Application should not be common

Starting with the Class of 2011, red and blue boxes will no longer dot students' applications -- the University will only be accepting the Common Application. And while the move will make things a little easier for high school seniors applying to college, accepting the Common App will cause considerable harm to the long-term vitality of Penn and its student body.

For years, Penn officials have been putting tremendous amounts of effort into building this University's reputation. As a result, Penn has continued to move up in national rankings. During Judith Rodin's administration, the school became known as a hip, urban university. And just last year, the Kaplan Newsweek College Guide named Penn as the "hottest happy-to-be-there" school.

All these changes have gone a long way toward putting Penn on the national stage and creating a student body for whom Penn was probably the first choice. And those students showed how much they truly wanted to attend by filling out a lengthy, unique application.

But with this move, Penn will become just another member of the Common crowd.

The University is still going to require a supplement with their Common App, so students will have to put in more effort to apply to Penn than for, say, the fill-in-the-blank Ball State University application. But by requiring the supplement, Penn officials are acknowledging how much they still value the time and effort students put into lengthy applications.

The switch is simply a numbers game.

With many other schools jumping on the Common Application bandwagon, Penn must be hoping that the switch will increase the number of applicants simply by attracting students who would otherwise not be interested enough to put in the time.

Indeed, officials have admitted as much. A year ago, Admissions Dean Lee Stetson told The Daily Pennsylvanian that "the seriousness with which students use the Common Application is suspect."

Stetson now claims the Common App will help reach underrepresented groups. But, in reality, most of the additional applicants will be students who are simply less interested in Penn.

The number of applicants next year will undoubtedly rise. However, the University yield rate -- the percentage of accepted students who choose to attend -- will likely fall, as Penn accepts students who have little interest in attending but applied because of the simplicity of the Common App. People who applied to other schools as their first choice will start applying to Penn because it takes little more than a change of words and a photocopy.

In the long run, Penn is not better served simply by having more applicants. Creating the best student body possible means choosing students who have taken the time to learn about Penn and who have a genuine desire to spend their undergraduate years here.

A year ago, Stetson also said that admissions officials "always believed our application is unique and different, and we want to keep the application process for Penn very serious."

We agree.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.