The Most Recent Changes to Common App for the 2022-2023 Application Season

The Common App’s simplified, streamlined, all-in-one college application system has proven to be an effective platform for college-bound students—both first-year and transfer—to search and apply to multiple participating schools all from one location. In their latest blog posts, Common App announced pivotal changes both in adding even more member institutions for prospective students to connect with and in making the college application process more inclusive, respectful, and accommodating for all applicants.

Here are the most recent changes to Common App: 

Over 50 New Colleges And Universities Added For The 2022-2023 Application Season

In April of this year, Common App reported that over 50 new colleges and universities have been added to their list of participating schools for the 2022-2023 application cycle. Notably, more than 20 of these new schools are those which are Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). The newest additions, in particular, help serve the Common App’s goal in “lowering the logistical and systemic barriers to college access. Students and colleges will both benefit from a larger, more diverse, and more inclusive Common App.” 

To view the Common App’s newest member institutions, check out here and here.

Common App: 1,000+ Participating Schools To Choose From

Currently, Common App boasts over 1,000 (including US and international) partner schools for college-bound students to choose from. All participating schools follow the same streamlined application process for both first-year and transfer college students. 

That said, be sure to advise your students to pay close attention to the guidelines outlined by each school; there are bound to be different requirements (i.e., test scores, supplemental materials) as well as application waivers and fees.

For the full list of College App’s current member institutions, click here. 

2022-2023 Common App Essay Prompts

For the 2022-2023 school year, the Common App essay prompts will remain the same. Common App noted that their most recent survey shows that “over 95% of [responders] agree that the [current] prompts spark effective essays.” Basically, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

To read more about the Common App’s 2021-2022 essay prompt changes (what was added, what was removed), click here. 

Common App: Changes to Personal Descriptor Questions

In July 2021, we made note of a number of significant changes made or being made to the Common App background questions. Citizenship and ethnicity questions became optional for applicants; family questions (e.g., questions regarding parents and siblings) became voluntary; and gender-related questions were updated to be more inclusive to all students.

Last year we saw first-year and transfer students given the option of noting their preferred names and pronouns. Taken a step further, in March of 2022 Common App announced that starting with the 2022-2023 application season, all applicants would have even more options to choose from when answering questions pertaining to gender. For example, Common App has added the gender-neutral options of “Mx.” and “other” in addition to choosing “legal” in order to appropriately label an applicant’s first or given name. 

Another important change to Common App is questions regarding fee waivers will now include the list of eligibility criteria, so that students and families are provided with a clear understanding of what qualifies students for available fee waivers. Common App has also simplified many of the fee waiver questions so that they are now simple “yes/no” answers. Common App reported that changes to the fee waiver questions were prompted when:

“Common App research [identified] nearly 39,000 first-year applicants who were likely eligible for the Common App fee waiver, but did not request one. Another 55,000 likely-qualified students may have abandoned an application all together [sic] because of fee-related fears.”

These changes play a huge role in making the Common App’s already simplified, streamlined application process more inclusive, considerate, and accommodating for students from all backgrounds.

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