The Common Application (Common App) is a centralised US university application platform used by over 1,000 institutions, allowing students to submit one set of core information to multiple universities.
The Common App (commonapp.org) streamlines the US university application process: students complete one profile — academic history, activities, a personal essay — and submit it to as many member universities as they choose, with university-specific supplemental essays added individually.
The Common App includes: personal details, education history, test scores, activities list (up to 10 activities), one 650-word personal essay (from 7 prompts), and school forms submitted by a counselor and two teachers. Each university then specifies additional supplemental essays.
For Pakistani students applying to US universities, Common App is the starting point for most applications. Create an account early — August or September for November early round deadlines. The counselor form is often unfamiliar to Pakistani school staff; brief your school principal about the requirement well in advance. Note: MIT uses its own portal, and UC schools use a separate UC application — these are not submitted through Common App.
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