The Hechinger Report | Colleges experiment with asking applicants how home life affects them
College application readers often miss the full picture. Many applicants juggle significant responsibilities outside of school, like caring for family, working part-time, or living with limited internet access. To address this, 12 colleges have piloted a new approach.
Applicants to these schools were presented with a list of extenuating circumstances and asked to identify those requiring at least four hours of their time weekly. The initiative, led by Making Caring Common and Common App, aims to give credit for these demanding commitments, similar to how traditional extracurricular activities are considered.
