UMichigan switched to the Common App-WHY?

Applying to College Common and Coalition Application
1

<p>I was just wondering...why the common app? I have no problem with it, but i'm curious as to why the common app is better than UMich's own application! What are the benefits?</p>

2

<p>Good question. Here’s how Ted Spencer, Michigan’s executive director of undergraduate admission, answered it:</p>

<p>"Spencer said one of the main reasons the University is switching over to the Common Application is to better compete with other large public universities and small private schools that already use it.</p>

<p>He said he has also heard from officials at other colleges that using the Common Application has improved the quality and quantity of their applicants.</p>

<p>Spencer said that using the Common Application would also attract more students from different backgrounds.</p>

<p>“(Applicants) were from different socio-economic areas, first-generation, racial and ethnicities, international as well as geographic diversity in terms of the kinds of volume of applications that they (other Common Application schools) received,” Spencer said."</p>

<p>[‘U</a>’ may switch to Common Application | The Michigan Daily](<a href=“http://www.michigandaily.com/content/u-may-switch-common-application]'U”>'U' may switch to Common Application)</p>

3

<p>UMich is trying to improve its rankings overall, and it can be more selective and get better students with the Common App.</p>

<p>Since the Common App allows you to decide to add schools fairly easily (without bothering teachers or counselors for recommendations and transcripts and without filling out a lot of the information again), students apply to more schools overall.</p>

<p>UMich really shouldn’t hope to get many people applying to it as a quick “oh, they’re on the common app, I might as well” decision, though, since they have one of the longest supplements out there.</p>

<p>The Common App is nice for students, too. I, for one, only applied to one school that wasn’t on the common app simply because of the sheer inconvenience (relatively speaking) of applying to schools that aren’t on the common app.</p>