The Common App is the shared platform used to apply to most American universities: more than 1,100 member institutions in 2026-2027, over sixty of them outside the United States. French families often start with the essay in mind. But half of the file does not depend on the student: it depends on the school, and that is where French lycées, unused to these procedures, need guidance.
What the Common App contains
The part completed by the student covers their profile, family, education, tests, activities and main essay. The Common App opens every year on 1 August, but an account created earlier rolls over from one year to the next. For 2026-2027, the essay prompts are unchanged from the previous year, and the activities section is now called "Activities and experiences", with the same character limits.
Each university then adds its own questions and often supplemental essays. English proficiency tests, TOEFL, PTE Academic or the Duolingo English Test, are also reported in the application when a university asks for one.
The personal statement: the word limit
The main essay, often called the personal statement, runs to at most 650 words. It is short, and it is a genre French schools do not teach: a personal, first-person narrative that shows who the student is rather than what they achieved. Do not confuse it with the British personal statement, which goes through UCAS, is counted in characters and answers three questions.
The school's role: the part the family does not fill in
The Common App includes several documents sent directly by the school:
- The school report, required, with transcripts and the school profile.
- The counsellor recommendation, a letter that places the student within the school.
- The midyear report, sent as soon as first-term or first-semester grades of the final year are available.
- The final report, sent after an offer has been accepted, with the latest results.
In the United States, these documents are the job of the school counsellor, a dedicated professional. That role does not exist in a French lycée. The school has to designate someone, often a deputy head or the student's head teacher (professeur principal), willing to create an account, upload transcripts and write the letter. This needs organising from the spring of the penultimate year.
Transcripts and the school profile
French school reports raise two issues. Language first: documents in a language other than English come with a translation, and Harvard specifies that applicants should not translate their own documents. The grading scale next: a 15 out of 20 needs explaining. That is the job of the school profile, a short document presenting the school, its tracks, its grading and the distribution of grades.
Many French lycées do not have one. The Common App nonetheless provides schools with resources to write one. A school that sends students to the United States every year usually has one; for the others, helping to build it is part of the application work.
Teachers' letters
Most selective universities ask for one or two teacher letters, in addition to the counsellor's. An American letter tells a story about a student: concrete examples from class, how they reason, what they bring to others. A French teacher more readily writes a brief, general comment, which carries no weight next to letters from an American school. The right move is to choose early two teachers who know the student well, and give them the material they need, without ever writing in their place.
Example: the 2026-2027 calendar. The Common App opens on 1 August 2026. Early applications in early November, regular ones in early January. Midyear report as soon as first-term grades of the final year are in, final report after an offer is accepted. Each university sets its own dates.
Preparing the Common App from a French lycée
The Common App is prepared on two parallel fronts. The student's: activities pursued over several years, the essay, the tests. The school's: designating a contact, writing the school profile, preparing teachers for the letters. The second is the one most often neglected, and the one that sinks the most strong applications. The general mechanics are in Do US universities accept the French baccalaureate?, and the essay in Getting into the Ivy League from France.
At Carmine, we support both: the student with their file and essays, the school with its documents, in step with the family. That is often what separates a good student from a file an American university can read.