The Common Application was designed to increase access to higher education by streamlining the college-application process. To at least some degree, it has succeeded, according to evidence in a new working paper by researchers at Cornell University.

Colleges that adopt the Common Application increase their applications by 5.7 to 7 percent, increase their admissions by 4.3 to 5.9 percent, and raise their enrollments by 3.7 percent, the researchers found. Accepting the Common Application was also associated with a sizable increase in the percentage of minority students in a college’s admissions-applicant pool, as well as a small increase in the number of Pell Grant recipients.

Yet different types of institutions may use the Common Application for different reasons, the researchers found: Colleges with lower average SAT scores are more likely to see the Common Application as a means of attracting applicants and increasing enrollments, while more-competitive colleges tend to benefit from the fact that increases in applications lower their acceptance rates, enhancing their “perceived selectivity.”

The paper, “Diffusion of Common Application Membership and Admissions Outcomes at American Colleges and Universities,” is available on the Web site of the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute. —Eric Hoover