Common Application, also known as “Common App” was initially founded in 1975. It is a not-for-profit organization that allows a college applicant to send a single application out to 519 colleges.

“This is very beneficial to applicants because rather sending one individual application to each desired college, it can be directly sent out to various colleges at one time,” said senior Tommy Christensen.

Over the summer, the Common Application process made changes to the process including a 250-650-word limitation, restricted paragraph breaks, and the “topic of your choice” was revoked and replaced with five optional topics.

“Originally it was only a 500 word maximum, and now they have added on 150 words which was extremely beneficial. I don’t think I could’ve written my essay in under 500 words. Any extra words that are ever given to you is definitely more helpful,” senior Laura Santangelo said.

The website itself has conflicted with other problems as well.

“Whenever I would simply try to log on, it wouldn’t allow me to. Since my application was not sending to many of the colleges I am hoping to go to, such as University of North Carolina Chapple Hill, Virginia, and Washington University, the deadlines were thankfully moved back which was less stressful, although I am still waiting to see if they have been received,” Santangelo said.

Katie Christensen, the West High XYZ coordinator said some colleges were experiencing problems receiving the Common Application documents from schools.

“The documents have taken much longer to be accepted than they should be which makes me very anxious. It really just adds unnecessary stress,” Santangelo said.

Another problem was that students have been unable to receive information about teacher recommendations along with losing information while on the site.

“I submitted my application on September 15 to Fordom University and it still has not been received. I also am an athlete so I have been waiting for them to receive so I can then talk to the admissions for swimming scholarships as well as academic scholarships,” Christensen said.