For most college-bound seniors, just the thought of applying to a university is enough to cause a significant amount of stress. In recent years, this process has been streamlined by The Common Application, a uniform online application that is accepted by over 500 colleges and universities across the United States.
In comparison to traditional paper applications, which would need to be filled out separately for each school, this service drastically reduces the time it takes to apply to college. The Common App is truly a revolutionary advancement in technology—when it works.
On Monday, October 14, many seniors planned to spend their Columbus Day working on college applications, but when over one million students logged on to their Common App accounts, they discovered that the website was either incredibly slow or completely inaccessible. For some, this was potentially catastrophic as the shutdown took place the day before the Early Action deadline of October 15 for many schools. Procrastinating seniors began to panic as many realized that they might not meet their Early Action deadlines, which are often imperative for scholarship consideration.
“I found it unacceptable that such a large program that so many people were relying on for their future was unable to be accessed when it really needed to be,” said senior Matt McKeown, who planned on applying Early Action to the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill.
UNC was one of the schools most affected by Common App issues, and many people were scared that they would not finish their applications to the competitive public university. Fortunately for these students, Carolina extended its Early Action deadline by six days to allow ample time for the situation to be fixed.
“I felt that I had been cheated when I stayed up until 3:00 [in the morning] to complete my application, only to wake up and find out students now had an extra week to hand it in,” explained a frustrated McKeown, whose sentiments were undoubtedly shared by fellow applicants.
UNC was not the only school, however, to change its deadline — the University of Chicago, Yale, Columbia, Duke, and Northwestern universities all extended their November 1 deadlines due to Common App failures. In addition, some schools like Cornell University delayed their Early Decision admission notifications until December 16.
“These issues also have the potential to impact processes and deadlines for our member colleges, and we are especially appreciative of colleges that have taken steps to reassure students and parents,” Common Application administrators conceded in an official statement following the reported difficulties.
By the morning of October 15, there were no longer any reports of issues with the Common App, and it appeared as if the worst had passed. Needless to say, October 14 was an eventful day in the 2013 college application season, for all the wrong reasons. As the widely-accepted Regular Decision deadline of January 1 fast approaches, it remains to be seen how the Common App will hold up with the futures of even more potential students hanging in the balance.