Apodaca: Coalition strives to make college application process easier
There are so many changes currently underway in college admissions that students and their parents might feel provoked into fits of frustration. Just when they think they’re getting a handle on the whole stressful process, they’re thrown into another tailspin as the ground shifts yet again.
But they might want to postpone their meltdowns, because at least one of the changes in college admissions could prove to be positive, or at least encouraging enough to warrant some cautious optimism. Granted, there are some big “ifs” involved. Even so, it’s just possible that applying for college will be a little less overwhelming and anxiety-producing at some point in the future.
I refer to something called the Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success. The Coalition, as it’s commonly known, currently has 90 members, including big public universities, small private colleges and Ivy Leagues — pretty much all very recognizable names in higher education. It will no doubt be joined by more institutions in the coming months and years.
The Coalition has an ambitious but undeniably worthy goal: to “improve” the college application process. And in doing so, it also seeks to influence the way we educate and evaluate students.
Like the increasingly derided Common App, a uniform application system used by many universities, the Coalition will feature an application component. But it takes things a big step further by featuring a platform for high school students to create and maintain online portfolios of their schoolwork, interests, activities and accomplishments.
The Coalition members think these portfolios — or digital “lockers,” as they are sometimes called — will help students think more deeply about themselves and what kind of college experience they might want. They’re also meant to give counselors, educators, admissions representatives and others in the community a better means to advise students; allow colleges to get a fuller picture of students beyond grades and test scores; and minimize some of the disadvantages faced by students without access to guidance services.
What’s more, all the member schools must commit to either “affordable” tuition or robust financial aid programs.
The Coalition would like to see students begin to use these online platforms by their freshman year in high school, a recommendation that some early critics have latched onto as a bad omen. They’ve warned that such an early start will only worsen the nerve-wracking experience of preparing for college.
But there are just as many observers who are hopeful that the Coalition will mark a turn toward a more reasonable, accessible, well-communicated system for applying to college.
“The earlier you start, the less stressful,” said Jan Kerchner, founder and chief executive of College Blueprint, an Irvine-based college counseling services firm. “The more you can get in front of this process, the easier it is.”
Many questions remain unanswered. Coalition schools will continue to accept the Common App, at least for now, but will the transition go smoothly? Is the online system well-designed and easy to use? Will the Coalition backfire and merely add more confusion to a bewildering process?
Many skeptics also have reservations given that the Coalition is rolling out at a time when other changes must be absorbed into the college admissions game.
There’s the newly redesigned SAT, for one, which debuted this past spring. Also, the schedule for applying for federal financial aid has been altered.
And here in California, as per usual, students are hit with an extra dose of uncertainty and stress.
Just as the Coalition is seeking to make applying to college easier, the University of California system has apparently decided to make it more difficult.
Previously, UC applicants were required to write two personal statements totaling no more than 1,000 words. Now they’ll be required to answer four out of a choice of eight essay prompts, with each writing segment limited to a maximum 350 words.
I won’t even bother to bore you with the convoluted reasoning given for the change, but keep in mind that measures taken by the UC behemoth are usually prompted less by real concern for students and more by financial and administrative issues. It’s also hard to believe, with well over 200,000 undergraduate applications received for this coming fall, that UC admissions officers will give more than a cursory glance to most essays.
There’s already plenty of bad will due to a scathing report by the state auditor earlier this year, which found that the UCs over a decade had sharply increased the share of admittances of out-of-state students, who pay higher tuition but in some cases were less qualified than in-state residents who were denied.
The UCs are undoubtedly hoping that the public outcry will die down now that it has increased admission offers to Californians for this fall. But it will surely take much more than that to dampen widespread skepticism over the UC’s by-the-numbers approach to admissions and the perception that California kids get shortchanged in their own state.
For now, at least, there’s some reason to hope that the Coalition experiment will usher in a welcome change for the better to the demoralizing college applications experience. And perhaps if we’re really lucky and the model proves successful, some of the ideas might eventually rub off on the UCs.
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PATRICE APODACA is a former Newport-Mesa public school parent and former Los Angeles Times staff writer. She lives in Newport Beach.
