What the Common App Shouldn't Ask

It was several years ago when I first noticed that the Common Application includes questions about an applicant's marital status on its First-Year Application. I was puzzled by the query's inclusion initially, but soon realized its relevance, especially for a non-traditional applicant. The question is no longer asked, which also makes sense given the diversity and ambiguity of marriage laws from state to state. Instead, the Common App asks how many, if any, children an applicant has, which is reasonably a more accurate assessment of an individual's background than marital status alone.

All of this is very interesting, and as an admission officer I appreciate the Common Application's efforts to provide a thorough depiction of who an applicant is (as I've written) by asking such questions related to personal background. But as I went through my school's reading process this year, I couldn't help but think about one question(s) that maybe the Common App shouldn't ask...

In an age when groups are calling for an end to the consideration of race and ethnicity in college admissions, why does the standard, most-utilized college application ask where an applicant's parents earned their degrees? The answer, of course, is that the same people who benefit from legacy status in college admission are the same people who don't want race to be a factor in the process. Though, let's take the question seriously for a moment.

When evaluating an admission application, there's value in knowing the educational heredity, if you will, of an applicant. The specific institution a student's parents attended, or even the institutions any siblings attended or are attending, factors into this. However, the level of educational attainment of an applicant's parents is more informative than the where. Stands to reason it would make sense for the Common Application to ask what level of education an applicant's parents or guardians attained. A simple drop down box with responses along the lines of high school, some college, Associates degree, Bachelors degree, Masters Degree and PhD or professional degree would suffice.

If the Common Application were to adopt such a format, it could be left to individual institutions to ask if an applicant's parents, or any other relations the institution is interested in, attended the school on their supplements to the Common App*. This would increase the transparency dramatically between which institutions do and do not favor their legacies in their admission processes.

*Though the Common Application is a standard admission application used by 500 or more institutions, most schools have their own distinct supplements to the application asking institution-specific questions.

If our governments are going to impose restrictions and regulations on the college admission process at the expense of underrepresented, the appropriate response would be to eliminate the bias that favors the overrepresented. Personally, I am in favor of possessing more information, not less, to make as informed an admission decision as possible. But I'd be willing to concede a small piece of information to lend more support to equity, and made a strong statement in affirmation of diversity, in all its many forms.