High school students have used the Common Application for over 30 years, allowing students to apply to dozens of schools with a single, generic application. Recently, the Common Application upgraded its software, releasing a new version of its online application. Over 500 colleges and universities in the nation are using this online application.
However, the new online application has been malfunctioning, causing panic for students applying to college for the 2014-15 year.
Technical issues with the new Common Application include the loss of official transcripts and recommendation letters, registering late or duplicate payments for individual university applications and forcing students to “log off for inactivity” for hours at a time. The essay portion of the application has also been affected, removing any indentations or spaces between words — turning a 500-word essay into an unreadable mass of letters.
The College of William and Mary’s undergraduate admissions office released a statement to reassure applicants to the College.
“William & Mary is aware that many students, counselors and recommenders have encountered challenges using the new Common Application. Please know that we are monitoring the situation closely, and will make adjustments and provide added flexibility as needed,” the statement reads. “We know the Common Application staff is working diligently to fix the issues at hand. Between their hard working staff and ours, you can rest assured that every student’s admission materials will be in good hands, and ultimately receive the thoughtful and thorough review it deserves.”
The Common Application team has also been assuring students that they are working on having the problems fixed as soon as possible.