Common App. Critique

The Common App Fallacy Critique

In the article “The Common App Fallacy”, Damon Beres argues against the concept of sending Common Applications to universities for a number of reasons. Common Applications are an easy-going method for universities to reel in money from the application fees. Beres believes a person’s uniqueness and individuality is lost in the application process, as all their other applications resemble one another. While the Common Application is easy money for universities, however it is one of the stronger ways for a university to learn more about the applicant.

Beres claims that the Common Application is one of the reasons as to why kids aren’t getting into the colleges they want or deserve. A counter to this problem is for kids to start applying themselves to ten to sixteen other different colleges to ensure that they will get in somewhere. I do agree that this creates the problem of students not getting into the schools they deserve. However, all students who wish to pursue a college level education apply themselves to a pool of schools. The Common Application is merely an application to make the hard transition from high school to college easier.

Taking away early admissions is taking a students chance away from getting into their first choice college and letting someone else take their spot. With early decision a university will know which students made that college their number one choice. This process slims down any chance of someone who is completely uninterested in that particular university of taking the spot belonging to a deserving student. The only downfall I see with early admission is that it may not be encouraging towards diversity. Harvard was the first school to exterminate their early admissions, and soon afterwards became a trendsetter amongst some universities. With a Harvard being a prestigious Ivy League university, the pool of applicants that apply themselves there are mainly serious about attending that university....