Karl Furstenberg, Dartmouth's director of admissions and financial aid, says Harvard's decision influenced Dartmouth, though Dartmouth had also been considering the common application.

But he says Dartmouth will continue using its old application because "you say a lot about how you make admissions decisions by the questions that you ask."

Using the standard form will "reintroduce equity into the admissions process," Furstenberg said.

"The college admissions process has become one in which people who are affluent have lots of resources, prep courses, access to electronic applications," he says. "To me the common application removes some of that," he says.

Officials at Cornell, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania said they are not considering accepting the common application.

Lee J. Stetson Jr., dean of admissions at U. Penn., told the Dartmouth student newspaper that the common application is "a shallow way of reaching people" who do not want to complete multiple forms.

An administrative assistant at Brown who asked for anonymity says, "We have many questions about the common application. We have a copy of it. We have no idea when we would implement it."

Princeton dean of admissions Fred Hargadon did not return telephone calls.

The Old Form's Legacy

The adoption of the new application sounds the death knell for the Harvard application, but the old form lives on in the memories of administrators, professors and students who remember filling it out.

Some, such as Thomas A. Dingman '67, assistant dean of the College, remember their essays vividly.

"It was about a summer job I had, as an instructor at a tennis club, and how there was a particular student who made my work difficult by demanding attention," he said. "As a 16-year-old, I remember trying to work around it, and as I did, I became more understanding about people who are difficult or abnormal."

But perhaps some don't remember it at all. More than one administrator told The Crimson that Seamus P. Malin '62, director of the international office, did not complete an application at all.

"He didn't know you had to apply, and just showed up," one administrator says.

Malin denies the rumor.

"This great myth of my application has been enjoyed over the cocktail circuit over the past years," says Malin, who is originally from Ireland. "I did apply, just past the deadline."