"Students submitting an application to Pitt in the 2018-19 school year will be the first class that can use the Common Application, according to a statement Pitt released Tuesday.
The Common App allows prospective students to apply to multiple colleges and universities simultaneously using one application, rather than completing individual applications for each school.
The decision comes 17 years after the application program first opened to public institutions. Thirty-six new schools will accept the application this year, including Penn State. Currently, the application is accepted by more than 750 institutions, including local schools like Chatham University and Carnegie Mellon University." …
Interesting. While in some ways it makes Pitt easier to apply to, does it make it harder to get in for kids with few ECs? Previously, they were helped by the fact that Pitt’s application didn’t ask for ECs and had nowhere to put them other then mentioning them in the essay.
I think if anything, joining the Common App will increase the quantity of applications received such that it will become more focused on stats alone. Merit scholarships will still need the holistic review of ECs and essays - but the majority of decisions will be stat and not EC driven. But that is my opinion, and I’m just a Pitt parent (and having watched Pitt’s app change over time from one essay to a tweet to 3 short essays, from taking additional supplements like a resume, to not taking any additional info and saying you can put ECs into essays…it hasn’t been a static process). I am just very glad that it is still rolling admissions.
D applied this year through the Coalition App, which is very similar to the Common App with respect to data collected, essay prompts, and the ability to have college-specific questions. I don’t see Pitt’s acceptance of the Common App changing their approach much.
I think this change is definitely a positive one. Self reporting grades was a real pain on the old Pitt application. Wonder if they will still require that on the Common App or will accept a normal transcript? The essay questions could still be optional.
I think this will undoubtedly increase applications which will definitely impact their acceptance rate because there are simply more applicants, which will probably consistently raise their “competitiveness” especially over the course of the first few years of offering this change.