It is managed by the staff of a not-for-profit membership association (The Common Application, Inc.) and governed by a 18-member volunteer Board of Directors drawn from the ranks of college admission deans and secondary school college counselors.

Its mission is to promote access, equity, and integrity in the college admission process, which includes subjective factors gleaned from essays and recommendations alongside more objective criteria such as class rank.

[10][11] The Universal College Application was started in 2007[6] and, as of December 2023, had 2 participating institutions.

[13][14] By 2019, the organization was renamed the Coalition for College;[15] that year around 150 universities participated.

Students are able to complete the CBCA and apply to any number of the 67 participating colleges (as of 2022) at the same time for a fee that is typically $20.