Guide to the Common Application

Since more than a thousand colleges across the United States use the Common Application, chances are you’ll be using it for your college applications. At first, the site might seem overwhelming, given that you have to input a lot of information about yourself. But if you sit down and take it one section at a time and stay organized, you should have no problem getting through the portal. Use this guide to support you.

To prepare to complete the Common App, make sure you have access to your high school transcript, a list of your extracurricular activities, your parents’ educational and employment information, your test scores, and contact information for your recommenders.

When you make an account on the Common Application website, you’ll fill out information that falls under the following categories:

Profile – The Profile section helps admission officers get an overview of your background. It includes questions about your name, address, contact information, demographics such as religion and race, geographical location, languages you speak, and citizenship. All of this helps colleges learn more about you and your context—as well as gather data on applicants. While this portion might seem very straightforward, it’s important to do a careful and thorough job filling out each section.

Family – You’ll be asked to provide your parents’ marital status, their professions, their educational background information (including their schools and graduation years), and their employment status (whether they are employed, retired, a homemaker, or deceased). If you’re applying to one of your parents’ or siblings’ alma maters, admissions committees may take your legacy status into account. Legacy does not guarantee admission to a college, but depending on the college, it may give applicants an extra edge.

Education – The Education section asks for information about your current or most recent secondary/high school, your high school counselor’s contact info, any college classes you’ve taken, your grades, most recent courses, and any honors and awards you’ve earned. The honors section is where you’ll enter any academic awards or achievements you’ve earned in high school, starting in the ninth grade. Keep your description succinct, with a focus on your achievements, as you can only use 100 characters per award. Always put your most significant educational achievement first. For tips on how to make the most of this section, see our blog post here.

Testing – This section asks you to self-report the results of any tests you have taken. These include standardized tests (such as the SAT or ACT), tests based on what you’ve studied in high school (such as the AP or IB exams), or tests that show your English language proficiency, such as IELTS or TOEFL, if applicable.

Look at each of your colleges’ test requirement policies. Make sure to order your scores to be sent from the College Board or the ACT websites to schools that need an official test score.

Activities – The Activities section allows you to write about up to ten extracurriculars that you’ve participated in throughout high school. You only have 150 characters to describe each activity, so make sure you are optimizing the space by summarizing your role and impact in each activity, rather than including general descriptions. This section asks for the following information:

• Activity type
• Position/leadership description + name of organization
• Activity description
• Participation grade levels: 9, 10, 11, 12
• Timing of participation: all year, summer, school break, etc.
• Hours spent per week
• Weeks spent per year
• Intent to continue in college: yes, no

To make the most of your Activities section, consider these quick tips:

• List your activities in order of their importance to you.
• Don’t describe the activity or organization; describe your role within it.
• Highlight leadership, commitment, and accomplishment.
• You don’t need to use complete sentences.

You can use our guide here to learn more about how to write a strong Activities list.

Personal Statement – You can use this year’s Common App prompts for inspiration, but there is no requirement that you need to respond to these prompts. The important thing is that you show colleges who you are, rather than writing what you think colleges want to hear. Here’s the list of the Common App prompts—but if you scroll to the end, you can see that you can write about anything you want!

• Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
• The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
• Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
• Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?
• Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
• Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?
• Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

Your Common App essay is a chance for you to show admissions readers who you are, what makes you tick, and where your interests lie. Dig deep and consider the things that matter to you and what story you want to tell. Use our guide to further brainstorm your Personal Statement essay.

Additional Information

Finally, there’s  the Additional Information section. Keep in mind that this section is entirely optional, and admissions committees will be focusing on the non-optional sections of your application first. This section has two sub-categories:

• Additional Information – This is an optional section usually used to explain something significant that isn’t addressed in other parts of your application. These might include non-traditional grading systems or a sudden drop in grades; or this section could address any family responsibilities or health conditions that have significantly impacted you. If you have important extracurricular activities that don’t fit in your Activities section, you can include those here–but keep your descriptions as brief and informative as the entries in your Activities list.
• Community Disruptions Essay – This is an optional short essay where students who were significantly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic or other natural disasters can share extraordinary challenges they faced. Examples of challenges include disruptions in “health and well-being, safety, family circumstances, future plans, and education, including access to reliable technology and quiet study spaces.” Only include this essay if you truly were impacted by the pandemic or a natural disaster in a way that’s reflected in your application.

Once you’ve gotten through these parts of the Common Application that will go to all colleges, check for school-specific supplements and questions that will go to each individual college. Carefully read over your Common App before you submit it to schools—check that you’ve avoided typos, haven’t mixed up digits, and that you’ve accurately highlighted your best achievements. Hopefully, the system helps make the process easier for you. Good luck!