Josh Falcone – News Editor
The university recently announced that future prospective students will be able to apply to Southern with the Common Application.
Director of Admissions, Alexis Haakonsen, said that the university has had interest in becoming a member of the Common Application for a while.
“I know it has been an interest for a few years,” Haakonsen said. “When I became director of admissions last April 2013, that was one of the things that associate Vice President Kim Crone’s and I discussed in the coming year as I was getting started, to look into and complete the application.”
Haakonsen said that she thought there was interest by Southern to join Common Application. Before her arrival in April 2013, there was not a director of admissions in place at the university for some time.
“So I think it was just having someone in place to kind of champion that effort,” she said.
The university began the process of becoming part of the Common Application in the fall semester of 2013, Haakonsen said, and was notified of its acceptance in the program earlier this year.
“We submitted the application in the fall of 2013 and we were notified around February of this year,” she said. “They notified all the schools that they were accepted into the Common App Membership.”
The option for students applying to Southern to use the Common Application is currently available, Haakonsen said.
“We went through an orientation over the summer and now the Common App is live for spring ‘15 and fall ‘15 applicants,” she said.
According to the Common Application website, it is a membership organization, founded in 1975, that is committed to providing students with easier access and integrity with the application process to it’s over 500 college and university members.
Haakonsen said that Southern being a member of the Common Application is wonderful for both potential Southern students and for the university as well.
“Common App is a national platform and that is exciting for us, because that really increases our exposure to students, who might not know about Southern, but also it supplies convenience for students,” Haakonsen said.
The process of filling out college applications can be arduous, and the Common Application, Haakonsen said, adds some ease for students.
“So the common app is a really convenient tool for a lot of students, if they are applying to multiple schools and all those schools are in the Common App, they are filling out that information one time and submitting it to multiple schools,” she said.
“That is a great convenience for students, so being on that platform, as well, increases our exposure to students who might consider applying to Southern,” Haakonsen said. “As well as supplying a convenience to those who are applying to multiple schools, and we are there as well so it just makes it easier for students to do so.”
Haakonsen said the university expects to see an increase in applicants in the foreseeable future.
“We do anticipate that we will see some growth in our application pool,” she said. “We are not sure how to quantify that just yet. It is our first year so we are excited to see what happens.”
Photo Credit: Aaron Brown
