The Common App: A Section-by-Section Guide

The Common Application is used by over 1,000 US colleges and is almost certainly the platform you'll use to apply. It's free to create an account, the structure is the same across schools, and once you fill it out, you can submit to any participating college. The challenge for international students isn't the platform itself. It's the dozens of US-specific fields that assume you went to a US high school, live at a US address, and know what "honors" means in the American sense. This guide walks through every Common App section, flags the fields where international students stumble, and tells you how to fill each one correctly.

Key Takeaways

The Common App has seven main sections: Profile, Family, Education, Testing, Activities, Writing, and Courses & Grades
International-specific fields appear in Profile (citizenship, language, fee waiver) and Education (curriculum, grading scale)
You can save and edit any section before submitting. Nothing is locked until you hit "submit" for a specific school
Use the activities section strategically: 10 slots, 50 character titles, 150 character descriptions
Each school adds its own supplemental questions and essays in the "My Colleges" tab

How the Common App Is Structured

The Common App separates the universal part (filled out once and shared with every school) from the school-specific part (different supplements for each college you add).

The universal Common App tab contains:

Section	What It Covers
Profile	Your name, address, citizenship, language, demographics
Family	Parents and siblings, their education and occupations
Education	Your high school, curriculum, grading, future plans
Testing	SAT, ACT, AP, IB, English proficiency scores
Activities	Up to 10 extracurricular activities
Writing	Your 650-word personal statement
Courses & Grades	Self-reported coursework (some schools require)

The "My Colleges" tab contains everything school-specific: questions, supplements, recommendations, and the submission button for each school you add.

Profile Section

This is where most international students hit their first wall.

Citizenship and visa status. The Common App asks for your citizenship status with options like "U.S. Citizen," "U.S. Permanent Resident," "Other" (with a country dropdown), and "Refugee." If you're a citizen of a country other than the US, select "Other" and choose your country. This automatically marks you as an international applicant for most schools.

Current visa status. Only relevant if you're already in the US on a visa. If you live in your home country, you can skip this. If you're studying at a US boarding school on an F-1 visa, select F-1.

Languages. List every language you speak, including your native language. Indicate proficiency (Speak, Read, Write, Speak at Home, First Language). This signals genuine multilingualism, which strengthens your international applicant profile. Don't underclaim. If you grew up speaking Mandarin at home, mark "First Language" and "Speak at Home" even if your school instruction was in English.

Permanent address. Use your home country address. The Common App accepts non-US addresses; just select your country first and the form will adjust.

Fee waiver. US students can request a Common App fee waiver based on income. International students typically cannot use the standard Common App waiver. However, individual schools have their own international fee waiver processes. Check each school's website. Schools like NYU, USC, and many liberal arts colleges offer waivers if your family's income meets certain criteria.

The Common App fee waiver question itself is short. The longer process is contacting each school's admissions office individually with proof of financial need. Start this in September if you plan to request waivers.

Family Section

This section asks about your parents and siblings, their occupations, and their educational backgrounds. It's mostly for context.

Parental education. US schools want to know if you'd be a "first-generation" college student. The definition varies. Most schools count you as first-gen if neither parent earned a four-year degree from any country (US or otherwise). If your parents earned bachelor's degrees in your home country, you're not first-gen, even if their degrees aren't from US institutions.

Parental occupation. Use the standardized US occupation list provided. If your parent's job doesn't fit perfectly, choose the closest match. There's also a free-text field for the company name and your parent's specific title.

Sibling info. List each sibling, their age, their educational status, and their schools. If a sibling attended a US college, list it. Some schools (especially smaller ones) note legacy connections, but for international students this rarely matters.

Education Section

The most US-centric section. Every field here was designed with US high schools in mind.

Current school. Search for your high school in the Common App database. Most international high schools are listed by their CEEB code (a six-digit College Board identifier). If your school isn't in the database, you can manually enter it.

Counselor. This is the person who'll write your school's official letter and submit your transcript. At international schools, the "counselor" role is usually filled by your homeroom teacher, IB coordinator, or college office staff. Make sure they have a Common App recommender account.

Class rank. Many international schools don't rank students. If yours doesn't, select "None" and your counselor will confirm in their school report. Schools understand this. You will not be penalized.

GPA scale. Enter your school's actual scale (e.g., out of 100, out of 20, A-F, IB 7-point scale). Don't try to convert to a US 4.0 scale. Admissions officers prefer to see your real numbers and will recontextualize them based on your school profile.

Curriculum. Indicate your curriculum: IB, A-Levels, AP, French Baccalaureate, German Abitur, national curriculum, etc. This is a critical field. Schools use it to interpret your grades.

Future plans. This asks about your degree goals. Most international students applying to US undergrad programs select "Bachelor's." For career interest, choose the closest match from the dropdown or "Undecided." This field has zero impact on admissions decisions.

For more on translating your transcript, see our guide to US GPA conversion.

Testing Section

You self-report scores here. The actual official score reports come directly from the testing agencies (College Board for SAT and AP, ACT for ACT, ETS for TOEFL).

SAT/ACT. If you've taken the test, enter your scores. You can choose to apply test-optional at schools that allow it, in which case you simply don't enter scores.

English proficiency tests. Most US colleges require TOEFL or IELTS for international students whose primary instruction language was not English. Some schools waive this requirement if you've attended a school with English as the primary language of instruction for 3-4 years. Check each school's policy. See our TOEFL vs IELTS comparison for more.

AP, IB, A-Level scores. Self-report here. Predicted IB or A-Level scores can be entered if exams haven't been taken yet. Schools weight these heavily for international applicants.

Self-reported scores can be entered even before the official report arrives. But you must send official scores to your final enrolled school. Schools will rescind admission if your final transcript or scores don't match what you self-reported.

Activities Section

You get 10 slots. Most students fill 6-10. Empty slots are fine if your activities are strong; padding with weak activities hurts more than it helps.

For each activity, you have:

Activity type. Pick from the dropdown (Athletics: Club, Athletics: JV/Varsity, Music: Instrumental, Community Service, Family Responsibilities, etc.). Be honest. The "Other" category is fine if nothing fits.
Position/Leadership description. 50 characters. Lead with your specific role and an action verb. "Founder & President" is stronger than "Member."
Activity name and details. 150 characters. This is your real estate. Pack it with specifics: what you did, what you accomplished, how many people you led, what changed because of you.
Time commitment. Hours per week and weeks per year. Be accurate. Schools cross-check with recommendations.
Years involved. Tick off Grades 9-12 and post-graduation as applicable.

Activities are listed in order of importance, not chronologically. Put your strongest, most distinctive activity at slot one. See our full guide on how to describe activities on the Common App for examples.

Intl2US's Activity Optimizer takes your raw activities and rewrites them in Common App format with action verbs, metrics, and impact framing, then ranks them by strength so you know which to feature first.

Writing Section

This is your 650-word personal statement.

You choose one of seven prompts (the seventh is a free choice). Write the essay in a separate document, polish it, then paste it in. The Common App has a word counter that shows your usage. Stay under 650; ideally between 500-650.

Common pitfalls for international students:

Writing about visiting the US (cliché)
Generic "international student" essays about cultural difference
Choosing the most ambitious-sounding topic instead of the most specific story you can tell

For the full breakdown of how to approach this essay, read our Common App personal statement guide.

Courses & Grades

This optional section lets you self-report all your high school coursework. Some schools (especially large state universities and some selective privates) require this. Check each school's policy.

For international students, this is tedious but doable. Enter each subject, the year you took it, and the grade you received in your school's actual scale. Don't convert.

If your school sends an official transcript with full course details, the C&G section is redundant. But if a school requires it, fill it out completely.

My Colleges Tab

This is where everything school-specific lives.

For each school you add:

Questions. School-specific demographic, academic, or interest questions
Recommenders. You assign your teacher recommenders to specific schools
Writing supplement. School-specific essays (the "Why us," activity expansion, identity essays, etc.)
Application. Submit and pay button
FERPA waiver. A one-time waiver where you confirm you'll waive your right to read your recommendations after enrollment. Always waive. Not waiving signals to admissions officers that your recommenders may have written something you don't want them to share.

Each school's supplements have their own deadlines. Many internationals miss the fact that the supplement section is also due by the application deadline. Submitting the main Common App without the supplement does not count as submitted.

For supplemental essay strategy, Intl2US's Essay Coach gives feedback on each draft and helps you adapt your core narrative for each school's specific prompt without making it sound generic.

Submission Mechanics

You don't submit "the Common App." You submit your Common App to a specific school. Each school has its own submit button under My Colleges. Once you click submit, that school's application is locked. You can still edit your Common App for other schools you haven't submitted to yet.

The deadline that matters is the school's deadline (e.g., November 1 for Early Action, January 1 for Regular Decision), not a Common App deadline. The Common App tracks your local time zone and submits according to the school's stated time zone (usually their local time).

After submission:

Application Confirmation: You receive an email confirming receipt
Transcript and recommendations: Your counselor and teachers submit these separately through their own portals
Application portal access: Each school sends you a link to a separate portal (Slate, Liaison, etc.) where you can track status

Common Mistakes International Students Make

A short list of patterns we see often:

Converting their GPA to a US 4.0 scale instead of leaving it in the original
Leaving the language section blank or underreporting fluency
Filling activities chronologically instead of by importance
Forgetting to assign recommenders to each individual school
Missing the FERPA waiver checkbox entirely
Submitting the main app without realizing supplements are still pending
Using a personal email address that bounces (your school email may filter Common App messages to spam)

Read our common mistakes guide for the broader version, including patterns that go beyond the Common App itself.

When to Start Filling It Out

The Common App opens August 1 each year. You can create an account anytime, but the new application year resets every August.

The realistic timeline:

August: Create account. Fill out Profile and Family sections (these don't change).
September: Complete Education and Testing sections. Start drafting your personal statement.
October: Polish personal statement. Begin school-specific supplements for EA/ED schools.
November 1: Submit EA/ED applications.
November-December: Complete supplements for Regular Decision schools.
January 1-15: Submit RD applications.

The Common App itself is not the hard part. The hard part is the supplements, the essays, and the strategy behind which schools to apply to. The Common App is the form. Fill it out cleanly and move on.