The number of applications and applicants using the Common App continues to proliferate as the popular college portal has grown to include over 1,000 schools. Colleges and universities eager to protect student diversity post-affirmative action will be happy to know that the number of minority and nontraditional students who applied for the 2023-2024 academic year is contributing to the uptick, according to recently released Common App data.
Underrepresented minority applicants students’ year-over-year growth exceeded that of their White and Asian counterparts. Specifically, minority applicants grew by 12% compared to 3% for non-minority; the races/ethnicities fueling this growth were Latinx applicants (13%) and Black or African Americans (12%).
“The goal here is to have every student in Common App feel not only worthy but welcomed,” said Jenny Rickard, CEO of the Common App, after its preliminary data was released in November, according to USA Today. “It’s to inspire them to explore the many opportunities that they have ahead of them.”
While White applicants only grew by 1%, the total number of students who applied from this demographic is at least two and a half times more than Latinx students, who had the second-highest number of applicants.
There is also evidence that students hailing from lower-income backgrounds are also on the rise compared to their more privileged counterparts. While the Common App does not directly collect household income information, it used several proxies to analyze this subset of students.
Common App found that applicants hailing from zip codes historically related to below-median-income households experienced a year-over-year growth rate of 12% (similar to minority students). In contrast, those from wealthier zip codes grew by 3%. Using this proxy, data suggests that lower-income students’ applications have outpaced their peers since the 2022-23 academic year.
Common App also made tabs on students who self-reported their eligibility for application fee waivers. Students will only be granted this if they demonstrate past enrollment in the federal free or reduced-price lunch program, if their family receives public assistance, or if similar guidelines placed by the Common App demonstrating some form of financial hardship were met. Fee waiver-eligible students’ applications in the 2023-24 cycle grew by 15%. The growth of students ineligible for the waiver grew by 3%.
Similar to data on students’ race/ethnicity, the total number of applicants who hail from wealthier families is a little over double that of lower-income.
Lawmakers bent on incentivizing graduating high schoolers not to leave their state by expanding access and affordability to higher education may be pulling off. Data shows that in-state applications outpaced out-of-state applications by only 4%. Direct admissions programs through the Common App, state initiatives and Niche have all recently proliferated.
The 10 states with the highest Common App application growth are:
- Nebraska: 91% (3,324)
- Guam: 20% (204)
- Texas: 67,391 (18%)
- Michigan: 34,411 (9%)
- Washington: 8% (17,660)
- South Carolina: 8% (13,998)
- Wyoming: 8% (532)
- North Dakota: 8% (423)
- Georgia: 38,326 (7%)
- Alabama: 4% (4,364)
