Common App

In 1975, 15 colleges came together to streamline applying to college.⁠[1]

The first members were mainly selective liberal arts colleges; Colgate, Vassar and others designed a common form that students could photocopy and mail in.⁠[2]

Richard Moll, then an admissions leader at Vassar, was a central figure in developing the application; he had been director of admissions at Bowdoin from 1967 to 1975.⁠[3]

In 1976 the plan, started by Moll and Amherst’s Edward Wall, expanded to about 100 colleges; the form asked for one essay and a short activities list, and colleges could join at a “hard-core” or “soft-core” level. HarvardHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private research university in Massachusetts, established by the Massachusetts Bay Colony legislature in 1636 and named in 1639 for early benefactor John Harvard. Its principal campuses are in Cambridge and the Allston and Longwood neighborhoods of Boston. It includes Harvard College, graduate and professional schools, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Two governing boards share oversight. Alan M. Garber was president as of October 2026, and the endowment stood at $56.9 billion at the end of fiscal 2025.Open the full entry-Radcliffe, which had joined the 1975 pilot, declined to continue, saying the form provided too little material.⁠[4]

In 1980, membership passed 100.⁠[2]

In 1994, Common App became available on floppy disk.⁠[1]

That year Harvard University became the first Ivy LeagueIvy LeagueThe Ivy League is an intercollegiate athletic conference comprising eight universities in the northeastern United States: Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Yale University. It was formally established in 1954, with league competition beginning in the 1956–57 academic year. Its athletic framework emphasizes student status, academic standards, and financial aid based on need. The name is also commonly used collectively for the eight member institutions.Open the full entry member.⁠[2]

In 1998, the first online application system launched.⁠[2]

Jenny RickardJenny RickardJenny Rickard is an American higher education administrator who has led the nonprofit college application organization Common App since August 2016 and is its chief executive officer; she was previously vice president for enrollment at the University of Puget Sound and led admissions at Bryn Mawr College.Open the full entry later recalled that just over 1,000 applications were submitted online in that first year.⁠[5]

The Common Application, Inc. was formed in 2000, with Virginia as its state of legal domicile.⁠[6]

In 2001, the first public institution joined.⁠[1]

In 2002, Common App received 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.⁠[7]

In 2010, the first international institutions joined, membership passed 400 and unique applicants exceeded 500,000.⁠[2]

The rebuilt system went live on August 1, 2013, and within 20 minutes 1,000 students in a dozen countries had registered. But colleges could not import applications into their own systems, and executive director Rob Killion admitted, “We fell down on communication in many respects.”⁠[8]

Students were logged out, waited an hour or more for submissions, saw essays garbled and payment confirmations delayed.⁠[9]

The version was known as CA4; at one point most of the 517 member colleges could not upload their supplements.⁠[10]

Common App had a partnership with the for-profit company Hobsons, and the glitches forced dozens of colleges to push back deadlines and waive application fees.⁠[11]

On October 16, the University of Chicago extended its Early Action deadline to November 8 for applicants affected by the problems.⁠[12]

PrincetonPrinceton UniversityPrinceton University is a private university and Ivy League member in Princeton, New Jersey. Chartered on October 22, 1746 as the College of New Jersey, it moved to Princeton in 1756 and adopted its present name in 1896. Undergraduate education leads to A.B. and B.S.E. degrees and emphasizes small-group discussion, independent research and residential college life. Graduate education spans the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering. As of October 2026, Christopher L. Eisgruber was president. Its 2026–27 operating budget was $3.407 billion, including $342 million for undergraduate aid.Open the full entry also extended to November 8; more than 50 schools with November 1 deadlines extended, including Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth and YaleYale UniversityYale University is a research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Its predecessor, the Collegiate School, received a charter in 1701. Trustees chose New Haven in 1716; the institution became Yale College in 1718 and Yale University in 1887. Yale provides undergraduate, graduate and professional education and has 14 undergraduate residential colleges. As of October 2026, its president was Maurie McInnis, who took office in July 2024. In 2026, Yale expanded aid for incoming undergraduates and celebrated its 325th anniversary.Open the full entry.⁠[13]

Harvard kept its November 1 deadline; on October 14 many students could not access the site, and UNC Chapel Hill moved its deadline from October 15 to October 21.⁠[14]

In February 2014, executive director Rob Killion, who had led the organization for nearly 10 years, left. He said he had not gone willingly and that the board was “making me the scapegoat.”⁠[15]

The organization called it a mutual decision; Killion said, “I was fired.”⁠[16]

Consultants found the new software had not been adequately tested and that pricing left many colleges without a backup, and suggested it decide whether it was mainly a membership organization or a technology vendor.⁠[17]

The report called the 2013 rollout plan “not realistic in scope or timing” and noted the board had no technology experts.⁠[18]

In May 2014, CollegeNET filed an antitrust suit alleging that Common App had eliminated competition in handling applications and raised costs for students; Common App denied the charges.⁠[19]

That month Common App said it had hired a new interim CEO and added internal checks; an outside firm found the technology had been rolled out without proper testing.⁠[20]

The 2014–2015 system went live in early August under interim CEO Paul Mott, a former college counselor.⁠[21]

In 2014, Common App added nearly 50 staff and brought technology and service in-house.⁠[1]

In September 2014, Common App announced it would no longer require members to use holistic admissions, a rule in place since its founding.⁠[22]

In November 2014, a group of colleges sought proposals for a new platform, with Yale dean Jeremiah Quinlan saying, “We don’t want to create another Common Application.” The end of the holistic requirement took effect the following year.⁠[23]

Eighty colleges announced the Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success. Most also belonged to Common App, which had more than 600 members; since Common App charges per applicant, the coalition could be a significant challenge.⁠[24]

The coalition application was set to go live on July 1, 2016, and was not meant to replace the Common App; Stanford’s admission dean said, “We’ve had good luck with The Common App.”⁠[25]

Since August, Common App had handled nearly 1.1 million applications to more than 600 colleges. Paul Mott said, “We are our own competition,” and a pilot emailed about 200,000 students to encourage FAFSA completion, while the Scholar Snapp feature let students search for noncollege scholarships.⁠[26]

In March 2016, NYU’s Incarceration to Education Coalition, promised a meeting with interim CEO Paul Mott after a 36-hour sit-in, said Common App had reneged on the agreement.⁠[27]

In May 2016, Common App named Jenny Rickard, vice president for enrollment at the University of Puget Sound, as its new leader.⁠[28]

Paul Mott was listed as interim CEO in the fiscal 2015 and 2016 filings.⁠[7]

In 2017, first-year and transfer applicants surpassed one million.⁠[1]

Common App announced a transfer application redesigned with Liaison International and used by more than 650 institutions in 2018–2019, serving community-college transfers, military members and returning adults; 38 percent of its transfer applicants were the first in their families to apply to college.⁠[29]

Common App announced that from August 1, 2019 the criminal history question would be removed from the common portion and the School Report, though members could still ask on their own screens.⁠[30]

Common App announced it would acquire Reach Higher, the college access campaign Michelle Obama started in the White House, which became a campaign within Common App on January 1, 2019; Common App then had over 800 members in 49 states and 20 countries.⁠[31]

Judge Marco A. Hernández of the U.S. District Court for Oregon found CollegeNET had plausibly alleged all seven Sherman Act claims and denied Common App’s motions to dismiss and transfer; it was not a final finding of monopolization. The Ninth Circuit had earlier reversed a 2015 dismissal.⁠[32]

The parties announced a confidential settlement without admission of liability; Common App would modify certain challenged practices from 2019–2020.⁠[19]

Comparing 1,364 colleges, the Pew Research CenterPew Research CenterPew Research Center is a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, D.C. It studies public attitudes and social change through polling, demographic analysis and data science. A subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts, it describes its role as nonpartisan and nonadvocacy, without taking policy positions.Open the full entry found almost no difference in 2002–2017 application growth between 729 Common App members and 635 non-members.⁠[33]

Dartmouth and the University of Virginia left the Coalition to rely on the Common App, which had not had technical problems like those of 2013.⁠[34]

Economists Brian G. Knight and Nathan M. Schiff found that joining increased a school’s applications, reduced yield and attracted more foreign and out-of-state students; the paper appeared in 2022 in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.⁠[35]

Common App launched a new brand, visual identity and website, improved mobile access and added more than 70 colleges.⁠[36]

In January 2020, Common App announced a grant of more than $1.6 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for data-driven access and equity research.⁠[37]

The $1,611,787, 23-month grant was committed in December 2019.⁠[38]

For 2020–2021, Common App added an optional COVID-19 question in the Additional Information section, limited to 250 words.⁠[39]

The Capital One Foundation awarded Common App $900,000 for a texting campaign reaching 173,000 low-income and first-generation students.⁠[40]

Common App announced it would drop the school discipline question from the common portion from 2021–2022; its research found Black applicants disclosed disciplinary records at more than twice the rate of white peers. In 2019–2020, over 1.1 million students submitted more than 5.5 million applications.⁠[41]

Common App replaced the seldom-used problem-solving prompt with a new prompt on gratitude.⁠[42]

In March 2021, inspired by Idaho, Common App piloted direct admissions, with historically Black colleges sending offers to about 3,300 students in Tennessee, Virginia and Maryland.⁠[43]

Membership grew from 517 institutions in 2013 to 1,026 in 2022.⁠[44]

For the 2021–22 cycle, the direct admissions pilot expanded to six colleges.⁠[45]

Common App announced it would add a “Mx.” prefix option and simplify the fee waiver question for 2022–2023, and add “X” as a legal sex option for 2023–2024.⁠[46]

In 2023, Common App launched its Next Chapter.⁠[47]

Its goal is to close the income gap among applicants by 2030, requiring more than 650,000 additional low- and middle-income applicants; in 2022–2023, 30% of applicants lived in ZIP codes below the median income.⁠[44]

Common App announced that from August 1 colleges could hide race information from their own admissions teams, to comply with whatever legal standard the Supreme Court would set.⁠[48]

After three pilots, 70 member colleges sent offers to more than 300,000 first-generation and low- and middle-income students in 28 states.⁠[43]

The fiscal 2024 report counted 71 colleges and over 400,000 students, with a 3.8% offer-to-application rate.⁠[47]

Offers are non-binding; students still apply for free and colleges verify their information before finalizing admission.⁠[49]

In 2024, first-year and transfer applicants surpassed 1.5 million.⁠[1]

In 2023–2024, 29% of applicants lived in below-median ZIP codes, and Common App reached 422,893 low- and middle-income students.⁠[50]

Common App partnered with Illinois’s One Click College Admit, under which qualifying seniors could be admitted by eight public universities on their GPA.⁠[51]

Common App welcomed its first colleges awarding mainly associate degrees: Sauk Valley, Rend Lake, Carl Sandburg and Black Hawk in Illinois.⁠[52]

With the National Scholarship Providers Association, scholarship matching grew from 89,000 students in 2023–24 to 1.5 million in 2024–25, and Common App issued its first call for research proposals.⁠[53]

By May 1, 2025, the Illinois program had made offers to 65,149 students and Connecticut’s automatic admissions program to 19,401.⁠[53]

Common App opened its 50th season, adding 45 members and a required “Responsibilities and circumstances” question in the activities section.⁠[54]

The question grew from a pilot with Harvard’s Making Caring Common, seen by 31% of applicants with 65% responding; Common App has been fully remote since 2020.⁠[55]

Reach Higher announced that its programming would formally sunset in August 2025.⁠[56]

In 2024–2025, 1,498,199 first-year applicants submitted 10,193,579 applications to 1,097 members; first-generation applicants grew 14%.⁠[57]

The fiscal 2025 Form 990 listed total revenue of $65,847,203, including $57,639,880 in application fees and $2,770,000 in membership dues, and expenses of $53,059,962; it had 196 employees in 2024 and 17 voting board members.⁠[6]

In 2024–2025, 32% of applicants came from below-median ZIP codes; the report acknowledged progress was not fast enough to close the gap by 2030.⁠[58]

Common App announced the 2026–2027 season would open on August 1 with 64 new members, including 23 Illinois community colleges; independent learners no longer provide parent information, and the activities section became “activities and experiences.”⁠[59]

In 2025–2026, 1,527,328 first-year applicants submitted 10,786,782 applications to 1,146 members; international applicants fell 10%.⁠[60]

234 institutions from 42 states and Washington, D.C. joined the 2026–2027 direct admissions program; the previous season 215 had sent offers to over 820,000 students.⁠[61]

Common App’s chief executive officer is Jenny Rickard and its president is Ranjit Sidhu.⁠[62]

In 2025–2026, more than 10.7 million applications were submitted through Common App, members provided over $196 million in fee waivers, and 40% of unique applicants were first-generation.⁠[63]

The 2026–2027 application offers seven essay prompts.⁠[64]

Common App: Official website: https://www.commonapp.org/ (opens in a new window)⁠[65]

X: Official account: https://x.com/CommonApp (opens in a new window)⁠[65]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Official account: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-common-application/ (opens in a new window)⁠[65]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Official account: https://www.youtube.com/user/CommonAppMedia (opens in a new window)⁠[66]

Reach Higher: Official website: https://www.reachhigher.org/ (opens in a new window)⁠[56]