Common App Courses & Grades (2026–27): Which Colleges Require It, From Stanford to Purdue

The Common App has a section you may never need: Courses & Grades, where you type every class and grade from your high school transcript into the application. It only matters if a college on your list requires it. On the Common App's 2026–27 requirements grid, 69 entries do: 52 colleges in the US, 16 universities and schools outside the US, and one scholarship foundation.

If none of your colleges is among them, you can leave the section alone. If one is, plan on about an hour: Minnesota estimates "45-60 minutes" to enter your courses and grades, and more if you've attended more than one school. Read that college's own page too, because the colleges don't always describe the requirement the way the grid does.

The 52 US colleges

The best-known names on the list are Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Amherst, Purdue, UW–Madison, the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, the University of Arizona, Arizona State, the University of Oregon and Loyola Marymount. Morehouse, Hampton, Xavier University of Louisiana, Kettering, Minerva, Northern Arizona, the University of New Mexico, the University of Missouri–Kansas City, the University of Washington Tacoma and St. John's College in Annapolis require it too.

The other 32 are Allen, Andrews University, Ave Maria, Baker College, Bethel University in Tennessee, Brescia, Carl Sandburg College, East Texas Baptist, Elizabeth City State, Eureka, Goshen, Life University, Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, List College at the Jewish Theological Seminary, Manor College, McKendree, Midway, Milligan, the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Montreat, Newberry, Oklahoma Baptist, Oregon Tech, Prescott College, Reinhardt, Saint Vincent, Sattler College, South Carolina State, Sweet Briar, the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the University of Charleston in West Virginia.

Fourteen of the 52 list an early date on November 1 or 2, among them Stanford's Restrictive Early Action, Early Action at Purdue, UW–Madison, Minnesota, the University of Arizona and the University of Oregon, and Early Decision at Carnegie Mellon and Loyola Marymount. If you're applying early to one of them, leave time for this section before that date. The Early Action deadlines post has every Early Action date on the grid, and the Early Decision deadlines post has every Early Decision I date.

What the colleges' own pages say

The grid has one answer per college, yes or blank. The colleges' admissions pages, read October 19, describe it in several ways.

Required by name, with another way in. Minnesota says you "will self-report your high school transcript through the Courses & Grades section on Common App." Oregon says to "type the required information in the Courses and Grades section" if you apply through the Common App. Both also accept STARS, a separate system for self-reporting grades.

One of two options. UW–Madison says you can meet the requirement "one of two ways": self-report your coursework in the application, or have your school send an official transcript. Arizona State also lets your school send an official transcript instead, and Loyola Marymount lets you upload a copy of your unofficial transcript instead.

Asked for, without a penalty. Stanford asks for the section and says "your application will not be penalized if you are ultimately unable to complete it."

Self-reported grades, section not named. Purdue lists "Self-reported high school grades" as part of a complete application for most first-year students. Amherst's first-year page lists its required materials without mentioning self-reported courses or grades, so the grid is the only place we found the requirement.

So if a college on your list has a yes, fill the section in unless its own page gives you another route you'd rather take.

A blank doesn't always mean no self-reporting

The University of Florida and the University of Washington in Seattle are blank in the Courses & Grades column, but both ask you to self-report through STARS instead. Florida's page says "Submit and link your STARS to your application," and it asks this of students at US high schools. Washington's says first-year applicants "are required to self-report their courses and grades through the Self-reported Transcript and Academic Record System (STARS) platform."

They aren't alone. Clemson, Pitt, Penn State, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech and Temple are blank too, and each asks first-year applicants for a STARS record, in some cases only from students at US high schools. Penn State goes furthest: it "requires the completion of the STARS Record via MyPennState and does not accept the high school record that is available in the Common App."

So the grid tells you whether you'll fill in Courses & Grades on the Common App, not whether you'll type your grades in somewhere else. If Florida, Washington or one of the others is on your list, plan for that separately.

Outside the US, and one foundation

Sixteen universities and schools outside the US require Courses & Grades. Five are in Scotland: Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh Napier, Strathclyde and the University of the Highlands and Islands. Four are in England: Leeds Beckett, Roehampton, UWE Bristol and the University of Worcester. The others are Limerick in Ireland, Bishop's and Guelph in Canada, Franklin University Switzerland, ESCP Business School, the American University in Cairo and Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Global College.

The one entry that isn't a college is the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, a scholarship foundation listed with a November 11 date. It requires both the personal essay and Courses & Grades.

Before you start

Work from a copy of your transcript, not from memory. The section asks for each course and grade, year by year. If your school's course names or grading scale are unusual, ask your counselor before you guess. Our Common App setup checklist covers the rest of the account.

Before your applications go in, put your whole list in and see, free, what each college published about its early round and where your score sits. The answer across your whole list is the paid document.

Courses & Grades requirements and early dates are from the Common App's 2026–27 first-year deadlines, fees and requirements grid (updated September 25, 2026). College admissions pages were read October 19, 2026.