You can roll your Common App account over year-to-year, so there’s no better time than now to open an account, get familiar with the system, and get some of your app work completed.
Create Your Account
There is no preparation required for this step, so you can create your account as early as you’d like. All you’ll need is some basic profile information—like your name, date of birth, address and phone number. And of course, you’ll need to provide a valid email address.
Note: Your email address will become your username and the Common App’s primary method of sending you updates and reminders, so make sure that you provide an email address that you check on a regular basis.
Gather Your General Application Information
While every school has a different list of college-specific requirements, the general application information (the base Common App data) will remain constant for all schools on your list.
You’ll be asked to list your activities, entrance exam scores and exam dates, parent or legal guardian and sibling information, and for some schools your high school grades and courses. Get a head start and save yourself time by collecting this information before you fill out the application.
Specific Requirements
Just like every student is unique, so is every school. No two schools will have the same requirements—so work to understand these requirements early on.
How? The first thing you need to do is read the Application Instructions on each school’s website. Please take the time to read the application instructions in their entirety. On the Common App, you can also check out the Requirements Grid and download the Requirements Tracker worksheet.
Add Schools to Your Dashboard
The Common App presents you with the opportunity to search from more than 700 schools (private, public, large and small), find the ones that meet your needs, and then add them to your My Colleges list—a convenient place to track the work ahead of you.
Once you log in, simply click on the College Search tab to find schools based on their name, location, deadline, or distance from your home.
Note: If you add schools to your Dashboard before the Common App refreshes for the 2018-2019 application year, any data you fill out on the school-specific pages can and most likely will be erased. If you add schools to your Dashboard after the refresh takes place, your information will be saved for the duration of the 2018-2019 application season.
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