The Common Application announced Thursday that it will maintain questions about applicants' criminal background and disciplinary records, rejecting a push to drop the questions. At the same time, the Common Application -- the dominant player in competitive college admissions -- said that it would provide more context about the questions, including the ability of colleges to suppress answers to those questions.
Many colleges have for years included questions about criminal backgrounds and disciplinary records on their applications. The Common App has been asking about criminal records since 2006. In the last two years, however, many groups have been urging colleges to drop the question, noting the discrimination faced by young minority individuals in the criminal justice system and a lack of evidence that colleges are trained to analyze the answers or to tell whether someone in fact poses a threat because of a past criminal record.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/03/10/common-application-announces-it-will-keep-questions-criminal-background-and