Application Preparation

How to approach the Common App

Work through the application in stages: gather your details, finish the shared sections, then handle each college's own questions. Check every college's requirements as you go.

Common App is an online application used by its member colleges. You fill in one main set of answers, called My Common Application, and it goes to each college you apply to. Each college can add its own questions and requirements. Plan your work around that split.

How the application is built

  • My Common Application: Shared sections, including your profile, family, education, testing, activities and writing.
  • College-specific questions: Each college's own questions, which can include short essays.
  • Writing supplements: Separate essays that some colleges use.
  • Recommenders and FERPA: Where you sign a privacy release and invite your counselor, teachers and others.
  • Review and submit: Where you check a preview, sign and pay any fee, one college at a time.

A sensible order

  1. Create your account with your legal name, as it appears on school documents, and an email address you will keep after you graduate.
  2. Gather what you need: your school details, current classes, family information, test dates if you are reporting scores, and your activity details.
  3. Add your colleges and read each one's requirements page.
  4. Finish the shared sections. Colleges can tailor their questions to your answers, so some questions may appear only after you complete these sections.
  5. Draft your personal essay, then move to college-specific writing.
  6. Complete the FERPA release, then invite your recommenders. Ask them in person first.
  7. Review the preview for each college, slowly, then submit before the deadline.

Fees and fee waivers

Using the platform is free, though some colleges charge an application fee. If cost is a concern, talk to your counselor early. If you qualify for a Common App fee waiver, your counselor confirms it.

AI tools and honesty

Asking an AI tool for feedback, such as whether a paragraph is clear, is very different from having it write for you, and colleges draw the line in different places. Either way, the words and experiences in your application must be your own. Do not ask a tool to write your essay, and do not paste in what it writes.

When you submit, you sign an affirmation that your application is your own work, true and honestly presented. False information can lead to serious results, including a withdrawn offer.

After you submit

What you send to a college stays as sent. To add something, contact that college directly. Common App allows edits to your personal essay after your first submission, and those edits apply to later submissions, so you can improve it for the next college. Check your email and each college's portal for requests.

What to do next

Open the application checklist and work through it for each college. Then start your activities with How to write an activities list.

Sources

Reviewed October 2026.

Peakscor is independent and isn’t affiliated with any college. Common App is a trademark of The Common Application, Inc., which is not affiliated with, and does not endorse, Peakscor.