To the Editor:
An Oct. 6 Herald article described Brown’s becoming one of more than 80 founding members of a Common Application alternative called the “Coalition Application.” Members include every Ivy League institution, the California Institute of Technology, the University of Chicago, Pennsylvania State University, Rutgers University and the University of Michigan, among others. Noticeably absent are any University of California schools.
Reading into the details of the Coalition Application, I believe that while the idea might a good one, its execution is poor and goes against everything Brown and its community stand for with the need-blind admission policy.
For those who are unaware, the Coalition Application allows students to begin assembling a “college application portfolio” in ninth grade. Ninth. Grade. Member institutions will all accept it, similar to the Common App model. The Coalition App goes live in April 2016.
This would certainly place students from low-resource school districts at an even greater competitive disadvantage. How can a student who does not have regular access to guidance counselors be expected to start assembling a top-tier college admission portfolio their freshman year? Accepting the Coalition Application makes applying to Brown and other member institutions prohibitively demanding. How can two applications, one with three years more preparation than the other, possibly be compared equitably?
Other policies of the Coalition Application include allowing member institutions to have need-aware admission and excluding institutions that have graduation rates under 70 percent — a policy that effectively precludes many public universities and systems from participating. These policies create an “upper echelon” of wealthy schools that accept only rich students — those groomed for admission since age 14. If acceptance to top-tier schools were not already hard enough, this will only exacerbate the difficulty for lower-income students.
The Coalition Application builds a moat around the Ivory Tower. Becoming an early adopter of the Coalition Application will lead to admitting fewer low-income, low-resources students until the “new standard” is really a standard. I expect the number of successful applications from students in low-resource school districts to plummet when the 2016 applications are submitted.
I am extremely disappointed in the University’s decision to join this Coalition Application. I have to imagine that, under different leadership, the decision would be different.
Kyle Helson GS
