LOCAL COMMON AFFILIATESTENNESSEEBelmont University -- NashvilleChristian Brothers -- MemphisFisk University -- NashvilleLipscomb University -- NashvilleRhodes College -- MemphisSewanee: The University of the South -- SewaneeUniversity of Tennessee -- KnoxvilleVanderbilt University -- NashvilleGEORGIA:Agnes Scott College -- DecaturBerry College -- Mount BerryEmory University -- AtlantaGeorgia Institute of Technology -- AtlantaMercer University -- MaconMorehouse College -- AtlantaOglethorpe College -- AtlantaSpelman College -- AtlantaALABAMA:Birmingham-Southern College -- BirminghamSamford University -- BirminghamSpring Hill College -- Mobile
This May, 3.3 million high school seniors are expected to graduate in the United States. Most of their college applications are due by midnight tonight.
Meanwhile, the nation's largest college application service is experiencing unprecedented difficulty.
"The Common Application" allows aspiring college students to apply online to more than 500 schools nationwide. The organization serves eight schools in Tennessee, as well as eight in Georgia and three in Alabama. The service has promoted "equity, access and integrity" since 1975 in hopes of leveling the college application field.
The Georgia Institute of Technology and UT at Knoxville were the only two Common-affiliate schools in Chattanooga's tri-state area to extend their freshman application deadlines. The other 17 schools are staying put with their deadlines.
It's a simple strategy. Instead of mailing individualized applications to each university, Common Application's 800,000 users fill out one basic profile at com monapp.org, then upload supporting documents to as many schools as they want.
Disadvantaged and minority students use the resource in huge numbers. Only 58 percent of national users identified as Caucasian, and 31 percent are would-be first-generation college students.
However, after rolling out this year's new website on Aug. 1, Common has admitted its site had dropped the ball in a menagerie of stress-inducing ways: Declined application fees. Multiple application fees. Sudden crashes and misplaced data. Countless applications -- which can take hours of thought and strategy to build -- suddenly lost without reason.
"The newest version of the Common Application ... was designed to be a robust system able to guide applicants through the complex college application process," said Scott Anderson, the Common Application director of policy. "As with any new technological launch, some difficulties arose after launch and as more users interacted with the system."
Anderson said the organization has been "vigorously preparing" for the expected increase in site volume in advance of November 1 deadlines. All the while, students and counselors across the nation kept a steady pace to finish their applications.
"I am less than thrilled with the issues we've had to face, but you just deal with it and move on," said StraceeRobinson, who serves as a Public Education Foundation College and Career adviser at Ooltewah and East Hamilton high schools.
The Public Education Foundation helps local students apply to college. But after Common's new system shortcomings, the college and career advisers have been specifically retrained to troubleshoot the site's glitches.
The main issue plaguing Chattanooga's seniors, advisers say, is a limiting website interface. Advisers, teachers and students are all kept in separate portals and cannot check on each other's progress through the software.
It's a frantic game of chasing each other outside the system.
"I have no idea if what they're doing is complete," said Sarah Malone, who advises at the Chattanooga High School Center for Creative Arts. "Lacking that awareness, it makes it very difficult for me to support my students."
Each adviser typically manages 20 to 50 students as they send off transcripts, letters of recommendation, counselor evaluations and personal essays. But now the site errors are making a high-stress season even worse.
"There's a big learning curve," Malone said. "Since it involves so many parties, everyone's trying to learn this curve."
Advisers say their work is vital. The number of Hamilton County graduates attending college has increased from 1,324 to 1,674 in six years. Last year, the gap between Chattanooga's black and Caucasian students closed for the first time.
So far so good, assuming Common stays along for the ride.
Common started accepting this year's applications Aug. 1, but the site's integrity buckled as tidal waves of students hurried to meet deadlines. The company has officially documented user issues on its Facebook page since Sept. 9.
Even as families have clamored for answers, the company has remained fairly hush-hush. Reports of a slow website surfaced on Oct. 14, but news of a potential fix did not emerge for three days.
"To those of you who have lost faith in our ability to adequately meet the needs of you and your students, we understand," said Aba Blankson, the company's director of communications, in a press release and website statement published on Oct. 18. -- four days after complaints began to bubble.
"As an organization, we have been too slow to respond."
Common says the widespread issues stem from specific tech flops, and posted a troubleshooting guide to its home page. The culprits range from unexpected Google Chrome updates to PDF errors -- an "isolated, yet persistent problem" that the company has admitted it hasn't found a perfect fix for.
Common's most recognizable members have reached out to assist dissatisfied applicants. Northwestern, Duke, Columbia, Dartmouth, Syracuse and others extended deadlines by at least one week, according to the New York Times.
But others, including Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Yale say "no deal" -- the deadlines will stand. The 19 regional Common schools among Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama largely seem to agree with this decision.
Even after shifting the calendar mark from October 15 to October 21 -- which has since passed -- Georgia Tech remained the earliest application deadline in the region by 10 days.
"Most of our staff had created student accounts so we could get a sense of what students were experiencing," said Rick Clark, Georgia Tech's director of admissions. "They seemed like pretty lengthy delays, regarding to payment and formatting together, so it seemed like the right thing to do to give people another weekend."
As UT-Knoxville moved its Nov. 1 "early action" deadline to Nov. 15, the remaining 17 Common-affiliate schools remained adamant with their decisions. Those with formal deadlines -- not operating on a rolling "as they come in" basis -- expect the largest cut of applications in by the first, 15th or last day of the next two months.
While Hamilton County students had Oct. 21-25 off for fall break, they licked stamps to mail physical applications -- a backup plan that used to be the standard -- with their fingers crossed.
"Thank you, U.S. Postal Service," Robinson said.
The Common company has since pledged to give daily updates to counselors like the Public Education Foundation -- but not individual students or parents -- for the same reasons the website is in such troubled waters: technology issues.
"As much as we would like to communicate this same information directly to applicants, messaging 800,000 registered users would create too big a strain on the system," Blankson wrote.
Common insists that all its member colleges have access to every single application document sent to them -- if those documents arrive. Some colleges are still not yet able to import some application data, according to the press release.
Malones' students returned from fall break ready to tackle their applications. In the meantime, Common continued to process more than 750,000 new applications each week, a number that may increase as deadlines loom.
"We do not wish to paint a picture of a flawless system," Blankson wrote on Common's behalf. "We need to regain your trust, and we know that the burden is on us to make that happen."
Contact staff writer Jeff LaFave at jlafave@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6592.