School Profile for International Schools: A Guide

School Profile for International Schools: A Guide

A school profile for an international school should spend its first half page on grading: the scale, the passing mark, the highest mark awarded and how marks are spread across the class. Common App's guide recommends 1–2 pages. Mission statements, photos and lists of every past acceptance can go last or go.

Our view is blunt: for a school outside the US, the grading section is the only part of the profile that changes how a US reader interprets every transcript you send. NACAC's guide to school profiles puts the risk in one line: "Absent detailed information about a school's grading system, colleges may be prone to draw conclusions on their own." If your student's 78 is a top-five mark in your school, the profile is where the reader learns that. Students explain only what is personal, in the Additional Information section.

Every Common App, NACAC and college page quoted below was checked on October 30, 2026. NACAC's guide is dated April 2020 and Common App's profile guide carries a 2025 copyright, so recheck both before your next annual update. School Report wording is from Common App's PDF of the form, marked © 2026 (file created July 2026); the form names no cycle year, so we read it as the 2026–27 version.

On this page:

• What a US reader does with your profile
• The 14 elements, ranked for an international school
• The grading section: legend, distribution and rank policy
• No AP, no honors: describing rigor in your own system
• External exams and English tests
• Length, format and links nobody can click
• A fill-in checklist for your profile
• Where the student's own explanation goes
• Questions about school profiles for international schools

What a US reader does with your profile

Your profile travels with every School Report. Common App's guide, Developing a school profile, says counselors upload it in "the profile section of the Recommender System" and "When you submit a school report for each student, Common App will include your school profile." The same guide reports that "70%+ of applications submitted through Common App have a school profile attached", and that applications without one "are more likely to come from students attending small, charter, new, or rural schools."

Colleges say they read the profile beside the record. Columbia's international applicant page says "All applications are reviewed by region" and that a "school profile" is included with the secondary school report, one that "includes a description of the school, grading system, curriculum and extracurricular resources." MIT's international page says its readers "are trained to understand the educational system in your part of the world."

Trained by region is not the same as trained on your school. NACAC quotes its own 1977 guidance: "One common misconception of secondary [school] counselors is the assumption that their school, its standards and curricula, is well-known by colleges." A reader may know your national board. They cannot know that your school marks harder than the board, streams students at 16, or caps how many sciences a student may take.

The 14 elements, ranked for an international school

Common App's guide cites a 2022 study by Tara Nicola that "identified 14 elements, broken into four categories". Common App lists them as academic curriculum (course listing, graduation requirements, curriculum overview, institutional policies), grading systems (grading policies, class rank, GPA distribution), postsecondary opportunities (college-going rate, college destinations, standardized testing) and a fourth group covering community overview, neighborhood, student demographics and enrollment. Harvard's Making Caring Common project, which worked with Nicola, summarizes her finding as "very few profiles include all of the features considered most necessary for admission officers to holistically review an applicant."

Common App lists the elements. It does not rank them. Our recommendation for a school outside the US is this order, because each item explains the one after it:

The countercase: a US-curriculum international school with AP courses and a 4.0 GPA can follow the domestic order, because its legend already matches what a US reader expects. The ranking above is for schools whose marks look unfamiliar.

The grading section: legend, distribution and rank policy

NACAC's best-practices guide lists what colleges "consider important": "Details about the grading scale used by faculty", "Method of computing GPAs and class rank (if computed)", "Grade distribution", "Policy on reporting class rank to colleges", "Policies on weighting courses and on repeating courses", "Graduation requirements" and the "School's policy on reporting disciplinary infractions to colleges and universities."

For an international school, write these six lines in this order:

1. The scale, in its own terms. "Marks are percentages, 0–100", or "Subjects are graded 1–7". Do not add a US letter-grade conversion. Our guide to explaining your grading scale to US colleges quotes four colleges that say they do not want one.
2. The passing mark. The School Report itself has a field for "School's passing mark". Put the same number in the profile.
3. The highest mark actually awarded this year, overall and in a demanding subject. The School Report asks for "Highest grade/GPA in class". A reader who sees that the top overall average was 91 reads an 84 differently.
4. Internal versus external marks. Say which marks on the transcript are set by your teachers and which by an exam board, and whether internal marks are moderated.
5. The distribution. A table of how many students in the graduating class fell in each band. This is the line most international profiles leave out.
6. The rank policy. If you do not rank, say "We do not rank students" in those words, so nobody hunts for a rank.

Constructed example: a grading section for a marks-based school

Constructed example, written by us, not a real school's profile. The school, its policies and every number are invented to show the layout.

Grading at Lakeside Academy (fictional) Marks are percentages from 0 to 100. The passing mark in every subject is 40. Marks are set by teachers on school examinations and are not curved. Grade 11 and 12 marks below are school marks; national leaving-exam results are listed separately. Highest overall Grade 12 average, Class of 2026: 91. Highest mark in Grade 12 Physics: 88. Lakeside does not rank students.

Grade 12 overall average	Students (Class of 2026, 120 students)
85 and above	9
75–84	31
65–74	46
55–64	27
Below 55	7

Our arithmetic: 9 + 31 + 46 + 27 + 7 = 120. Nine students of 120 is 7.5% of the class, so a student with an 86 average is in the top tenth of this constructed class. The table makes that visible. A converted "3.6 GPA" would hide it.

No AP, no honors: describing rigor in your own system

The School Report asks the counselor to rate the student's course selection "In comparison with other college preparatory students at your school", from "Less than demanding" to "Most demanding". It also asks how many AP, IB, Honors and Cambridge courses the school offers. A national-curriculum school may enter zero in every box. Without a profile, "Most demanding" then has no visible meaning.

NACAC's guide says "Schools that have non-traditional programs (ex: no grading scales, lack of AP classes) should focus on explaining why and what alternatives do they use." For a non-US school that means:

• Name the streams and subject combinations, and say which is the most demanding. Example wording: "Students choose one of three streams at age 16. The science stream with Further Mathematics is the most demanding combination we offer."
• State any limits. The School Report asks: "If school policy limits the number a student may take in a given year, please list the maximum allowed". If your timetable allows only four elective subjects, say so.
• Separate school rigor from outside coaching. Entrance-exam coaching or olympiad training outside school is the student's activity, not your curriculum. It belongs in the student's application, not in your rigor statement.
• If you offer different curricula side by side, NACAC suggests you "provide a side-by-side listing."

External exams and English tests

NACAC asks schools outside the US for "an overview of specialized test scores (such as Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate, as well as TOEFL or IELTS for international students) distribution at your school" and "state-required or national tests, in the case of non-US schools".

Three things US readers need from this section, in our view:

• The exam names and when results arrive. Harvard's requirements page 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." If your national results come out after US decisions, say when. Our guide to board exam results after admission covers what to send then.
• Last year's result spread, in the same band style as your grading table.
• How predicted grades are set. Harvard expects IB and A-level schools to send "predicted grades, based on your current classroom work and the results of any internal or mock exams". One sentence on your method (for example, "Predictions are set by the subject teacher after the January mock and reviewed by the head of department") lets a reader trust them.

Length, format and links nobody can click

The two guides differ slightly on length. Common App: "Aim for a profile that's 1–2 pages long". NACAC: "Profiles on average roughly appear to be four pages. The respondents seem to favor two to three pages maximum." Our recommendation: two pages. That meets both.

Format rules from the two guides:

• "Opt for bullet points, graphics, and charts over paragraphs of text." (Common App)
• "Name of school on every page" (NACAC)
• "application readers may not be able to click on links. You can use shortened URLs or QR codes to ensure the links are accessible." (Common App)
• "Update yearly" (Common App), and recent cohort data over "long run historical trends" (NACAC pitfalls list)
• "Include words in the filename online so that the profile is easily found" (NACAC)

NACAC's pitfalls list also names "Every college acceptance for the past five years" and profiles that "list their accomplishments and extracurricular activity at length". Cut both.

A fill-in checklist for your profile

Copy this list into your own document. More counselor and applicant guides are in the Common App essays hub. Making Caring Common publishes two sample profiles (two-page and three-page) in PDF and Word, plus an editable Word template, on its School Profile Project page if you want a layout to start from.

Page 1, top half: grading

• Scale in its own terms, no conversion
• Passing mark
• Highest overall average and highest mark in one demanding subject, this year
• Which marks are internal and which are external; moderation, if any
• Distribution table for the graduating class, with class size
• Rank policy in one sentence

Page 1, bottom half: curriculum

• Board or programme, and language of instruction
• Streams or tracks, and which combination is the most demanding
• Any cap on subjects per year
• Graduation requirements

Page 2

• External exams: names, timing of results, last year's spread
• How predicted grades are set
• English tests, if your students sit them
• Destinations, recent year only, home country and abroad
• School type, size, contacts, CEEB code if you have one
• School name on both pages; short URLs or QR codes, not bare links

If your school has never used Common App, the international school counselor's US application calendar shows when the profile needs to be uploaded, and the School Report guide for international schools goes through the form field by field.

Where the student's own explanation goes

The profile explains your school. It should never explain one student. Keep the split clean:

For what the student writes about missing courses or labs, see the student-side guide.

The School Report says of disruptions: "If you have not already addressed those changes in your uploaded school profile or elsewhere, you can elaborate here." So a school-wide change goes in the profile or that box once, not in every student's file. When a student repeats your grading legend in their own Additional Information, they spend their words on something you already said.

If you are the school official without a college counselor, the guide to the counselor letter for international students covers the letter that goes with this profile. Parents who want the process from their side can read what parents should know about the counselor recommendation.

Questions about school profiles for international schools

Is a school profile required by the Common App?

No. The School Report says "counselors have the option to attach a school profile." Common App's guide reports that more than 70% of Common App applications carry one, and that applications without one more often come from small, new or rural schools.

Should our profile convert marks to a 4.0 GPA?

No. MIT says "We do not try to convert your grades to the American system", and Stanford says "There is no need to have your marks converted into an American Grade Point Average (GPA)." State your own scale and its distribution instead.

How long should a school profile be?

One to two pages, by Common App's guide. NACAC's respondents favor "two to three pages maximum". Two pages meets both.

What if our school does not rank students?

Say "We do not rank students" in the profile, and choose "None" for class rank on the School Report.

Should the profile list every university our graduates were admitted to?

No. NACAC's pitfalls list names "Every college acceptance for the past five years". List recent destinations, not every offer. Translated transcripts should match the student's passport name as entered on the Common App.

Why the profile matters: how US colleges evaluate international applicants quotes Columbia, MIT and Stanford on reading a record against its school.

For an Indian board school, see the constructed school profile outline for a CBSE or ISC school.

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 that a student's note gives the context a 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, Developing a school profile (PDF, © 2025): 70%+ attached; which schools lack one; profile attached to every School Report; the 14 elements in four categories; 1–2 pages; links and QR codes; update yearly.
• NACAC, Best Practices for Developing a School Profile (PDF, April 2020): the grading-system list and "prone to draw conclusions" line; test and TOEFL/IELTS distributions; non-traditional programs; length; pitfalls; the 1977 "well-known by colleges" quotation.
• Making Caring Common, Harvard Graduate School of Education, School Profile Project: sample profiles and template; summary of Nicola (2022), Journal of Diversity in Higher Education 15(6), 700–715.
• Common App, School Report (PDF, © 2026, read as the 2026–27 form): optional profile; rank and GPA fields, "School's passing mark", "Highest grade/GPA in class"; rigor scale; course counts and limits; 500-word community-disruption box.
• Columbia Undergraduate Admissions, International Applicants: review by region; profile contents.
• MIT Admissions, International Students: readers trained by region; no conversion.
• Stanford Undergraduate Admission, International Applicants: no GPA conversion.
• Harvard College, Application Requirements: IB and A-level result timing; predicted grades.