Counselor Report and Recommendations?

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of Virginia
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<p>I was looking on the UVa site for recommendation clarification, but I become a lot more puzzled than before.</p>

<p>The site says that
1. The counselor must fill out a Secondary School Report
2. The counselor must fill out a letter of recommendation with the SSR
3. Teachers must also fill out a recommendation letter
4. All recommendations must be faxed.</p>

<p>My questions:
1. Why does the site mention an extra counselor letter of recommendation? Is this LOR meant to be already included in the SSR, or are these two separate things?
2. Do I only need one teacher recommendation?
3. What exactly needs to be faxed? The teacher letter of recommendation and the counselor Secondary School Report?</p>

<p>Please help a very confused applicant.</p>

2

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<p>[U.Va</a>. Office of Admission > Admission Information > Applying to U.Va.](<a href=“http://www.virginia.edu/undergradadmission/apply.html]U.Va”>http://www.virginia.edu/undergradadmission/apply.html)</p>

<p>thank you for looking on the UVa Undergrad Admissions website. As an applicant, you should exhaust all resources at your fingertips and when you think you looked enough, come to CC and we’ll look some more for you. But, if you used [url=<a href=“http://www.google.com%5DGoogle%5B/url”>http://www.google.com]Google[/url</a>] , you could have found these answers. </p>

<p>Also, they ask for ONE more recommendation from a teacher. Don’t send more. It creates more work for the admissions officers.</p>

<p>But on a better note, good luck with your college applications. It’s good you’re starting early. :)</p>

3

<p>I emailed them and they said to do the letters online if you are using the common app and to fax them if you are doing it on paper</p>

4

<p>Thank you both for these clarifications.</p>

<p>So if I restate;
The counselor will write the LOR along with the SSR, but they recommend another LOR from a teacher.</p>

<p>Will this LOR only be an actual letter, and not any other institutional form?</p>

5

<p>Heads up: the Common App only allows required recs to come in via their site. So, the only rec letter that can come electronically is on the school report, if your counselor decides to do that online.</p>

<p>Extra letters of rec cannot come in via Common App at this time. We hope they change that in the future. For now, any teacher who writes for you should fax their letter. We do not need any form to accompany the letter, though many attach the Common App form out of habit.</p>

6

<p>I thought the Common App allowed teacher recs because on the school forms section there is a radio button that is labeled “teacher”. So cant your teacher submit it through the Common App?</p>

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<p>At this time, Common App only allows required recs to come in via their system. Because your counselor’s rec fulfills our requirement, supplemental recs can not be submitted through Common App.</p>

<p>I believe there are a few schools that are lobbying for them to change this in the future.</p>

8

<p>Thanks Dean J. One last question. On the Common App it wont let me print out a teacher rec form that has my Common app ID on it. Will my rec be invalid if I send it with a Common App form without my ID on it? Or can I send in the rec with the cover sheet (minus the ID number) and have it still be processed? Thanks so much!</p>

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<p>Or if we don’t need the Common App sheet what should we have the teachers write on the letter? Full name? Birthday?</p>

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<p>Writing your number at the bottom of the sheet is just fine, pano, though your teachers don’t have to use that Common App form. If they just write a letter, your name and date of birth will help us make sure it gets routed properly.</p>

11

<p>I have been reading posts all over this site and on the Dean J’s blog as well. In addition, I read all over UVA’s application help section but I cannot seem to have my question answered. </p>

<p>I understand that a supplementary recommendation from a teacher needs to be faxed in and that your transcript should be mailed in. HOWEVER, I am extremely confused what my counselor needs to do. He prefers to mail everything instead of doing it online. So does he mail his recommendation and the SSR along with my transcript? Or does he fax the SSR and recommendation too? Some clarification would be wonderful. </p>

<p>Thanks :]</p>

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<p>Dean J, please clarify the “requirement” that recommendations/evaluations be faxed. Many potential UVA applicants will find that their schools and teachers do not want to comply with this request, for time and budgetary reasons. Long distance faxing is time-consuming and costly. When recs are mailed, the student often pays for the envelope and the postage. Will mailed recommendations not be considered?</p>

<p>db123, given the number of confused applicant postings I have found regarding this year’s UVA application process, it seems obvious that the school needs to rework the instructions on its website. Applicants like Junine and islandgirl09 should not have to Google to get answers. </p>

<p>I have been reviewing the application procedures for the schools on my son’s list and the UVA site is hands down the worst on instructions.</p>

13

<p>The secondary school report (which includes the counselor rec) and transcript can come via the Common App’s online submission system for counselors OR by regular mail.</p>

<p>Supplemental information should be faxed. That means any recommendation beyond the counselor’s should be faxed.</p>

<p>We have been restricted by Common App when it comes to instructions. We have been working to get around this via our website, but we do not have 100% control over the UVa website.</p>

14

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<p>The UVa website isn’t that bad but on that issue, to each his own. But my issue with the OP’s post is that they didn’t even TRY to look it up. And that’s the part I have a problem with. People, especially these days, are getting lazier and lazier when it comes to being resourceful. When information is so readily available, it’s astounding how people don’t take advantage of it. I would understand if the information was on some far flung website but it’s NOT. It’s on the UVa website.</p>

<p>And to get to the website that I mentioned, I tried to get to there from the UVa undergrad admissions homepage. It took me TWO (2) clicks to get to the information needed. Seriously. I understand if it’s like 5 or more, but it’s 2 clicks. </p>

<p>1st click. Admission Information (Top Left)
2nd click. The Application Process (In a grey box next to the following header “We focus on the following credentials.”</p>

<p>So really, is it my fault for expecting people to navigate the UVa site when things are labeled pretty well? Or do we need to go back to basics and get out a dictionary?</p>

<p>Really, the same questions keep coming up. And we answer them by pointing the student in the right direction; we have no malicious intent behind our postings. But I didn’t think it was too much to expect people to make an attempt to look things up.</p>

15

<p>Dean J – You have not answered the important question here.</p>

<p>Will mailed recommendations (non-counselor) NOT be considered?</p>

<p>Will only FAXED recommendations will be considered?</p>