Create Your Common App Account
This section should take approximately 10 minutes.
Items in Common App marked with a red asterisk * are required. Students are not required to complete items that do not have the red asterisk.
Introduction
In this section, you will:
- Create your Common App account
- Learn about each of the five main tabs of Common App: Dashboard, My Colleges, Common App, College Search, and Financial Aid Resources
Later sections of the AXS Companion to Common App will provide specific guidance for each section of Common App.
In this video, Karen Richardson, Dean of Admission at Princeton University, welcomes students to the college search and provides advice regarding preparing an authentic application. This video takes approximately 3 minutes.
Preview
This is an example of the starting page in Common App.
Before You Begin
To create a Common App account, you will need:
- Your phone number, email address, and home address
- Access to a computer or cell phone
You can open the AXS Companion to Common App and Common App side by side on your computer screen.
Videos
In this video, we explain how to create a Common App Account. The goal of this step is to share your contact information with the colleges where you are applying. This section should take approximately 5 minutes to complete.
In this video, we give an overview of the five tabs on Common App: Dashboard, My Colleges, Common App, College Search, and Financial Aid Resources. The purpose of this section is to explain what the different parts of the application do. This video should take approximately 4 minutes.
Tips & Reminders
- When you create a Common App account, be careful to enter information correctly. The information entered here will populate other parts of the application, so make sure that your name, address, phone number, and email address are all spelled correctly, and that names and other proper nouns, such as names of people or cities, are capitalized.
- Email addresses should be appropriate to share with an admissions office.
- When creating your account, enter your given name to be consistent with high school transcripts and other official documents such as your birth certificate or driver’s license.
- If you have additional questions, Common App Solutions Center has information for applicants, counselors, and recommenders.