The shared sections
The 2026-27 Common App has six shared sections that you fill in once for every college: Profile, Family, Education, Testing, Activities and experiences, and Writing, where your personal essay runs up to 650 words.
| Section | What you fill in |
|---|---|
| Profile | Personal details, contact and citizenship |
| Family | Parents, guardians and siblings |
| Education | Your school, grades, up to 5 honors and future plans |
| Testing | SAT, ACT and English test scores you choose to report (official score reports are sent separately) |
| Activities and experiences | Up to 10 activities, plus family responsibilities and circumstances |
| Writing | A personal essay of up to 650 words, additional information of up to 300 and the challenges question of up to 250 |
What changes for international applicants
For the 2026-27 cycle, only a few things change for international applicants: your citizenship answer, the fees, extra questions at some colleges, and whether a college uses the Common App at all, since MIT and the University of California do not.
- Citizenship status: choose "citizen of a non-U.S. country" if you are a foreign national living abroad without a US green card. Students at a US school on a non-immigrant visa choose it too, and then add their visa details.
- Fees: you pay each college's international application fee where one applies, and more than 500 colleges charge international applicants nothing. Fee waivers are not guaranteed, because each college sets its own policy for international students.
- Extra questions: some colleges add their own questions for international students.
- Colleges outside the Common App: MIT and the University of California use their own applications. Georgetown joined the Common App for 2026-27 and still accepts its own application too.
What your school sends
Your counselor submits the School Report with your official transcript, the courses you are taking now and a key to your school's grading scale. The school does not have to report a GPA or a class rank. Schools outside the US can also fill in an international supplement, which compares their scale with A to F and lists final or predicted exam results.
If your school has no college counselor, invite any school official with access to your academic records, ideally someone who can speak to your performance. The recommendation letters guide explains how.
Your grades on the form
Do not invent a GPA. Report grades as your school records them, or follow the instruction of the college that asks. If your school does not calculate a cumulative GPA, leave the GPA field blank: it is not required. The international grades guide covers each curriculum and how a GPA estimate works.
Step by step
Applying through the Common App takes six steps, from creating your account, which you can do before the season opens on 1 August, to paying each college's fee, such as US$75 at Michigan or US$95 at Harvard in 2026-27, and submitting.
- Create your account. You can start before August: your answers in the shared sections, including your essay, roll over when the new season opens. Leave each college's questions for the year you apply.
- Fill in the shared sections. They go to every college on your list.
- Add your colleges. Up to 20, under My Colleges.
- Answer each college's questions. Including the supplemental essays, which vary by college.
- Invite your recommenders. Sign the FERPA release, invite your counselor and teachers and assign each to your colleges. Teachers only get the email after you assign them.
- Review, pay and submit. Each college charges its own fee: US$75 at Michigan and US$95 at Harvard, for example.
After you submit to one college, you can still edit your essay as often as you like, but the changes only reach colleges you have not submitted to yet.