On Equity and Access in College Admissions
October 5, 2020 | By Stacey Kostell, CEO of the Coalition for College
Since its founding, the Coalition has prioritized the work of equity and access in college admissions.
Last week, Common App announced their decision to remove a question about disciplinary history from their application. We applaud that move and agree it’s an important step on the path toward equity.
The Coalition removed disciplinary questions from the Profile in 2017 and will remove a question about disciplinary history from the Counselor Recommendation section for the 2021-22 admissions cycle.
Foregrounding the work of equity and access has been part of what has set the Coalition apart since our start.
That applies to what we ask and how we ask it in the application. For example, the Coalition Profile, the set of shared questions used by Coalition members, also does not ask questions about discipline during military service. It does not ask students to disclose religious preference. It provides an open text box for students to describe their own gender identity, if they choose. And this year, we removed questions that ask for the details about where parents went to college.
All of these decisions streamline the application process for students and also are designed to prevent the sharing of information that may be tied to bias and gatekeeping, disadvantaging BIPOC students, first-generation students and other underrepresented students who deserve equity in college admissions.
We had equity in mind this year when we added a question about the pandemic. Our question, which is entirely optional, allows students to choose from checkboxes that describe how COVID-19 has impacted their lives. Providing this language helps reduce burden on students — both the burden to develop another piece of writing and the burden of knowing what aspects of their circumstances to report, an expectation that could disadvantage underserved students, in particular.
Foregrounding the work of equity and access is also what led to our creation of an easy-to-use fee waiver, which makes it possible for students of limited means, as well as veterans, to apply to many schools at no cost by answering a single question, with no additional documentation needed. Importantly, all of the schools they’ll apply to through the Coalition have a proven commitment to graduating students with low or no debt, including those who have been traditionally underrepresented in higher education.
Average six-year graduation rates
Most importantly, our commitment to equity and access starts long before the point of application.
Research shows that early engagement is crucial for impacting college-going rates. The tools we provide through MyCoalition help students, starting in the 9th grade, learn more about college, how to prepare for it, and how to make affordable choices. This free, online toolkit also gives students a place to stay organized, via a digital Locker, and the ability to collaborate with their mentors. These services create ways to bridge the gaps that we know exist in access to high-quality college advising.
Just this month, we’ve launched important updates to MyCoalition for 9th and 10th grade students that make early entry to the platform even friendlier and the information and advice we share with them more robust. This part of MyCoalition, called My Story, will encourage students to reflect on their journey and prepare them not only to tell their story when it’s time to apply but also give them the tools to shape it along the way.
We have important partners in this work, in the community-based organizations that join our national registry, as well as the counselors who serve on our board of directors and advisory committee, and of course our member schools that are part of the Coalition because of their commitment to keep doing better on behalf of underrepresented students.
This year has seen tremendous growth in the awareness of the work we all must do to address systemic racism and bias in our institutions. Much work is left to do. We celebrate any milestones on the path to making college a reality for all students.
Stacey Kostell, CEO of the Coalition for College