Common App Document Upload Requirements
What Common App actually expects from a document upload — format, size, and the mistakes that cause a supporting document to bounce.
Common App (used by hundreds of US colleges for undergraduate applications) has document upload requirements that are more forgiving than a lot of government portals, but a few specifics still trip up applicants preparing transcripts, resumes, or supplementary materials.
Format and size
Common App generally accepts PDF as the standard format for supporting documents, with an upload size cap that's comfortably larger than most strict portals (typically in the range of 10MB), but individual colleges reviewing supplemental materials through their own portals may set tighter limits. Always check the specific college's stated limit if you're uploading somewhere beyond the main Common App document sections.
- Compress PDF to 1MB — comfortably under nearly every college-specific limit, if you need to be safe rather than rely on the generous default
PDF, not a photo of a document
A transcript or recommendation letter photographed with a phone and uploaded as a JPG technically often goes through, but looks noticeably less polished than a proper PDF, and can be harder for an admissions reader to open alongside other applicants' cleanly formatted PDFs. If you only have a physical copy, photograph each page and combine them into one PDF rather than uploading separate images:
One clearly-named document per section
Common App's separate upload sections (transcript, resume, additional materials) expect one file per section, not everything merged into a single combined PDF. If you have a resume and a separate portfolio document, keep them as two uploads rather than merging them into one — undoing an unnecessary merge later, if a reviewer specifically wants just the resume, is more friction than uploading them separately from the start.
Before you submit
If you're unsure whether a specific file meets a specific college's stated limit rather than Common App's general default:
- File checker — confirms a file's size against a stated limit before you upload, so a rejection doesn't cost you a submission cycle right before a deadline
All processing happens in your browser — nothing here is uploaded to prepare it, only when you actually submit through Common App itself.