Ohio State is making it easier to apply.
Starting Spring Semester, all new students applying to OSU’s Columbus campus will use the Common Application for admission consideration.
The Common Application allows students applying for college to fill out one application that is accepted by its member colleges and universities, according to its website. This would mean that students can apply to OSU as well as Kenyon College, Xavier University, Oberlin College, the University of Dayton and 483 other institutions across the nation by filing out only one application.
According to minutes from the June Board of Trustees meeting, when the Common Application went into use at the University of Michigan, applications for admission to the university increased by by 6,000. At the meeting, Board member Jeff Wadsworth, chair of the Academic and Student Life Committee, said the easier application process would “provide a bigger pool for us to explore for possible students to join us (at OSU).”
Brendan Rogers, a fourth-year in communication, said he wishes OSU had accepted the Common Application when he was applying to college.
“That would have been simpler and less demanding,” Rogers said.
Freshmen applying to any of OSU’s satellite campuses or transfer students applying to either a satellite school or the Columbus campus will continue to use the CollegeNet application, previously used by the OSU Columbus campus.
Every Common Application submission will still require the applicant to pay OSU’s $60 application fee. Students will also have to submit a separate supplement that Vern Granger, associate vice president of enrollment services and director of admissions at OSU, said in an email enables institution-specific questions to be added to the application.
Switching to the Common Application means the requirements for the essay section will have to be broadened.
“An applicant will have the option of choosing from several essay topics, rather than one option as was the case previously,” Granger said in the email.
Cameron Bushong, a fourth-year in forestry, fisheries and wildlife, said he thinks offering multiple essay topics will help students applying for admission.
“You can pick an essay that you feel suits your strengths rather than being forced to pick a single thing,” Bushong said.
Laura Mason, a third-year in microbiology, said she does not think the Common Application will have a significant effect on next year’s freshman class.
“I guess it would have been kind of handy, but I don’t really see the difference it makes either way,” Mason said. “You’re still going to get the same amount of students coming to Ohio State.”
OSU application deadlines will remain the same: Nov. 1 for Spring Semester and Feb. 1 for Fall and Summer semesters. Students seeking scholarships will be required to apply for them by Feb. 1.
In addition to adopting the Common Application this year, OSU will require all freshman applicants, barring rare exceptions, to apply online. Any student who mails in a paper copy will be asked to re-submit it electronically.