The big news for the Common Application of 2012 is: no news. The application itself is essentially the same application used last year. The essay prompts are identical.
For those of you eager to get started, the Common Application site will be closed from July 15, 2011 to August 1st, 2011, for maintenance. Currently a preview version of the app itself is posted on the Common Application site. Sorry, nothing to fill in yet.
The most important development for the Common App is its continued growth. The number of institutions accepting the common app has risen significantly again this year, adding 49 new members, for a new total of 463 members. I will append a list of the new members to the end of this post.
The essay prompts are these:
1. Evaluate a significant experience, achievement, risk you have taken, or ethical dilemma you have faced and its impact on you.
2. Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.
3. Indicate a person who has had a significant influence on you, and describe that influence.
4.Describe a character in fiction, a historical figure or a creative work (as in art, music, science, etc.) that has had an influence on you and describe that influence.
5. A range of academic interests, personal perspectives, and life experiences adds much to the educational mix. Given your personal background, describe an experience that illustrates what you would bring to the diversity in a college community or an encounter that demonstrated the importance of diversity to you.
6. Topic of your choice.
My recommendation: Write to two of the prompts. I suggest not starting with topic six. More about that on a later post.
Here are the additions to the Common Application pool for 2012:
- Caldwell College (NJ)
- Carroll University (WI)
- Castleton State College*
- Centenary College
- Christian Brothers University
- Christopher Newport University*
- Cogswell Polytechnical College
- DeSales University
- Drury University
- Eastern Connecticut State University*
- Flagler College
- Franklin College Switzerland
- Goshen College
- Howard University
- John Cabot University
- John F. Kennedy University
- Lipscomb University
- Long Island University Brooklyn Campus
- Lyndon State College*
- Ramapo College of New Jersey*
- Rhode Island College*
- Rockhurst University
- Saint Leo University
- Saint Martin’s University
- Salisbury University*
- Samford University
- Seton Hill University
- Sierra Nevada College
- St. Joseph’s College – Brooklyn Campus
- St. Joseph’s College – Long Island Campus
- St. Mary’s College of Maryland*
- SUNY College at Old Westbury*
- SUNY Institute of Technology*
- The American University of Paris
- The College of Saint Rose
- Towson University*
- University of Evansville
- University of Hartford
- University of Kentucky*
- University of Michigan – Flint*
- University of New Orleans*
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill*
- University of North Carolina at Wilmington*
- University of Southern California
- University of St Andrews*
- University of the Sciences in Philadelphia
- Wartburg College
- Wheeling Jesuit University
- Whitworth University