The Foreign Service Journal, December 2016

102 DECEMBER 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT using a search function to add colleges. Only after you add a list of colleges will you be able to complete each college’s unique part of the application. Different colleges will design their small part of the larger application differently, as well. Some colleges are cutting the word limit on essays to 2,500 characters, which is between 400 and 500 words, and you may have to cut and paste your essays rather than upload them. Pluses and Minuses Not everyone is happy with the Coali- tion App. Critics have claimed that not all of the Coalition members are truly need-blind when it comes to financial aid, and that some institutions’ financial aid is offered as loans rather than grants—two factors that belie the Coalition’s central tenet of making college more affordable. Others have pointed out that the “affordability” angle to the Coalition App was not the real reason it got started, claiming that the Coalition was formed by a handful of college admissions officers who were not happy with the strict rules imposed on them by the Common App and the technical difficulties their appli- cants experienced on its new revision in 2013. Still others have questioned whether creating another college application platform just creates more stress for all concerned. Students who are wrestling with both the Common App and individ- ual colleges’ own version of an application now have to contend with yet another application. High school counselors have had to scramble to get up to speed on the differ- The Coalition App’s creators say thinking about college in 9th grade, and slowly uploading items as needed, is actually a more relaxed way of completing the college application. Continued on page 107