William Chung / North Hollywood High School 12th grade

In August, the Common Application released its 4th generation system for the 2013-2014 college application process, retiring its paper version for a completely electronic form. However, rather than en¬joying the upgrades that many expected, college applicants and recommenders have experienced glitches and malfunctions, forc¬ing multiple colleges to postpone application deadlines. Established in 1975 to provide a standardized form for college applicants, the Common App has become a source of frustration more than relief. Providing service to over a million students worldwide and over 500 member colleges, the Common App chose to invest ＄8million in revamp-ing its system to address problems addressed in previous years. Common Application Inc. executive director Rob Killion told reporter Jacques Steinberg, “This isn’t going in and performing surgery… This is thanking the current system for its work, giving it a gold watch and sending it on its way.” Issues have ranged between students un¬able to preview their application submission, so-called stealth essays college supplements that don’t appear until specific sections and portions of the application are completed to application sections showing as finished without a single character being typed and vice versa. Other malfunctions include completed portions not showing the green checkmark that signals completion, recom¬menders unable to submit letters of recom¬mendation, formatting malfunctions, the ¬absence of paragraph breaks in the writing section, and sections of the application that do not save progress. Both international students and US have voiced their frustrations. North Hollywood High School senior Jerry Lin stated, “It’s been difficult enough as it is applying for college. I hope all the glitches are settled as soon as possible,” while Alex Wang, a student of Shatin College (in Hong Kong) further expressed his irritation with the glitches, “The common app has been really frustrat¬ing this year. I’ve had problems ranging from broken essay PDF previews to check marks that don’t show up for completed sections.”Others have asked for a more personal¬ized and interactive help center. During a time of high frenzy, some sort of customer care should be available. However, the Com¬mon Application has indicated its inability to provide phone support in a statement: “Unfortunately, given the volume of users who will interact with our system this year--well over one million, not including parents--phone support would immediately become unsustainable.” Unfortunately, until the next Common App revamp, students are forced to deal with what they have for now.