Name: Andy Applicant
DOB: March 1, 1989
Address: 123 University Drive, College Town, USA
Social Security Number: 123-45-6789

Phew. One down, nine more college applications to go...

Name: Andy Applicant
DOB: March 1, 1989...

By now, you probably feel like filling out college applications is a lot like the movie Groundhog Day starring BILL MURRAY -- you just keep reliving the same actions over and over and over again.

If you're one college app' away from stabbing your pen into your eye, head to www.commonapp.org to see if your choice schools accept the Common Application. This single college application form, accepted by 255 colleges across the United States, simplifies the college application process and eliminates the repetition of writing the same information over and over again.

"How many different ways can you fill out a college application?" asks Dr. Joshua J. Reiter, Ed. D., co-founder and president of ApplicationsOnline, LLC, the company that provides the software and technical support for the Common Application online.

Reiter says the form, which can be printed out or completed online, makes college applications simpler by reducing the amount of paper piled on students' and admissions officers' desks.

If the Common Application looks like an easy way out of loads of paperwork, it is. But don't think that reflects poorly on the colleges that accept it. Schools from Adelphi University (Garden City, NY) to Xavier University (New Orleans, LA) accept the Common Application in addition to their own, and some Ivies -- like Yale, Harvard, and Dartmouth -- will only accept the Common Application.

It's a trend that's gaining more momentum since the Common Application and ApplicationsOnline partnered in 1998. "In the first year, if we hit 100 college applications in one day we were jumping up and down with excitement," says Reiter. "On December 31 of last year, we had 15,000 college applications submitted on that one day alone."

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