Connecticut College joins coalition to improve college admission process

Goal is to recast admission process, broaden access and encourage college-going mindset for all students

Connecticut College has partnered with 80 other public and private colleges and universities to improve the college admission application process for all students. The resulting Coalition for Access, Affordability, and Success is developing a free platform of online tools to streamline the experience of planning for and applying to college. The planning tools will be available to high school freshmen, sophomores and juniors beginning in January 2016.

In creating this platform, the coalition colleges hope to encourage a more engaged, ongoing and educationally reaffirming college application experience. They also hope to motivate a stronger college-going mindset among students of all backgrounds, especially those from low-income families or underrepresented groups who have historically had less access to leading colleges and universities.

“The Coalition schools want to ensure that all students have access to the highest quality education, without the barriers that can prevent some students from applying,” said Andrew Strickler, dean of admission and financial aid at Connecticut College. “We are very pleased to be able to bring this new option to our prospective students.”

The Coalition currently includes more than 80 public and private colleges and universities across the United States that have made a commitment to make college affordable and accessible for students from diverse backgrounds, and for students to be successful in completing their education. Connecticut College, for example, develops financial aid packages for students that meet 100 percent of the student’s demonstrated financial need and offers an inclusive campus environment with comprehensive support for student success.

Later this year, the Coalition will share details about new college planning and application tools that will streamline the admission and financial aid processes and allow students to begin planning for college much earlier in their high school years. The online tools—which will include a digital portfolio, a collaboration platform, and an application portal—seek to reshape the process of applying to college as the culmination of students’ development over the course of their high school careers, reducing the unfamiliarity of the application and leveling the playing field for all students. The application will add another option to all the ways that students currently apply for college.

The Coalition’s online portfolio of college planning tools will be open to high school students starting in January 2016. Additional details about the application process enabled by the platform will be announced before summer of 2016. More information can be found at coalitionforcollegeaccess.org.

Coalition Member Institutions

Amherst College
Bates College
Bowdoin College
Brown University
Bryn Mawr College
California Institute of Technology
Carleton College
Clemson University
Colby College
Colgate University
College of Holy Cross
College of William & Mary
Colorado College
Columbia University
Connecticut College
Cornell University
Dartmouth College
Davidson College
Duke University
Emory University
Franklin and Marshall College
Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Grinnell College
Hamilton College
Harvard University
Haverford College
Illinois State University
Indiana University - Bloomington
James Madison University
Johns Hopkins University
Miami University - Ohio
Michigan State University
Middlebury College
Mount Holyoke College
North Carolina State University at Raleigh
Northeastern University
Northwestern University
Oberlin College
Ohio State University
Penn State
Pomona College



Princeton University
Purdue University
Reed College
Rice University
Rutgers University - New Brunswick
Skidmore College
Smith College
St Olaf College
Stanford University
State University of New York - College at Geneseo
State University of New York - University at Buffalo
Swarthmore College
Texas A&M University
Tufts University
Union College
University of Chicago
University of Connecticut
University of Florida
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Maryland - College Park
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
University of Missouri
University of New Hampshire
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of Notre Dame
University of Pennsylvania
University of Pittsburgh
University of Rochester
University of South Carolina
University of Vermont
University of Virginia
University of Washington
Vanderbilt University
Vassar College
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Washington University in St. Louis
Wellesley College
Wesleyan University
Williams College
Yale University



September 29, 2015