La Sierra first SDA school to join college application Common App

In December, the university ‘went live’ on the Common App for its freshmen applicants and offered its application for graduate programs on the app beginning this year. As of January 30, the university had received 249 applications through the platform. 

The Common App is designed to level the playing field in the college applications process, ensuring that all applicants are treated fairly through ease of use, consistency and with the best interests of students in mind.

“Over one million students use the common application. This allows us to market our university to a larger audience,” said Vice President of Strategic Enrollment Management Bobby Brown. “Many of our local competitors utilize the common app so it makes sense to level the playing field and reach the same students. In addition, it has a built-in fee waiver so low-income students can apply without having to pay the application fee. As a Hispanic serving institution, we were able to make customizations at no extra cost. It also works well with our existing CRM system.”

Noted Director of Admissions Ron Venegas, “We signed our agreement with them in September, so it took about three months of work to build the application, test it and link it to our existing systems. This included several hours and meetings with a consultant to make sure that everything was working and done correctly and about three hours of building the application itself and multiple hours testing it that is still ongoing today.”

Once a student’s application is submitted it is routed through an automatic daily download where it enters La Sierra’s systems and the applicant will start to receive emails and texts from enrollment’s communication plan.

Brown and Venegas believe that La Sierra University is the first Adventist university or college within the North American Division to join the Common App.

The Common App collective application system dates to 1975 when a group of colleges and universities collaborated to re-work the college application process toward helping students use one application to apply to 15 institutions, according to its website. 

The Common App is now a nonprofit organization that represents more than 1,000 public and private colleges and universities around the country as well as in 20 countries. Of the app’s more than 1 million annual applicants, a third are first in their families to attend college.

“Launching La Sierra University on the Common App is an important milestone, and we are proud to be one of the first Adventist universities listed on the Common App platform,” said Interim Vice President of Marketing Brian Meert. “The Common App has become an essential tool that helps students save time, simplify the application process, and quickly discover colleges that align with their educational goals and values. This integration allows us to reach new prospective students and invite them to visit our campus, join our community, experience our Christian values and meet the incredible professors and staff that make La Sierra University such a special place.”