Slowdowns with the online Common Application on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day have prompted Dartmouth and a number of other colleges to extend the January 1 undergraduate application deadline.
“In recent days, we have received hundreds of calls and emails from students who were not able to submit their applications by January 1 because of technical challenges,” says Paul Sunde, Dartmouth director of admissions. “Accordingly, we are extending our application deadline to Friday, January 10.”
Dartmouth’s peer recommendation feature within the online application was also causing confusion, so the college will accept Common Application submissions without a peer recommendation. Applicants will be able to submit this item later, Sunde says.
More than 500 institutions allow prospective students to use the online Common Application when applying to their schools. The free, standardized application, established in 1975, is currently used by more than 1 million potential first-year and transfer college students each year, according to The Common Application organization.
The online slowdowns have also prompted a number of institutions, including Amherst, Brown, Columbia, Duke, Middlebury, and Vanderbilt to extend the January 1 deadline.