With college enrollment rates of low-income students decreasing every year, more than 80 leading universities have formed the new Coalition for Access, Affordability, and Success application platform, which launched this summer. This new application platform serves as an alternative to the existing Common Application by aiming to make university admissions more accessible and manageable for under-resourced college applicants nationwide.
The Coalition provides an online locker where students can collect and organize material used for applications, store letters of recommendation, and share their applications and other ideas with counselors, peers, and mentors. Another feature introduced is called Collaboration Space, which intends to serve as a virtual meeting place for teachers, counselors, and mentors to discuss and provide feedback on a student’s research and application. Generally, the Coalition offers new features and tools that are designed to make applying to college an easier experience.
Senior Geth Wu feels that the Common Application already services under-resourced students fine. She says, “The Common app seems like they achieve that goal of trying to target every student and their needs, although I don’t know much about it, and I don’t see what tool [the Coalition] would have that’s different.”
Wu believes that the new Locker feature will be beneficial to other students. She says, “I do think [the Locker] is a good resource to get advice from other people. As a person going through the college process myself, I have trouble with some of the questions, I think it’s a good idea to have someone else review it with you, and ask questions. It makes it seem like I’m not alone in the college app process.”
The Coalition intends to reduce confusion and stress among students, compared to other applications. However, the two platforms are largely similar, and numerous admission officers have said that the use of one over the other will not guarantee an advantage.
Although the Coalition introduces new improvements, not all students know about it. Senior Ashley Ho had not previously heard of the Coalition. She says, “[the Coalition] should have more advertisements so people know more about it.”
Aragon college and career counselor Laurie Tezak advises applicants to use the Common Application for now. She states, “[the Coalition] is a brand new software, never been used before, and when we were at a conference last May, one Coalition [representative] was there, and he couldn’t answer any of the questions we wanted answered. He said there was one person in the Coalition office working on it. That was the point when we said to our seniors, the Coalition isn’t tried and true yet, so if you have a choice between the Coalition and Common, go with the Common right now. Maybe next year we’ll bust into the Coalition.”
Senior Matthew Yan believes the Coalition will likely not change much of the admissions process. He says, “I think it’s definitely a unique opportunity for under-resourced students … it’s not necessarily about the [application], though, it’s more about the college you want. The application shouldn’t be a factor, and you control the options, the options don’t control you.”
