When you’re making an account, it’s smart to have a password that you use for all your college accounts, this includes Common App, Acceptd, and all of the separate portals that schools sometimes use if they aren’t on Common App. Also, this may seem obvious, but don’t sign up for college applications with your school-provided email address, because after a certain point in senior year, they deactivate that email, so use your pre-existing personal email or create an email purely for college purposes.

Once you’ve made your account, now is the time to start adding the schools you’re interested in. If you can’t find one of your schools on Acceptd, that probably means they use their own application portal, so check their website and see if there’s a link to an applicant portal. 

Here’s an example of what each school’s page on Common App should look like. Here you’ll find your application deadlines, application fees (which you can use Fee Waivers for, that’s on another page), their policies around essays, test scores and recommendations, and other important contact information. I don’t have any photo examples of how each of the side tabs of the colleges are laid out since I’ve already submitted all of my applications, but usually, it’s pretty straightforward.

At the top of the website, there’s a tab that says “Common App.” This is where you’ll put in all of your personal information and your Common App essay for those schools that take it. It’s usually a simple series of questions that will give enough information to the colleges you apply to through this portal. Just go through as many questions as you can, and don’t be afraid to ask your parents questions on things that they can clarify!