<p>What if you and your son or daughter could fill out just one form and with that apply to as many colleges across the country as they wanted? </p>
<p>How much would you pay for that!?</p>
<p>That's pretty close to how it's done in Canada. In Ontario, it's all done online through one central organization and the applicant basically just ticks off which schools he/she wants the application info sent to, and the cost reflects the number sent. I believe that the first three are included in the 'main price' and then, if there are additional schools desired, and extra fee is charged. No essays (except for a very few programs or scholarships), no letters of recommendation, no SATs. Easy as pie.</p>
<p>I think that would be a nightmare for colleges--we have so many here. The fact that it takes some work to do supplements forces students to think and narrow down their choices. That's good for everyone.</p>
<p>If it was a question of filling out multiple applications (with different essay questions, etc.) vs. filling out one application, and I could simplify my child's life by doing that, I would probably pay, maybe as much as a few hundred dollars. (Maybe.)</p>
<p>But the issue doesn't rest with me, it rests with the colleges that want unique essays and an answer to the "Why Us?" question. Once a kid has to do that, he's back where we are now with the Common App, pretty much. I wouldn't pay a thing for my child to avoid typing his name and SSN a few extra times.</p>
<p>Of course, once you convince the colleges to accept exactly the same application, then there's no value in the service that lets you do it, vs. copying it yourself. So to make money you would have to convince all the colleges (a) to accept exactly the same application, but (b) to accept exactly the same application only from one proprietary service, and to require all others to submit unique applications. It's conceivable that you could get some colleges to do that (by sharing the revenue with them), but rots of ruck getting critical mass for the proposition to be marketable.</p>
<p>What if you <em>had</em> to use the one application form, and you could only send it to maybe 5 schools? That would be interesting.</p>
<p>^^^ That's the system we have in the UK, except we can apply to 6 universities not 5.</p>
<p>Why do I smell somebody selling some program? ;)</p>
<p>You Brits are always one step ahead of us! ;-)</p>
<p>The different essays and such do make it a bit impossible. Not to mention that every university asks different questions... Still, even just knowing that some expert was helping and not having to wade through all the different web sites making sure all the requirements are being fulfilled correctly and timely would be nice. It seems every college needs something different with different deadlines and multiple trips to the guidance office... I'll stop ranting. I worry about missing something.</p>
<p>Stanford used to trip up a lot of applicants with its 15 December regular decision application deadline, which has now been changed.</p>
<p>The problem is that you end up with the same essay & information going to each college. Which would be fine if each college were the same and all offered identical majors -- but sometimes that is not the case.</p>
<p>Yes calmom that's true, I don't think it would be a workable system in the US because here in the UK you can't apply 'undecided' - you have to apply for a specific course (all courses have standard basic content across all universities), and all the info on the application is geared towards the course itself, not the university. I don't think this would be viable under the US college system.</p>
<p>The UC system is designed so that you can apply to its 10 universities with one application. Of course, you have to pay a not insubstantial application fee for each university box that you check...that adds up and stops people from checking all of the boxes!</p>
<p>But that UC application is an illustration of my point -- not all UC campuses offer the same majors, so the personal statement my daughter wrote really wouldn't have fit all schools. I encouraged her to write the statement as if she were applying only to Berkeley, on the assumption that the other 2 campuses she selected were "safeties" -- but not all students would have that luxury. (My d. had ELC status, which gave her a leg up on admissions to most campuses).</p>
<p>tokenadult... have they really changed it for next year? It was still December 15 this year. <em>growls</em> That was slightly annoying, and would have been more so had I not done my essays in October. :)</p>
<p>Colleges don't NEED to ask different essay questions. In fact, a lot of them ask the same questions, just with some different additional questions. If they would just use the Common App with supplements, as some schools do, I would have been much happier. I would have still needed to write ten essays, but I would have only had to fill out the personal info, etc. ONCE rather than six times (I applied to eight schools).</p>
<p>Yes, Stanford has changed its regular admission deadline. </p>