Summary Of Damon Beres The Common App Fallacy

In his article “the Common app Fallacy” written in 2008, Damon Beres having been a freshman student in New York University in 2007, criticizes the college board for encouraging the trend of using the common application in the college application process throughout the US. His main purpose is to persuade the readers, who are clearly the college students, to stop applying for whatever colleges they find and to start searching instead for a limited number of schools that they feel are more interesting for them. The author also encourages the colleges to abandon the common application so that they grant admission to those who really deserve it. Even though Beres showed facts and logical arguments rather than statistics that prove his ideas, one

He was argumentative and persuasive in his article to show the hidden reality of the common applications. By presenting facts and logical arguments, Beres could reach his point of view, illustrate them clearly and concisely, and persuade his readers of his opinions. However, he did not show some important statistics that would have been able to convince more people of his main ideas. He was so convinced of what common applications have caused to people since he himself has experienced this fallacy that he talked about in his first paragraph. His arguments were strong and straight to the point. He could show the negativity of common app easily by emphasizing its bad sides and showing how everyone is being harmed and how students are being used by these institutions to gain as much money as they can. If the school’s first concern is to get the best student, it wouldn’t use the common application. Beres also was sarcastic at some point in his article by the tone he used. For instance when he said: “spitting applications out like bitter saliva”, “process of point-and-click” and “besides pulling in easy money from application fees, what benefit does it provide?”. He made sure his sarcasm highlights the illogicality of the common app and warns his readers about it. As a result, the author succeeded finally in explaining the negative aspects of the common

Now, because of this trend, students tend to apply anywhere disregarding their desire of school and their interest of program instead of searching for colleges that their programs might suit them best. Then after they get accepted to one or more of the schools they applied to, they decide which one to go to. This whole process is “only making things worse for everyone” as Beres said. The student who got accepted at one school that he is not interested in has taken the spot of an interested student, and might end up changing schools. That is how both students as well as the university are being hurt by this whole process. However, even though the author’s suggestion that charging more the students might terminate this hustle, is valid to some extent, this could be done in another way since college board is not the only one to blame here. If universities start caring about their students and focusing on accepting the ones who truly deserve them rather than making use of students and stealing their money, they would realize that getting rid of the common application will make things better for everyone. Universities should start creating their own applications that would be more personal and would let the students express their interests in the school. By doing so, schools would be able to differentiate between the applicants that are really interested in them and the ones who are