During second semester, college applications are on the top of most seniors priority lists.

As well as having to do the tedious work of filling out applications, they have to anxiously await responses from colleges about their admission decisions for weeks or sometimes months.

The application process is extremely monotonous, repetitive and time consuming.

Senior Marina Aldous said, “I’ve applied to four schools, and each application took about three hours.”

She also reports that she had to type a separate essay for each of her applications.

Aldous said, “I was really worn out by the end of it and I’m so glad to be done with the process.”

Many seniors share this same feeling.

Senior Jin Chong has also applied to four schools.

Chong said, “I was extremely annoyed with the application process and how repetitive it is.”

With every application, you have to type almost the exact same information. Each application requires a social security number, phone number, home address, phone numbers, parent work and education information…etc.

Most students agree that the worst part of the application process is the written responses.

Almost all schools require some type of writing, whether it be multiple short responses, or one long response.

For the most part, each new application requires a new essay.

Given that the purpose of the essay is to view a sample of a student’s writing, it would be much easier to have one essay to send to all schools.

A great solution to this repetitive problem is the Common Application, more commonly known as the “Common App.”

The common app is an application process that is growing very quickly.

It is an online application that covers all of the basic questions that every application has, and can be personalized by a school to fit their criteria.

It requires things such as the information listed above as well as: SAT and ACT test scores, parent and sibling information, high school classes and it also requires an essay.

Each college can then add more questions of their own to the application if they feel necessary.

It is a great solution, but the only problem is that it is not popular enough.

Currently, the common application is accepted by 517 colleges and universities in 47 states and the District of Columbia, as well as several European countries.

Roughly one third of these schools are “exclusive members,” which means that the common app is the school’s only admission application.

Many kids only have only one school that accepts it, so when applying to multiple schools it doesn’t save them any time.

Hopefully the Common Application will be popular enough in the next couple years so that students can fill out one application and only have to fill out the school’s individual questions for the application process.