Common App School Report for International Schools

Common App School Report for International Schools

At a school outside the US, the Common App School Report is usually completed by whoever acts as counselor: a principal, vice principal, dean or teacher if there is no counselor. It needs the transcript with a legend, and has three fields that do the most damage when guessed: class rank, GPA scale and the curriculum-rigor box.

Our view: a weak letter hurts one part of the file, but those three wrong blanks change how a reader reads every mark. A rank entered for a school that does not rank, a GPA scale invented to fit the form, or "Most demanding" ticked with no profile to show what the options were: each one hands the reader a number or label they cannot check.

The School Report, counselor recommendation and mid-year report quoted here are Common App's PDF forms marked © 2026 (files created July 2026). The forms name no cycle year, so we read them as the 2026–27 versions; the online forms may lay the questions out differently. The final and optional reports are quoted from Common App's 2025–26 print previews hosted by Harvard College, because we did not find a 2026 file for those two. College pages were checked on October 30, 2026.

On this page:

• Who can be the "counselor"
• Counselor details, school details and the international supplement
• Class rank and GPA when your school uses neither
• The rigor box: what "Most demanding" means in your system
• Ratings and the recommendation summary
• The community-disruption box (500 words)
• Mid-year, final and optional reports for exam-based schools
• Your School Report check, in order
• Questions about the Common App School Report

Who can be the "counselor"

Colleges expect a school official. Five of them, in their words:

Not on that list: a private consultant, an agent or a parent. Common App's fraud policy lists, among its examples of fraud, "using fictitious or materially inaccurate applicant, counselor, or recommender contact information" and "Circumventing the use of official counselor communication channels." Stanford says it "does not partner or work with paid agents or credentialing services", and Columbia that it "does not authorize or work with any independent agents anywhere in the world for our recruitment efforts."

If you are a principal taking this on for the first time, two related guides: who should own the Common App account when a family or agent offers to "manage" it, and applying to US colleges without a counselor from the student's side.

Counselor details, school details and the international supplement

The first page asks for your title, phone "Include country code, number, and extension (if applicable)", email and school address. Use a school email address, not a personal one. A college that needs to check something will write to it.

The school-profile block then asks: "Is your school located outside of the United States? If you answer yes, please complete the international supplement." The print form does not reproduce the supplement's questions, so we do not list them here; you will see them online after answering yes.

Other fields on that block were written with US schools in mind. Answer them literally:

• "How many courses does your school offer: AP / IB / Honors / Cambridge". If the answer is zero, enter zero. Your school profile explains what you offer instead.
• "If school policy limits the number a student may take in a given year, please list the maximum allowed". If your timetable caps subjects, the profile is where you explain the cap.
• "Approximately when are mid-year grades typically available?" Give the real date for your calendar, even if your school year starts in January or June.
• The percentage fields ("will be attending 4-year college", "are non-US citizens" and the US racial and income categories). Our recommendation: fill in the ones your school can count; leave a US-only category blank rather than estimate it.

If your school has no CEEB code, the Common App guide for international students covers what the student enters in their Education section.

Class rank and GPA when your school uses neither

The two questions:

• "How do you report class rank?" with "Exact", "Decile", "Quintile", "Quartile" and "None".
• "Do you report GPA? If you answer no you do not need to complete the other questions in this section."

If your school does not rank, choose None. Do not compute a rank for the form. If your school does not calculate a GPA, answer No. Common App's High school details information sheet gives students the matching instruction: if the school "doesn't calculate a cumulative numerical GPA, or if it uses a GPA scale that is different than the options available, select "none". This information is not required in the application."

Two fields in the GPA section still matter for a school that answers No: "School's passing mark" and "Highest grade/GPA in class". They are the fastest way for a reader to place an unfamiliar mark. Put the same two numbers in your transcript legend. Our guide to explaining your grading scale to US colleges has a legend template and four colleges' no-conversion statements.

The summary page asks you to tick "the most recent grades included on the transcript", with US terms such as "Final junior year grades" and "2nd quarter/1st semester senior year grades". Pick the closest match for your calendar, and make the transcript itself show which term it covers.

The rigor box: what "Most demanding" means in your system

The form asks: "In comparison with other college preparatory students at your school, the student's course selection is:" with "Less than demanding", "Average", "Demanding", "Very demanding", "Most demanding" and "Prefer not to respond". Below it are boxes for "IB Diploma or Career-related Programme candidate", "Advanced Cambridge (AICE) Diploma Candidate" and "AP Capstone Diploma candidate".

Students describing a lack of resources at school should match what the school profile says.

The comparison is with your own college-preparatory students, not with US schools. So:

• A student who took the hardest combination your school offers can be "Most demanding", even with no AP or IB. The profile has to show what that combination was.
• If streams are fixed and every student in a stream takes the same subjects, the honest answer may be "Demanding" or "Very demanding" for nearly everyone in the hardest stream. That is fine. Consistency across students is what makes the box readable.
• "Prefer not to respond" exists. Our view: use it only if school policy forbids the comparison. A blank where every other school gives an answer invites a guess.

Ratings and the recommendation summary

The form asks you to rate the student "Compared to other students in their class" on four rows: "Academic achievements", "Extracurricular accomplishments", "Personal qualities and character" and "Overall". The columns run from "No basis" and "Below average" to "Excellent (top 10%)", "Outstanding (top 5%)" and "One of the top few encountered in my career". The summary then asks for one of "No basis", "With reservation", "Fairly strongly", "Strongly" or "Enthusiastically".

Three points of our own:

• "Top 10%" and "top 5%" are claims about your class. In a graduating class of 60, top 5% is three students (our arithmetic). If you tick it for eight, the box stops meaning anything for any of them.
• Use "No basis" for extracurriculars you cannot see. At a school with no clubs, a student's activities may be family or community work. Rate what you know; explain the rest in the letter.
• Make the boxes and the letter agree. If the letter says the student is the strongest you have taught, the "Overall" box should say so too. Writing the counselor letter for an international student covers the letter itself.

The community-disruption box (500 words)

The form lists disruptions such as "Natural disasters", "Protests", "Teacher strikes" and "War, conflict, or other hardships", and says: "If you have not already addressed those changes in your uploaded school profile or elsewhere, you can elaborate here." The cap is "Max word count: 500". It names the changes colleges are "especially interested in": "Grading scales and policies", "Graduation requirements", "Instructional methods", "Schedules and course offerings", "Testing requirements" and "Your academic calendar".

Our recommendation: write this once, as a school-wide statement with dates, and paste the same text for every student. A student's own experience of the event goes in their application. The form says so: "Your students will have a similar space in their application to share how these events have affected them personally."

Mid-year, final and optional reports for exam-based schools

What colleges say about exam-based schools:

• No mid-year grades at all. Harvard: "If your school does not issue official or predicted midyear grades for your final year of school, then you do not need to submit the midyear report form, although the item may remain on your checklist." Princeton says the same for schools that do "not provide midyear grades or predictions".
• Predictions count as mid-year grades. Princeton's note on the Midyear Report: "This includes new internal or predicted grades after the first semester or trimester of your final year."
• Board results after the deadline. Princeton: "We understand that results from external exams may come in after our Final Report deadline." Harvard asks for the Final School Report "no later than July 1", but says "IB students should send their final results as soon as they are released in mid-July. We will expect to see final A levels results by mid-August."

For what to send when board results land after admission, see board exam results after US college admission. For a student whose final-year marks fell, see mid-year report grades dropped. More guides for counselors and applicants are in the Common App essays hub.

Constructed example: one school's School Report answers

Constructed example, written by us, not a real school's form. The school is invented. It marks 0–100, does not rank, has no AP or IB, and sits a national leaving exam in May.

Your School Report check, in order

1. Transcript attached with a legend (scale, passing mark, highest mark, internal versus board marks).
2. School profile uploaded in the profile section of the Recommender System.
3. "Outside the United States" answered Yes, and the supplement completed.
4. Rank: None, unless the school really ranks.
5. GPA: No, unless the school really calculates one; passing mark and highest grade filled either way.
6. Rigor box consistent with the profile and with other students from the same stream.
7. Ratings checked against class size; boxes agree with the letter.
8. Disruption statement written once, if needed.
9. Mid-year, final and optional reports on the calendar for your exam dates.

Questions about the Common App School Report

Can a principal fill in the School Report and counselor letter?

Yes, at the colleges above. Princeton names "a principal, vice principal or dean"; Stanford "a principal or teacher"; Harvard "another school leader".

What do we enter for class rank if our school does not rank?

"None". It is one of the five options on the form.

Our school has no GPA. Do we have to give one?

No. The form says "If you answer no you do not need to complete the other questions in this section." Common App's sheet for students says the GPA "is not required in the application."

Do we send a mid-year report if we have no mid-year grades?

Harvard and Princeton say no if the school issues no mid-year grades or predictions. Check each college's page for its rule.

Can an education agent submit the School Report?

No. Common App's fraud policy lists "Circumventing the use of official counselor communication channels" among its examples of fraud. For school forms and letters written in another language, see the translation rules for letters and school forms.

For when each form is due, see the month-by-month counselor calendar.

The 2026 School Report has no discipline question; see what the School Report no longer asks.

Get a free review of your Common App essay

Get a free Quick Review of your Common App Additional Information section against GradPilot's Additional Information rubric. It checks whether a student's note gives the context the reader needs and makes the extent and timing of a circumstance clear. Students can run their 650-word essay through the Common App personal essay rubric, and the Common App essay review page explains how the review works.

Sources

Retrieved October 30, 2026.

• Common App, School Report (PDF, © 2026), Counselor recommendation (PDF, © 2026) and Mid-year report (PDF, © 2026): every field quoted above.
• Common App, Final report, 2025–26 print preview and Optional report, 2025–26 print preview (hosted by Harvard College).
• Common App, High school details information sheet (September 2026).
• Common App, Fraud policy: counselor contact information and official channels.
• Princeton, International Students; Stanford, International Applicants; MIT, International Students; Harvard, Application Requirements; Boston University, International Applicants; Columbia, International Applicants.