The Common App expands integration service for college counseling software Providers, Announces New Integration Partners
By Jen Davis
September 25, 2018
Additional service providers to begin piloting integration with the Common App this year in preparation for launching full integration in 2019-2020 application season
The Common Application, a non-profit membership organization dedicated to access, equity, and integrity in the college admission process, today announced the launch of its new integration platform which will enable college counseling software providers to integrate their services with the Common App.
In addition to long-standing integrations with companies like Hobsons, the provider of Naviance, and Parchment, the Common App will now include additional service providers working to support the college admission process.
Partners that will begin piloting the new integration service this year include:
* BridgeU
* Cialfo
These new integration partners will begin pilots this application season and launch fully at the beginning of the 2019-2020 application year. Additional service partners will be announced in the future as the integration program expands.
The Common App’s integration platform enables third-party software developers to seamlessly integrate their products with the Common App’s free online college application serving more than one million students worldwide when applying to the more than 800 member colleges and universities using the Common App.
“Core to our mission is the desire to champion those who support students. By providing a flexible and extensible integration service, we are enabling a broader ecosystem of providers that serve counselors and students to lower the barriers in applying to college by making it easier for students - and those who support them - to navigate this critical process from whichever system they choose to manage their college planning efforts,” said Jenny Rickard, President and CEO, The Common Application.
The availability of this new integration service expands upon the approach Common App and others have built over the years to facilitate the college counseling process.
For more than a decade, Hobsons and Common App have collaborated to improve the college application process through Naviance. Together, millions of applicants and counselors have benefitted from this partnership.
"Supporting millions of students and counselors at scale is made possible through our tight integration with Common App and Parchment. The Common App continues to be a key contributor to our mission to help students achieve better college, career, and life outcomes,” said Monica Morrell, General Manager of Naviance by Hobsons.
As part of Common App’s commitment to serving the international school counseling community, early adopters of the new integration service include multiple providers servicing the international student market, as well as those serving secondary institutions in the United States.
“Integration with the Common App will extend our existing support for BridgeU schools by further smoothing the application journey for North American applicants. We are very excited to be partnering with Common App and look forward to a fruitful relationship that will benefit both BridgeU students and schools alike," said Lucy Stonehill, CEO, BridgeU.
With offices in London, Madrid, and Hong Kong, BridgeU partners with global secondary schools in over 90 countries.
“With more international students applying and matriculating abroad, we believe this partnership will help students broaden their higher education horizons, while making the counseling process more pleasant,“ said Rohan Pasari, CEO and Co-Founder, Cialfo.
Founded by former counselors, Singapore-based Cialfo provides college search spanning more than 25 countries, electronic document sending, and mobile applications serving international students.
In the U.S., Folderwave will be leveraging the integration with the Common App in support of the Massachusetts Educational Finance Authority (MEFA) Pathway program. MEFA Pathway provides groundbreaking, student-centric support for students, family, school counselors, and administrators from grades 6 to 12 by creating a student portfolio, providing interest and aptitude assessment, identifying career options, promoting financial literacy, and much more.
"Streamlining the application process in a joint effort with The Common Application will be a significant benefit to Massachusetts students and school counselors using the MEFA Pathway platform, which is Powered by FolderWave, Inc.,” said Bob Burke, President of FolderWave. "We are delighted to establish this integration partnership with The Common Application and applaud their work on this capability to support even more students and counselors."
“Enabling students to effectively plan, save, and pay for college is at the core of MEFA’s mission and has been for over 35 years,” said Tom Graf, MEFA Executive Director. “This partnership will boldly and swiftly reinforce MEFA’s public mission to help ease access to higher education for students across the Commonwealth.”
MaiaLearning serves a variety of international schools and U.S.-based institutions including the California College Guidance Initiative, the state of California’s official college and career planning platform, which is housed at the Foundation for California Community Colleges.
"MaiaLearning supports students, educators, and families in schools in over 30 countries. We are thrilled to be partnering with Common App and provide seamless integration between our global platforms,” said Satish Mirle, CEO of MaiaLearning. “Schools and students worldwide have been eager for additional options to reliably submit student applications and supporting documents to over 800 universities. Our partnership is delivering on this need.”
Integration with the Common App will allow additional third-party services to support such use cases as: creating and matching of Common App accounts to third-party college counseling systems, facilitating the exchange of data between the Common App and third-party college counseling systems, and providing status updates to college counselors based on their students’ progress within the Common App.
“We’ve been fortunate to support more than one million students a year thanks, in part, to our valued and long-term partnerships. Our goal is to deliver an open service that improves the applicant experience by streamlining the collection and transmission of application data and enables those supporting students, such as college counselors and advisors, to more efficiently leverage the Common App while minimizing the frustrations of managing applicant data across systems,” added Rickard.