Welcome to Common App Ready.
Students should navigate to commonapp.org, click on Apply Now to create a new account or to Sign In to an existing account.
Applicants can navigate to the Common App tab to begin working on the Common Application.
To begin the writing portion of the Common App, applicants can navigate to the left side link labeled Writing.
The Writing Section contains the Personal Essay for the Common Application, as well as disciplinary history information and any additional information that you care to provide. Some colleges require the submission of the personal essay with your Common Application.
You may submit a personal essay to any college, even if it is not required by that college. If not required by a college, you will be given the option during submission to include your essay or not for that college. You’ll be asked to confirm that you understand this process when you reach the Writing Section.
The Common Application will provide you a list of colleges that you’ve added to your My Colleges list, and show you the ones that require the personal essay, and those that don’t, so that you know exactly what is expected of you.
The instructions for the essay:
Please write an essay (250-650 words) on the topic selected. You can type directly into the box, or you can paste text from another source.
Please take the time to read through the essay prompts to find the subject that you would like to write your essay on. You need to check the box next to the essay prompt that you select.
The Common App allows applicants to open a full screen text box for ease of writing.
The Disciplinary History Section asks students to respond to two required questions. If Applicants are not sure how to respond to these questions, they should seek input from their parents or school counselor.
If a student responds with a “Yes” to either question, a text box opens to allow the applicant to add the required explanation. Applicants are limited to 400 words in their explanations.
Additional Information
You may use the Additional Information area in the Writing section to share relevant information about yourself that is not captured elsewhere in the application. You may enter up to 650 words in this Additional Information area.
Information about the Applicant Solutions Center
You now have the information you need in order to work on your Writing section. Remember, we’re always ready to help you. If you experience a problem or have a question, let us know by going to the Applicant Help Center and searching the FAQs or clicking the Ask a Question tab. It’s probably a good idea to add ‘appsupport@commonap.org’ to your address book or contact list. We know you’ll have questions, and we are here to answer them. Help us make sure our responses don’t end up in your Spam or Junk folder by adding our support email address to your contact list.