The Common Black College Application: What You Need to Know

Anyone who’s dealt with college applications at any point over the last four decades has probably heard of the Common Application.

Along with the Universal College Application, the Common Application is the most – well – common way for students to apply to colleges. But did you know there is another application students can use to apply to nearly half of this country’s historically black colleges and universities? It’s called the Common Black College Application and it’s helping to improve college access for thousands of students.

What is the Common Black College Application?
Like the two other applications listed above, the Common Black College Application allows you to complete a single document and submit it to a number of historically black colleges and universities. Member institutions will honor the CBCA as if it were their own application.

Users of the Common Black College Application incur a one-time fee of $35, which allows them to apply to up to 44 historically black colleges and universities at the same time. Schools that accept the application do not charge anything extra for additional materials or anything else along those lines.

Why is this application necessary?
After years of working in admissions, Robert Mason of EDU Inc. created the Common Black College Application as a way of breaking the cycle of poverty that steep application fees perpetuate. It helps low-income families afford the cost of applying to college, and, as he explains, helps HBCUs to find qualified students who might have assumed college was out of their reach.

Because of the costs associated with submitting college applications, many students either don’t apply at all or only apply to one school. The Common Black College Application, however, allows those from low-income families to apply to dozens of schools with minimal effort and at minimal expense.

Read more at Noodle.com.