Common App Question on Letters of Rec

Applying to College Common and Coalition Application
1

Hey guys, I had a question about letters of recommendations.

Can I have multiple teachers upload their letter of recommendation to a school and then I can choose which letters of recommendation to submit?

So if I had 3 teachers upload a letter of recommendation to a college, could I then select the 2 I would like to submit when applying to that college?

Also, does this apply to supplemental letters also? Can I have a recommender upload a supplemental letter of recommendation to a college, and then decide whether I want to submit it?

Thanks,

2

You sign a waiver saying that you won’t read the letters. And you can’t access it on the Common App; it’s blocked to you.All you can see is a check mark showing I’ve submitted it.

If any of my kids don’t sign that waiver, I’m not writing a letter. I’m not spending time crafting a letter that shows them in good light, only to have an adcom wonder whether I’m saying good things simply to avoid a hassle from the kid or his parents.

3

That was not really the OP’s question @bjkmom ; there is nothing in the original post that FERPA was waived.

For the OP, if the recs are uploaded directly to the Common App, you control which recs are assigned to which school. In theory, if a particular college allows 3 recs, but only requires 2, then yes, you can assign 3 and then delete one later, but it’s a pain, and it’s really a pointless exercise if you’ve waived FERPA (as you should). If the college only allows 2 recs, then the CA won;t give you an option of assigning more than 2 recommenders.

Now, if your school manages recs through Naviance, it’s more complicated. Yes it can be done, but since you need to involve the GC to help, the GC is probably not going to go along with your plan.

Bottom line, pick the teachers who you think will write the best recs from the outset.

4

I guess I misunderstood. Why would you select which letter to send to which college if you can’t see the contents? Why not just choose the two teachers who know you best?

5

I think bjkmom is correct though that the student can’t chose which of the LORs are sent and that it’s uploaded directly by the GC.

OP - As an aside, teachers are already writing tons of LORs so only ask for recommendations that you know you will use.

6

Thanks everyone for their advice, what you guys said makes sense.

I’ll try to find the 2 teachers who can write the strongest letters of recommendation and just ask those 2, instead of asking a 3rd teacher for a letter of rec that I may never use.