To become a member college (and therefore be allowed to accept the Common Application for admissions), a college or university must be committed to using a "holistic" selection process. That is, colleges that admit students purely on the basis of their scores on standardized exams or GPAs may not become member institutions. Membership is open to undergraduate, nonprofit colleges that base their selection on a combination of many criteria, including grades, test scores, extra-curricular activities, recommendations from teachers, personal essays and interviews.
As of May 2010, 390 institutions are members of The Common Application, representing 42 American states and the District of Columbia. According to The Common Application organization, its members include "an enormously diverse variety of institutions: small and large, public and private, coed and single-sex, highly selective and relatively open enrollment."
Examples of schools that accept the Common Application include Adelphi University, New England College, New York University, Assumption College, Oberlin College, Barnard College, Oklahoma City University, Boston College, Pepperdine University, Brown University, Princeton University, Bryn Mawr College, Quinnipiac University, Regis College, Rice University, California Lutheran University, Case Western Reserve University, the College of Mount Saint Vincent, Colorado College and the Rochester Institute of Technology.
The Common Application association was founded in 1975 by 15 private undergraduate colleges with the aim "to provide a common, standardized first-year application form for use at any member institution." The idea earned support from the National Association of Secondary School Principals and grew quickly.
The organization provides online forms and support as well as printed forms. It also offers a Transfer Application in addition to a First Year application. The organization reports that "millions" of students use the Common Application, and that in 2009, 1.4 million students used the online forms to apply to college.
Students may fill out just one application form, write just one essay, have their teachers fill out one set of recommendation forms and have their school submit one copy of grade reports, and still apply to several colleges (as long as the colleges are members of the Common Application consortium). The Common Application organization says that "this allows you to spend less time on the busywork of applying for admission, and more time on . . . college research, visits, essay writing, and senior year coursework." Member colleges are required to give equal weight to Common Application forms and to their individual application forms.
The Common Application includes forms that are typically required by American undergraduate colleges: an introductory form where students identify themselves, their interests, scores on standardized exams and activities outside school; forms on which teachers supply recommendations; forms for the school guidance counselor and a space in which students write an essay.
Technical support for the online application is available by email, but not by phone (as of 2010). The Common Application requires that students and schools either complete the entire procedure online or complete it by regular mail, but not to mix-and-match online and print forms for any one student.