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The Common Application this fall launched a new application focused on transfer students. The service was designed to make it more convenient for community college students and others to transfer to four-year institutions. And the service arrives as more four-year colleges are recruiting transfer students, and as many education experts are focused on looking for ways to encourage community college students to go on to earn four-year degrees.
Early results indicated considerable interest in the application.
Hundreds of colleges that are members of the Common App are accepting the transfer application. As of Oct. 15, 125,652 accounts have been created, and 11,933 unique transfer applicants have submitted applications. Those students have submitted 17,517 total transfer applications, meaning that some are applying to multiple institutions. Many experts on transfer say that too many transfer applicants in the past have applied to only one college, and as a result may not have known all of their options.
But in the last week, the Listserv of the National Association for College Admission Counseling has featured complaints about the new application, ranging from calling it clunky to outright unworkable. Among the complaints are that the application:
- Forces those writing recommendations to create new files when someone applies to more than one institution -- even though the entire concept of the Common Application is based on avoiding such repeated tasks.
- Requires transcripts to be sent through the Common App, even though those sending transcripts are reporting difficulties doing so.
- Is confusing to some students using it, who find the directions difficult.
Some colleges are shifting all transfer applications to the Common App, making these issues more pressing, counselors say.
Daniel Obregon, spokesman for the Common Application, said via email that the organization was working on the issues that have been identified.
"We've been following the discussion closely on the NACAC Listserv regarding the new recommendation process within the transfer application," he said. "As we indicated in our response there, we recognize there is frustration around some of the changes introduced to the recommendation process. However, while the current experience does not match the experience of our first-year application (or previous transfer application), the form is fully functioning as designed and recommendations are going through the system. We are seeing normal support volume on the applicant side, and we have not seen any pervasive issues that are preventing applicants from using the new system. Prior to the launch of the application we surveyed members, counselors and applicants about the new experience and we will be collecting feedback throughout the application season to see where there are areas for improvement."
