<p>It's been three years since S1 went through the application process and my memory, while a little fuzzy, is telling me that he had his teachers and guidance counselor do all of his letters of recommendation online through the Common App. </p>
<p>Now as S2 is soon approaching this phase of the app process, I want to make sure this is the best way of doing this. I've also read about people bringing pre-addressed and stamped envelopes in to the teachers. </p>
<p>Is there a preferred way of going about this? What are the pros and cons of each?</p>
<p>Not all schools use the common app, both my kids used snail mail ( pre stamped envelopes)
Don’t forget to give the teachers a C.V. or cheat sheet.</p>
<p>To add confusion, if your school uses Naviance and edocs, there is now a way to send the recs electronically with the transcripts through edocs…</p>
<p>I’d start with your school’s guidance office. the process at our HS changed dramatically between my D09 and D12, including the addition of Naviance and wider use of the Common App. it was actually much simpler - teachers provided recs directly to Guidance who uploaded them directly to colleges via Naviance. all we had to do was check Naviance periodically to make sure they’d been sent.</p>
<p>Your students GC should let your son know how the school is currently handling LOR’s. It could have changed in the three years since you’ve done it previously. My son’s school, despite using Naviance, despite being the STEM magnet hs for the county, despite doing everything else under the sun paperless, insisted on doing everything via snail mail. He printed everything out, addressed the envelopes w/ stamps, and delivered them to the teachers. The GC may have done her report via the Common App (can’t remember), but the rest were snail mail.</p>
<p>My D’s were all submitted through common app
D asked teacher who agreed
D submitted “invitation” to teacher through common app
teacher received email from common app with invitation and log in password
when teacher accesses this your student will see " started" and the access date in color (i think red or yellow) by their name
When submitted that will show up with the date in green
The student chooses which letters/forms to submit to each school (there is a checklist grading sheet along with the letter) You can solicit more than you use and some schools want more or less. That will show up on the common app for each school app - the requirement is programmed in.</p>
<p>My younger son had one teacher who sent all the letters via snail mail and the other sent them all electronically. You have to check with the schools what the options are and with the teachers as to what they prefer. If the teacher wants to use snail mail you should provide them with stamped addressed envelopes. In either case you should give the teachers a complete list of the schools you are applying to, a resume, perhaps a short cover letter statement thanking the teacher for their effort and something about your probable major and what you are looking for in a colleges. “I’ve chosen all these LACs because I’m looking for colleges with a lot of student teacher interaction like I’ve enjoyed in your class.” or “I’m looking for a place that is doing cutting edge research in neurobiology.”</p>
<p>I know when my youngest applied our school was not yet taking advantage of some of the Naviance facilitated stuff with the Common Application, but that was a couple of years ago.</p>
<p>LORs are definitely done both ways, depending on the school. If the college uses the Common Application, the student simply adds the recommenders to a list, easy. If not, provide a stamped/addressed envelope to the writer. I personally asked for each of these letters to be sealed with tape, signed and returned to me so I could mail them myself return receipt, otherwise one never knows if they were actually received.</p>
<p>Find recommenders that can speak to:
academics
character
job/work
specific talent
counselor (which for my S was good because he knew his counselor well, but for D, proved nothing because the counselor was new senior year and didn’t even know her!)</p>
<p>For my D, a performer who applied to 14 colleges, I provided each writer with a folder containing academic transcripts; performance resume; work/extracurricular resume; addessed/stamped envelopes attached to a sheet for each college with specific information as to why she wanted to attend their college; a Naviance questionaire showing students goals, etc; and a sheet with the date we would like to pick up the letters. My D applied early to every college and this benefitted her because she got her LOR requests in early in the game. Teachers at her school were declining LORs come Christmas time. She asked tachers if they would be interested in writing in August and had most all letters back by mid-October.</p>
<p>We also asked all writers to save their LORs on their computers which came in handy when Scholarship Applications asked for them and also Honors Programs! D opted out of reading her LORs online and had all the hardcopies given back sealed/signed. Moreso than ever, colleges take into account if students waive their right to read their letters…</p>