Common Application
Project Title
As a final grant for Advancing Equity through Common App’s State Solutions
Date
Dec. 14, 2023
Duration
24 months
Description
Common Application (Common App) is a non-profit membership organization representing over 1000 diverse higher education institutions. Common App connects over 1.2 million students and those who support them to a wide array of public and private colleges and universities across all fifty states and twenty countries. Since 2019, Common App has expanded its equity work through numerous pilots, research projects, and changes to the existing first-year application form. Common App has developed a state solution to accelerate the rate at which students from communities below the median household income are able to apply and enroll in postsecondary education. This state solution is built on a foundation of research and pilot work, including a previously corporation-supported nudging initiative, with the goal of increasing application rates by meeting students where they are. Continued support will allow Common App to partner with a state or system to offer direct admission (DA) to high school graduates at diverse institutions.
Website
Project Title
For the next iteration of an equity-focused application pilot connecting applicants to public and private universities nationally
Date
Jun. 09, 2022
Duration
12 months
Description
CommonApplication (Common App) is a non-profit membership organization representing nearly 900 diverse higher education institutions. Common App connects applicants and those who support them to a wide array of public and privatecolleges and universities across all fifty states and twenty countries. CommonApp is embarking on a broad project called Revolutionizing the App to identify new application components and product features towards designing a next-generation equity-focused application. Project support from the Corporation will allow Common App to pilot up to four new inputs in its application with a subset of its member institutions during the 2022-23 application cycle. The impact these new inputs have on applicant behavior, and admissions results will determine if a broader expansion of the pilot is merited as it works towards its primary goal of achieving an increase in the diversity of admitted students.
Website
Project Title
For project support of the Reach Higher Badge
Date
Mar. 04, 2021
Duration
11 months
Description
Common Application (Common App) is a not-for-profit membership organization committed to the pursuit of access, equity, and integrity in the college admission process. During this moment of reckoning regarding our country’s legacy on discrimination, exacerbated by COVID-19, it has revealed the challenges that higher education—specifically college access and completion for our nation’s most vulnerable students—is failing on its promise. For instance, if underrepresented minority students had the same postsecondary completion rates as white students, onemillionmore Black and Hispanic students would have earned a degree today. Common App is working to help improve college completion rates for students historically underrepresented in higher education. With support from the Corporation, Common App will seek to: (1) establish a new standard that can serve as an alternative to the standards that U.S. News and World Report has established; (2) identify and shine a spotlight upon those members that are truly serving low-income, minority, and first-generation college students well; and (3) encourage their applicants to apply to those schools.
Website
Project Title
For the development and execution of equity focused recruitment and outreach strategies that ensure students and families are aware of and successfully take advantage of opportunities to access postsecondary education through related interventions
Date
Sep. 10, 2020
Duration
16 months
Description
Common Application (Common App)is a non-profit membership organization representing nearly 900 diverse institutions of higher education. Common App connects applicants and those who support them to a wide array of public and private colleges and universities across all fiftystates, and twentycountries. The Reach Higher initiative was launched by former first Lady Michelle Obama in 2014 to inspire students to go to and complete higher education, whether at a traditional four-year college, a two-year community college, or through an industry-recognized training program. Reach Higher is now part of Common App. Together, Reach Higher and Common App are forging a direct path to higher education for all students Support from the Corporation will allow the Reach Higher initiative to build and execute a research-based digital campaign that specifically targets and engages Black, Latinx, and Native American high school juniors and seniors, starting in the fall of 2020 and ending in the fall of 2021. That time frame encompasses two graduating high school classes (the class of 2021 and the class of 2022) during the critical windows tosubmit college applications.
Website
Project Title
For support of the Reach Higher campaign
Date
Mar. 07, 2019
Duration
27 months
Description
While the benefits of earning a college degree are evident, the American public school system is failing to produce enough college graduates, particularly among low-income student populations. Reach Higher, former First Lady Michelle Obama’s initiative, focuses on first-generation, minority, and low-income youth, using targeted communications and events to support students on the path to and through college. By becoming a part of The Common Application, a non-profit organization committed to ensuring equitable access in the college admission process, Reach Higher has gained access to about two million students and their families every year. With support for the Corporation, Reach Higher will raise awareness regarding the importance of postsecondary education with students who have opened a Common Application account, mobilize them to apply for financial aid, and use direct communications to help students and their families stay on track in the college application process.