Let's Talk about the Coalition
For the past decade, there has been two main avenues to apply to college: the Common Application and applying through the college website. Well, it's about to time to add a third option in there, as the Coalition Application has opened for business for the 2016-2017 college application year. In this post, I want to help students and parents understand what the Coalition is all about and how/when/if it should be used during the college process. We will all know much more as the fall approaches, but as of June, 2016, this is what I know...
What is this Coalition: The official name of the Coalition is "The Coalition for Access and Affordability". This idea was put into motion two years ago when the Common Application infamously crashed during the peak application season, causing students, school counselors, and admissions professionals to basically panic. It was not a pretty scene, and a few top colleges began thinking of new ways to improve the entire application process for everyone involved. In the fall of 2015, these colleges presented the Coalition, which is basically a new way to apply to numerous schools, using one application, just like the Common Application...but hopefully better. As of today, there are over 90 colleges and universities that have agreed to take part in the Coalition, and are "potentially" ready to use this next year.
How is the Coalition Different: Just like the Common Application, the Coalition allows students to create one account, complete an application, and send it to many colleges, which saves time and sanity, and keeps things more organized. However, unlike the Common Application, which has over 600 members, the Coalition is a bit more exclusive. In order to join this alliance, the college must have a graduation rate of at least 70% in 6 years (national average is much lower), and must be affordable. For state colleges, the schools must be affordable with help of in-state tuition and need-based financial aid, and private schools must meet 100% of the student's demonstrated financial need. One of the goals of the Coalition is to eliminate some of the barriers to attending college, and to help all students learn about and apply to great institutions across the country.
So what is the Deal with this Locker?: If you have heard information about the Coalition already, you may know that the biggest questions revolve around what they are calling a "locker". The locker is the most unique feature of the Coalition. This allows students as early as freshmen year in high school to create an account on the Coalition and begin storing personal work in their secured locker. This is an online feature that allows students to upload items such as class projects, favorite essays, artwork, videos of play performances, extra-curricular milestones or awards, research, capstone projects, and much more. The locker will store all of this information, and it will never been seen by colleges during the pre-application stage. As part of the locker, there is also a collaboration space, where the student can choose a mentor (teacher, counselor, etc) who will then be able to go into their locker and look at the work they have saved. The mentor can then give feedback and comments, but will not be allowed to make changes. The hope is that over time, through the help of the chosen mentor, the student will be able to improve on his or her academic and extra-curricular work. Although we are not certain yet, as part of the application, senior year, students may be able to unlock some of their work to send to colleges, so they can get a better sense of who they are as an applicant.
Should We Use the Coalition this Year? Well, my quick answer is NO. Although I think the Coalition has a lot of promise, the engineering of the website and application are very good, and I think the purpose of this has great merit, there are just too many questions right now. As I said before, there are over 90 colleges that have signed on to join the Coalition, but only THREE colleges are going to be Coalition-exclusive. This means rising seniors applying to the University of Florida, University of Washington, and University of Maryland, College Park MUST use the Coalition to apply. For the rest of the colleges, students can choose to either use the school's website to apply or can use the Common Application. Also, close to a third of the colleges have decided they will NOT allow rising seniors to apply to their college through the Coalition for the 2016-2017 school year, which tells me something. That list of schools can be found here:Coalition Schools not Accepting their Application Portal for 2016-2017.
Final Thoughts: When I first heard of the Coalition, I was not happy. I figured this would just add to the already growing craziness that surrounds applying to college. However, as more of their plan is being outlined and delivered, I think this could be a great tool. However, I think it is in everyone's best interest to sit out of the Coalition for this next school year. There are still other ways to apply to college (besides the above mentioned 3 universities) and there are way too many questions about the effectiveness of this new application. So I hope everyone has a great summer, and I will return to this topic next year...hopefully with much more solid information and student experience from around the country. As always, take care and happy searching!
Joseph D. Korfmacher
What is this Coalition: The official name of the Coalition is "The Coalition for Access and Affordability". This idea was put into motion two years ago when the Common Application infamously crashed during the peak application season, causing students, school counselors, and admissions professionals to basically panic. It was not a pretty scene, and a few top colleges began thinking of new ways to improve the entire application process for everyone involved. In the fall of 2015, these colleges presented the Coalition, which is basically a new way to apply to numerous schools, using one application, just like the Common Application...but hopefully better. As of today, there are over 90 colleges and universities that have agreed to take part in the Coalition, and are "potentially" ready to use this next year.
How is the Coalition Different: Just like the Common Application, the Coalition allows students to create one account, complete an application, and send it to many colleges, which saves time and sanity, and keeps things more organized. However, unlike the Common Application, which has over 600 members, the Coalition is a bit more exclusive. In order to join this alliance, the college must have a graduation rate of at least 70% in 6 years (national average is much lower), and must be affordable. For state colleges, the schools must be affordable with help of in-state tuition and need-based financial aid, and private schools must meet 100% of the student's demonstrated financial need. One of the goals of the Coalition is to eliminate some of the barriers to attending college, and to help all students learn about and apply to great institutions across the country.
So what is the Deal with this Locker?: If you have heard information about the Coalition already, you may know that the biggest questions revolve around what they are calling a "locker". The locker is the most unique feature of the Coalition. This allows students as early as freshmen year in high school to create an account on the Coalition and begin storing personal work in their secured locker. This is an online feature that allows students to upload items such as class projects, favorite essays, artwork, videos of play performances, extra-curricular milestones or awards, research, capstone projects, and much more. The locker will store all of this information, and it will never been seen by colleges during the pre-application stage. As part of the locker, there is also a collaboration space, where the student can choose a mentor (teacher, counselor, etc) who will then be able to go into their locker and look at the work they have saved. The mentor can then give feedback and comments, but will not be allowed to make changes. The hope is that over time, through the help of the chosen mentor, the student will be able to improve on his or her academic and extra-curricular work. Although we are not certain yet, as part of the application, senior year, students may be able to unlock some of their work to send to colleges, so they can get a better sense of who they are as an applicant.
Should We Use the Coalition this Year? Well, my quick answer is NO. Although I think the Coalition has a lot of promise, the engineering of the website and application are very good, and I think the purpose of this has great merit, there are just too many questions right now. As I said before, there are over 90 colleges that have signed on to join the Coalition, but only THREE colleges are going to be Coalition-exclusive. This means rising seniors applying to the University of Florida, University of Washington, and University of Maryland, College Park MUST use the Coalition to apply. For the rest of the colleges, students can choose to either use the school's website to apply or can use the Common Application. Also, close to a third of the colleges have decided they will NOT allow rising seniors to apply to their college through the Coalition for the 2016-2017 school year, which tells me something. That list of schools can be found here:Coalition Schools not Accepting their Application Portal for 2016-2017.
Final Thoughts: When I first heard of the Coalition, I was not happy. I figured this would just add to the already growing craziness that surrounds applying to college. However, as more of their plan is being outlined and delivered, I think this could be a great tool. However, I think it is in everyone's best interest to sit out of the Coalition for this next school year. There are still other ways to apply to college (besides the above mentioned 3 universities) and there are way too many questions about the effectiveness of this new application. So I hope everyone has a great summer, and I will return to this topic next year...hopefully with much more solid information and student experience from around the country. As always, take care and happy searching!
Joseph D. Korfmacher