Our history

We're a not-for-profit, member organization committed to the pursuit of access, equity, and integrity in the college admission process.

40 years ago, 15 forward-thinking institutions of higher education got together to brainstorm something great. Instead of a student needing to complete a separate college application for each institution, they envisioned a future when a student could complete one application and send copies to any of the other 14 schools. This became known as the Common Application Experiment and it forever changed the course of college admissions.

Today, what was once a small but innovative group has transformed to a member organization comprising more than 800 wonderfully diverse colleges and universities across 20 countries. Each year, more than a million students, one-third of whom are first-generation, apply to college through Common App's free online application.