The Common App facilitates applying to colleges and universities. That sounds good, but is it?

In today’s Martin Center article, Jovan Tripkovic examines the downsides.

Consider the essay prompts, which are geared to elicit woeful, identity-steeped essays. Tripkovic writes:

The first and most prominent essay prompt reads: “Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.”

The way this prompt is framed effectively encourages applicants to highlight as many points of race-and-gender “intersectionality” as possible. Heaven forbid our elite universities miss out on stories from students who identify as multiracial, gender-fluid, pansexual, or first-generation-immigrant agnostic Marxist—whose parents, incidentally, earn well over six figures. Without these supposed “victims of capitalism” enrolled in the nation’s most prestigious schools, the student body would apparently be incomplete. And the Common Application’s leadership seems to understand that well.

Another dubious aspect of the Common App is its push for “direct admission.” Here’s the problem, according to Tripkovic: “Judging by the language used by the Common App, many of the students targeted for direct admissions are first-generation college applicants who often lack the financial and informational literacy needed to make fully informed decisions about pursuing higher education.”

Common App has also thrown in with woke language and gender identification stuff.

Maybe we’d be better off without it.