<p>Today, I asked my GC if I could invite her to submit my school forms and transcript online to Common App. She emailed me back and said that the school only does hard copies and that I must print out the form for her to fill out. In addition, she said that I would have to mail in each transcript. </p>
<p>So I went to go print it out and I found out that I have to mail this school report to EACH institution I'm applying to. As of now, I'm considering about 10+ schools and I might consider more within the next few weeks since most deadlines aren't until 1/1. Each transcript is $3 and postage will most likely be around $2, considering the weight of the packet. These charges may seem small, but it certainly adds up for me and I'm on a tight financial budget already.</p>
<p>In addition, schools like Agnes Scott are willing to waive the application fee if I submit the application online. Since my GC doesn't/can't submit these forms online, I MUST submit my application offline. Then I will have to pay the application fee, postage fees, and transcript fees. Then I would also have to nag my teachers to send their LOR by mail, which I think is extremely bothersome to them and I would hate to give them such a burden. I would be nearing the thousand mark if I have to submit these applications offline and I have used my four free college waivers. I would have to end up dropping a lot of schools and even a few hundred for a few OOS schools is straining my budget. My parents do not want to pay these expensive fees at all.</p>
<p>Does anyone else have this problem or has faced this problem? How did you solve it? Are GC allowed to be so unhelpful by not willing to submit a simple few documents online. I'm planning to schedule an appointment to talk to her soon to explain my financial situation, but things really aren't looking good right now. Is there any way for my GC to simply send my school reports and transcripts to Common App. and they can upload it for me? It feels like this obstacle is throwing a huge curve ball at me and it completely screws up my college application plan.</p>
<p>Ummmmm…maybe you should reconsider your plan if this is throwing such a wrench into things! It is not uncommon for schools to send things via snail mail. If this is your school’s process then deal with it or whittle down your list. It may be a few forms to you but if every student came into to guidance and asked for special favors then it becomes way more than a few forms. I mailed my school forms & transcripts and it was only 1 forty four cent stamp. Where are you getting $2? So quit your belly aching and act like an adult by figuring this out.</p>
<p>I’m willing to deal with this problem. I’m just wanted to see if other people also have GC or recommenders who prefer snail mail over electronic and how they dealt with it. And I’m not sure how you fit all your forms into a 44 cent envelope. First class mail large envelope is easily $1-2 dollars to send out of state and I don’t think cramming in my transcript and forms into a tiny envelope will leave a good impression. My transcript is about 15 pages for some reason and then add in the report forms for another 5 or so pages. How do you fit 20 pages into a legal envelope? USPS is telling me that it costs about $1.50 to send an envelope to CA or am I simply calculating the costs incorrectly?</p>
<p>I’m not sure if this is helpful but our GC also only sends the school forms snail mail. We do all the applications online. On the common app, when we invited our teachers and GC, it said this teacher/GC prefers offline so the colleges know they will be coming in snail mail. As for the cost, I can’t help. Our schools sends them out.</p>
<p>so is it okay to send in some off your app online and some paper?
like the OP, my school is doing paper. but my common app will be online.
or does the policy vary by school?</p>
<p>My guidance counselor only does hard copies too for the school report. Our system doesn’t support doing it online; however, all my teachers did their recommendations online. It costs $5 PER transcript at my school. I spent $70 just on transcripts. It use to be $2 per transcript before this school year started, but the county raised it. My school doesn’t mail your transcripts for you. You have to do it yourself; however, my counselor put the transcripts/the school reports in the same envelope. Also, you should still be able to get a fee waiver for Agnes Scott. I am still applying online to the colleges. I just had to send in my school report via mail. I wasn’t aware you can submit your transcript via the common application website. In my school, if you are applying to instate colleges you can send them for free via web using ga411. I am only applying to 2 instate schools, lol.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m just gonna have pay these fees. Sending test scores is even more expensive, but I suppose it’ll all be worth it in the end. Yeah, I emailed Agnes Scott and the fee waiver still applies as long as my common app. is submitted online, even if I mail in transcripts and reports. Does anyone know if transcript envelopes have to be sealed by the GC? Some schools don’t specifically say so.</p>
<p>If you have qualified to get fee waivers for SAT/ACT then you should qualify to get fee waivers for your college applications. Ask your guidance counselor to print out a NACAC Fee Waiver. You fill out part of it, then your guidance counselor mails it in. If you apply online with Common App, when you get to the payments section you will notice NACAC fee waiver as an option. Click that and then have your guidance counselor mail it in. Just make sure you qualify first. NACAC fee waivers can be found online. Just google it.</p>
<p>Yeah, transcripts and score reports can get expensive. My school switched to online recs a few years ago, and most teachers have said it’s easier because you don’t have to deal with the whole snail mail dilemma. It’s easier for the colleges too; maybe you can still try to convince your GC? Good luck!</p>
<p>I am rather appalled by the utter cluelessness of this statement:</p>
<p>“I would be nearing the thousand mark if I have to submit these applications offline and I have used my four free college waivers.”</p>
<p>Perhaps I misunderstand what waivers you are referring to, but application fee waivers are intended for students who CANNOT pay them, not for those applicants who would be inconvenienced. Based on the tone of your post, it sounds like you are able to come up with money for applications, but you would prefer to do other things with your money.</p>
<p>My suggestion is that you recognize the generosity of those who have provided the waivers and limit your applications accordingly. There is a reason that they placed a limit of four on you and it was not so that you could apply to four additional colleges.</p>