All colleges and universities should accept the Common Application for undergraduate admissions.

While I agree with my opponent on several of his points, it must be pointed out that there are many reasons why use of the Common Application should not be made mandatory to every school and better yet, why the use of the Common Application should be disbanded entirely. Nearly every school that uses the Common Application requires a supplemental to be filled out, usually in the form of additional short-essays. It is clear to anyone who has undergone the college application process that these essays are a huge contributing factor to your acceptance, since things like GPA and transcript do not really set you apart from other applicants. Although grades are important, I believe that making the Common Application widespread would make the process even more cut-and-dry, black-and-white, and impersonal. The decision to attend an institute of higher education is one that will change your entire life, and should not be reduced to forms. I propose, instead, that the Common Application be removed entirely. My proposal, which for convenience, I shall call the "Kleptin Application", will be made up of three parts: 1. The raw transcript from school 2. Standardized grades from Collegeboard or other testing facilities 3. Recommendations from others 4. One essay, 4 pages long 5. An hour-long interview with an alumnus. The transcript and the test scores can be sent directly from school and the testing company. These would serve as the black and white numbers. The recommendations would be written and sent along with the essay. The most important parts of the application would be the essay and the interview. THE ESSAY: The essay should culminate a variety of issues including (but not limited to) the educational journey of a student, aspects of his or her life that have impacted him or her in a way that will lead in to college, and why that college was chosen. The college essay provides a chance for the acceptance official to peek into the past, present, and future of an applicant, and also provides the applicant the opportunity to contemplate and reflect. It is essential that a new essay be written for each college that the student applies to, because it keeps the integrity of academia. What is the use in churning out Common Applications with one essay meant to be a desperate outreach to as many colleges as possible? THE INTERVIEW: The interview would be given to applicants in order to gauge their personalities. Applicants who study hard but have severe social issues such as anger, poor attitude, etc. should be rethought for their acceptance. This also gives the applicant a chance to get to know the school through experienced eyes and to rethink himself, whether or not the school is for him. CONCLUSION: The College Application is a way to streamline the college acceptance process, something that definitely should not be done. College is becoming a fast-food business for several reasons and proceeding by standardizing college acceptance would do nothing but perpetuate the loss of academic integrity. Colleges should only accept students willing to make sacrifices and who have the integrity to uphold that of their institutions. It should not be an impersonal cut-and-dry process made easy for the students. It should actually be made as hard as possible. I look forward to my opponent's response. Thank you.