Dive Brief:
- First-year Common App applicants from underrepresented minority races or ethnicities grew by 5% compared to this time in the 2024-25 school year, continuing a trend that began over a decade ago, according to a mid-season report released Thursday by the nonprofit. However, the number of underrepresented student applicants still remains smaller than non-minority applicants.
- Black or African American applicants and applicants identifying as two or more races are growing at the fastest rates, increasing year over year by 8% and 7% respectively.
- Meanwhile, the share of U.S. applicants identifying as White at this point in the application season declined slightly to 45.1% from 45.7% in 2024-25, which the report says continues a trend beginning in 2013-14. The application season runs from Aug. 1 through July 31.
Dive Insight:
Common App, a widely used online platform allowing students to apply to multiple colleges using one form,is continuing to see growth in applications, said Walter Herring, senior data scientist at the nonprofit, during a virtual March 12 roundtable discussion on the findings.
Overall, the number of first-year applicants — 1,429,747 — increased by 2% compared to the same time last year. Those 1.4 million applicants filed a total of 9.4 million applications, according to the report.
Preexisting trends in the racial makeup of applicants continue almost three years following the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Students For Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which put a stop to race-conscious college admissions. That ruling led educational equity advocates to warn against declines in college admissions or application patterns for minority students.
It was also expected to impact other factors related to college admissions, such as race-related scholarships, which the U.S. Department of Education under the Trump administration is seeking to deem unlawful.
"Taken together, these data suggest that there have been no meaningful deviations from pre-existing trends over the past decade in race/ethnicity reporting or population growth on the Common App platform after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling," the report said.
This finding aligns with prior research from the nonprofit at the end of the 2024-25 application season, as well as the cycle immediately following the Supreme Court decision in 2023-24.
Common App found in 2024, however, that the percentage of Asian, Black, Latinx and White students referencing at least one race or ethnicity-related phrase in their Common App essays decreased in 2023-24.
But the 2024 analysis didn’t find any significant changes overall in students’ application behaviors, such as how they self-identify their racial or ethnic identity.
COVID-19-era changes that triggered many test-optional policies at colleges and changes in applicants' score-reporting behaviors also seem to be reverting. Common App data showed that applicants who reported a test score outnumbered those who did not, standing in contrast to this time last year, when the majority of applicants did not report a test score.
Those reporting a test score increased by 10% compared to this time during the 2024-25 application cycle, while those who did not report a test score decreased by 6%.
First-generation applicants, underrepresented minority students, applicants eligible for a Common App fee waiver, and those from below-median income ZIP codes were less likely to report a score, as in previous years.
The Common App expects to release an end-of-season report in August.
