Beginning in April 2016, a new college application system, The Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success will be available to all high school students. The Coalition, an alternative to the Common Application, represents over 80 higher education institutions. It aims to engage many students earlier with their college plans.

The new system will allow high school students to start using Coalition in their freshman year, whereas students can only use the Common App in senior year.

The initiative to create a new system derived from several colleges who noticed the high frequency of glitches and problems in the Common App system.

College counselors describe the Coalition as “virtual college lockers” that store academic and non-academic work such as photos, art or anything that represents the experiences of the students over their four years.

Guidance counselor Jeremy Wang said, “For this Coalition, I’m not sure how successful it will be, but I do see some really good points about the system.”

Assistant Principal Veronica York said, “I think both [systems] will be up and running and competitive like the SATs and ACTs.”