The Common Application, one application for over 300 colleges, will be available on July 1, 2008 for students who want to get a head-start on the application process. Some changes have recently been announced including a small handful of questions that may be answered differently for different colleges within the Common Application itself, without the need to create an alternate version (and without worry that a college will see anything other than the one answer intended for it alone). Those questions are:
- academic interest
- career interest
- decision plan (RD/ED/EA/REA/Rolling)
- entry term (Fall/Spring)
- financial aid intent
The Common Application will enable colleges to "suppress" certain answers submitted by applicants. For example, a test-optional college may notify us that they intend to suppress all self-reported standardized test scores. We will then prevent the transmission of that data to that college, and students will be prominently notified that College X cannot see their self-reported scores. Those questions are:
- discipline questions
- self-reported standardized test scores
- Social Security Number
