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Applying To College

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - With January approaching, the rush to apply to college is just about over. The next part is the waiting and many students are waiting for a response to the Common Application they submitted—a form that started 35 years ago with 15 colleges and today is used by 400 schools.

The application was created to promote equity, making it easier for students to apply with the click of a button according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. But some higher ed officials think it's too easy and that many students apply to too many schools, caring little about them.

Georgetown reports that it feels pressure to keep-up-with-the-Joneses and uses the Common Application although it recruits through purchasing names of PSAT takers with scores in math and reading in the mid-600s and buys names of 5,000-7,000 underrepresented minorities with lower scores.
However, in last year's admissions cycle, approximately 500,000 students used the Common Application with one third minority students and a quarter first generation college students applying, and for the latter reasons alone the form deserves praise.

Reported By Dr. Marciene Mattleman, KYW Newsradio

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