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More than 80 of the most selective colleges and universities are teaming up to design a new application system that aims to deepen engagement with high school students, especially those from low-income families.

By next summer, the Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success plans to unveil an online application that will be an alternative to the widely used Common Application. The coalition announced Monday includes 52 private and 31 public schools. Its membership includes the Ivy League, other highly selective liberal arts colleges and research universities, and public flagship campuses in states such as Florida, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia.

At many of the schools, the application would take effect for students who are now high school juniors, while others could adopt it more slowly.

Applying to selective colleges is an annual rite that has become more intense in recent years. The peak of the stress hits in the fall of senior year, when students are racing to meet early application deadlines in October and November. At ultra-selective schools, admission rates have plunged to as low as 5 percent (at Stanford University) while application totals have soared. Students from wealthy families, with access to top teachers, counselors, tutors and consultants, are much better equipped to navigate application season than those who come from poverty. Often, disadvantaged students with strong credentials will apply to only a few schools in their region, in the mistaken belief that they couldn’t get into or afford elite schools elsewhere.

“The college admission process today can be stress-inducing, and we know it can present barriers for all students, especially for those who are the first in their family to attend college,” said Zina L. Evans, vice president for enrollment management at the University of Florida.

Florida and others in the coalition joined together to fashion what officials say will be a less-stressful and more user-friendly approach to thinking about college, one that helps underprivileged students raise their ambitions. They envision that students will use free online tools from as early as ninth grade to begin assembling an academic self-portrait and a list of possible colleges that might fit their goals. The first set of planning tools will be introduced in January.

“This is going to be a way to level the playing field,” said David W. Oxtoby, president of Pomona College in California, which belongs to the coalition.

The coalition arose partly in response to concerns about the Common App, which serves more than 600 colleges and universities and is a dominant force in the admissions field. The Common App weathered heavy criticism two years ago when it rolled out a new version of its online application that was plagued with technical glitches. Those glitches have since been solved. Oxtoby said Pomona plans to continue to use the Common Application, as well as the coalition’s own application. “Competition is always good,” he said.

[<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/common-app-glitches-frustrate-students-expose-vulnerabilities-in-admissions-system/2013/10/21/704672c6-373f-11e3-ae46-e4248e75c8ea_story.html">In 2013: Common App glitches exposed vulnerabilities in admission system</a>, and application deadlines <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/common-app-glitches-lead-to-deadline-extensions-for-applicants-to-43-colleges/2013/10/30/35ca8a84-4166-11e3-a751-f032898f2dbc_story.html">were extended at many colleges</a>.]

Aba Blankson, a spokeswoman for the Common App, said the organization has <a href="http://www.commonapp.org">redesigned its Web site</a> and taken other steps recently to help engage college-bound students. Asked about the coalition, Blankson said a primary goal of the Common App is to improve access for all students. “We’re focused on doing what we’ve been doing for the last 40 years,” Blankson said. “Helping more students apply to college, and helping them find the right fit.”

Barbara Gill, associate vice president for enrollment management at the University of Maryland, another coalition member, said that too often college planning is “condensed into a very short window in the beginning of senior year. That creates a lot of frenzy.” Getting more students to plan earlier, she said, “could decrease some of that.”

Gill said some of the coalition’s planning tools would be like an online “locker,” allowing students to upload videos, photographs or other work that documents their academic record. That would help them talk about college goals with counselors and other experts. She said College Park does not plan to drop any of its core application requirements. Applicants will still be required to submit a transcript, an essay, admission test scores and recommendations.

College planning tools are hardly new. Many high schools pay private vendors to provide their students with online college research and planning services, such as Naviance. But the coalition says that its tools will be available for free, making them attractive to high schools with tight budgets.

To join the coalition, colleges and universities must have a six-year graduation rate of at least 70 percent. Those that are public must have tuition deemed affordable for in-state students, and those that are private must commit to meeting the full, demonstrated financial need of every domestic student they admit. “We want to make sure the universities and colleges that participate have a proven track record,” Gill said.

Here is the full list of coalition members:

Amherst College 
Bates College 
Bowdoin College 
Brown University 
Bryn Mawr College 
California Institute of Technology 
Carleton College 
Clemson University 
Colby College 
Colgate University 
College of Holy Cross 
College of William & Mary 
Colorado College 
Columbia University 
Connecticut College 
Cornell University 
Dartmouth College 
Davidson College 
Duke University 
Emory University 
Franklin and Marshall College 
Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering 
Georgia Institute of Technology 
Grinnell College 
Hamilton College 
Harvard University 
Haverford College 
Illinois State University 
Indiana University – Bloomington 
James Madison University 
Johns Hopkins University 
Miami University – Ohio 
Michigan State University 
Middlebury College 
Mount Holyoke College 
North Carolina State University at Raleigh 
Northeastern University 
Northwestern University 
Oberlin College 
Ohio State University 
Penn State 
Pomona College 
Princeton University 
Purdue University 
Reed College 
Rice University 
Rutgers University – New Brunswick 
Skidmore College 
Smith College 
St Olaf College 
Stanford University 
State University of New York – College at Geneseo 
State University of New York – University at Buffalo 
Swarthmore College 
Texas A&M University 
Tufts University 
Union College 
University of Chicago 
University of Connecticut 
University of Florida 
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 
University of Maryland – College Park 
University of Michigan 
University of Minnesota – Twin Cities 
University of Missouri 
University of New Hampshire 
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
University of Notre Dame 
University of Pennsylvania 
University of Pittsburgh 
University of Rochester 
University of South Carolina 
University of Vermont 
University of Virginia 
University of Washington 
Vanderbilt University 
Vassar College 
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University 
Washington University in St. Louis 
Wellesley College 
Wesleyan University 
Williams College 
Yale University

Education Writers Association 2016 national award for beat reporting, large newsrooms

Stanford University, bachelor's degree in English

Nick Anderson covers higher education and other education topics for The Washington Post. He has been a writer and editor at The Post since 2005.