE THE GRASSROOTS EFFORT TO SIMPLIFY THE COLLEGE ADMISSIONS PROCESS IN 1975, COMMON APP HAS GONE BEYOND THE APPLICATION TO EMPOWER MORE STUDENTS TO ACCESS, AFFORD, AND ATTAIN POSTSECONDARY OPPORTUNITIES. THE ORGANIZATION HAS EXPANDED ITS MEMBERSHIP TO OVER 1,000 DIVERSE COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES. THIS DIVERSITY IN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES MEANS THAT STUDENTS, ESPECIALLY THOSE HISTORICALLY UNDERREPRESENTED FROM LOW-AND MIDDLE-INCOME COMMUNITIES, HAVE EVEN MORE OPPORTUNITIES TO PURSUE THEIR POSTSECONDARY GOALS.IN FY23, A QUARTER OF OUR MEMBERSHIP CONSISTED OF PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS, AND OVER 79% OF OUR MEMBER INSTITUTIONS HAD AN ADMISSIONS RATE OF MORE THAN 50%.IN 2019, WE RECOGNIZED THAT WE ONLY HAD A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF ALL MINORITY-SERVING INSTITUTIONS (MSIS) COMPARED TO OVERALL INSTITUTIONS IN OUR MEMBERSHIP. SINCE THEN, WE'VE TAKEN STEPS TOWARD INCREASING EQUITY BY CONNECTING HISTORICALLY DISADVANTAGED STUDENTS WITH A WIDER ARRAY OF DIVERSE INSTITUTIONS, SPECIFICALLY MSIS. THE OVERARCHING GOAL OF THE MSI EFFORT IS FOR BOTH STUDENTS AND MSIS TO BENEFIT FROM A MORE DIVERSE MEMBERSHIP AND LARGER APPLICANT POOL. COMMON APP MSI MEMBERS HAVE SEEN A NEARLY 7% INCREASE IN APPLICATIONS FROM UNDERREPRESENTED MINORITY GROUPS IN THE LAST EIGHT YEARS. SINCE THE START OF THIS EFFORT, COMMON APP HAS WELCOMED MORE THAN 50 MSIS TO OUR MEMBERSHIP, WITH 20 MSIS JOINING COMMON APP IN FY23.ATTAINING OPPORTUNITIES: CREATING A COLLEGE-GOING CULTUREWE KNOW THAT ONE OF THE BARRIERS FOR STUDENTS COMPLETING AND SUBMITTING APPLICATIONS IS FEAR OF REJECTION. OUR DIRECT ADMISSIONS PROGRAM AIMS TO FLIP THE SCRIPT ON COLLEGE ADMISSIONS AND OFFER PROACTIVE ADMISSION TO STUDENTS.THANKS TO GRANT FUNDING, IN FY22, WE LAUNCHED THE SECOND YEAR OF OUR MULTI-ROUND DIRECT ADMISSION PILOT PROGRAM THAT OFFERED ADMISSION TO STUDENTS IN 4 STATES. APPROXIMATELY 18,000 STUDENTS ACROSS THESE FOUR STATES CREATED A COMMON APP ACCOUNT, MET THE REQUIREMENTS OF A PARTICIPATING INSTITUTION, AND WERE OFFERED DIRECT ADMISSION. MORE THAN 800 OF THOSE STUDENTS SUBMITTED AN APPLICATION TO ONE OF THE SIX DIRECT ADMISSION PARTNER INSTITUTIONS. OUR TEAM ALSO FOUND STRONG EVIDENCE THAT OUR DIRECT ADMISSION PROGRAM HAD THE STRONGEST IMPACTS ON BLACK OR AFRICAN AMERICAN, LATINX, AND FIRST-GENERATION STUDENTS. IN INTERVIEWS AFTER OUR SECOND ROUND OF THE PILOT, STUDENTS EXPRESSED THAT THEY FELT RELIEF AND PRIDEAND IT SHOWED THEM THAT THEY BELONGED IN COLLEGE. WE'VE CONTINUED TO SCALE AND PILOT THE INITIATIVE IN FY23. WE'VE DIRECTLY ADMITTED 30,000 APPLICANTS, AND 14 COMMON APP MEMBERS PARTICIPATED THIS YEAR. OVERALL, DIRECT ADMIT STUDENTS WERE ~2.3X AS LIKELY TO APPLY TO THE TARGET INSTITUTION THAN STUDENTS WHO DID NOT RECEIVE THE EMAIL. SPECIFICALLY, IMPACTS WERE LARGEST FOR UNDERREPRESENTED MINORITIES (URM, 4.26PP INCREASE) AND STUDENTS RESIDING IN LOW-INCOME NEIGHBORHOODS (3.38PP). IMPACTS WERE ALSO LARGER FOR STUDENTS WHO HAD ALREADY SUBMITTED AT LEAST ONE APPLICATION AT THE TIME OF THE INTERVENTION (3.6PP) THAN FOR STUDENTS WHO HAD NOT (2.78PP).THROUGH OUR REACH HIGHER INITIATIVE, WHICH INSPIRES A COLLEGE-GOING CULTURE, WE CONTINUE TO SEE THE EXCITEMENT AND INTEREST IN ATTENDING COLLEGE. THROUGHOUT FY23, REACH HIGHER HAD OVER ONE MILLION IMPRESSIONS ON SOCIAL MEDIA, AND NEARLY 270,000 FOLLOWERS ACROSS ITS SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS.AFFORDING OPPORTUNITIES: BOOSTING COLLEGE AFFORDABILITYAFFORDABILITY CONTINUES TO BE ONE OF THE BIGGEST BARRIERS TO A COLLEGE EDUCATION. WE PARTNERED WITH AN AGGREGATOR OF PRIVATE SCHOLARSHIPS TO DEVELOP A PILOT PROGRAM TO HELP STUDENTS SEAMLESSLY APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIPS DIRECTLY THROUGH COMMON APP. IN THE 2021-2022 ITERATION OF OUR PILOT, APPLICANTS WHO APPLIED FOR SCHOLARSHIPS AFTER COMMON APP PROMPTED THEM WERE 16% MORE LIKELY TO BE FIRST-GENERATION STUDENTS AND 28% MORE LIKELY TO BE FROM AN UNDER-REPRESENTED RACIAL GROUP. WE EXPECT THE 2022-2023 ITERATION OF THE PILOT TO YIELD SIMILAR, POSITIVE RESULTS. EACH YEAR, COMMON APP MEMBER INSTITUTIONS AGREE TO WAIVE THEIR APPLICATION FEES FOR STUDENTS WHO MEET OUR ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS, SUCH AS RECEIVING FREE AND REDUCED LUNCH, OR IF THE STUDENT LIVES IN SUBSIDIZED HOUSING. IN FY23, THE 2022-2023 ADMISSION CYCLE, THE TOTAL FEES FIRST-YEAR APPLICANTS DID NOT HAVE TO PAY WAS OVER $133 MILLION.DOING MORE WITH DATAIN FY23, COMMON APP'S DATA ANALYTICS AND RESEARCH TEAM PUBLISHED SEVEN RESEARCH REPORTS THAT HAVE HELPED GUIDE OUR EQUITY WORK AND IDENTIFY POTENTIAL BARRIERS AND OPPORTUNITIES TO IMPROVE COLLEGE ACCESS. THESE REPORTS HAVE RANGED FROM UNPACKING APPLICANT RACE AND ETHNICITY, LONG-TERM TRENDS IN DIVERSIFYING OUR APPLICANT POOL, AND A DEEP DIVE INTO THE PATTERNS OF HIGH-VOLUME ACTIVITY AMONG COMMON APP APPLICANTS. ACHIEVING MEANINGFUL IMPACTIN FY23, OUR DATA SHOW THAT FIRST-YEAR UNDERREPRESENTED MINORITY APPLICANTS INCREASED BY 14% SINCE FY22, WHILE APPLICANTS FROM ZIP CODES THAT ARE BELOW THE MEDIAN INCOME HAVE INCREASED BY 10% SINCE FY22.