A Common Application for Graduate School

When I first decided to start applying to graduate schools, I anticipated that it would be relatively easy and painless. Boy, was I wrong. The main issue was that there is no common app for graduate school like there is for most undergraduate institutions. Instead, I filled out seven completely separate applications. One might assume, then, that the reason for having separate applications was that the different schools were requesting wildly different information than one another. Of course, that was not the case. Each application asked for the same background information (name, date of birth, contact information, etc.) and followed the same general format. Thus, I had to type out everything, such as the contact information for my recommenders, seven separate times. In fact, the only differences between the schools were the specific title of the program I was applying to and one or two school-specific questions. Even the personal statement required for each school was based on essentially the same prompt. 

Why then, was I forced to spend hours uploading the same documents, such as my resume and my writing sample, and filling out the same information seven different times? One answer might be to weed out those that are not serious about graduate school. After all, the amount of time and effort I put into filling these applications out was truly a test of my determination to apply in the first place. However, I firmly believe that graduate institutions should adopt a common application, and then simply have a few supplemental questions for each individual school– just like the common application for undergraduate institutions. 

One advantage of this is that there is less risk of error. When you have to retype things multiple times, you run the risk of making more spelling or grammatical errors. Additionally, it is far easier to catch any of these possible errors when you only have to look over the information one time, as opposed to multiple times. Another positive of having a common app is that it is easier on the other people that are involved in the process, such as recommenders. The four professors that I asked to write recommendation letters had to upload their letters separately to each of the seven schools I applied to. That is a lot of work for them, especially seeing as they have other responsibilities—like teaching—to worry about. 

Applying to graduate school was a learning process, and taught me important lessons on time management, organization, and proofreading. However, I maintain that having a common application for graduate school would be less time-consuming, less inconvenient and therefore better for all involved.