Hi All - I have a question I’m hoping someone can clarify. My daughter is applying on the Common Application. She takes classes at her main public high school and also takes one course at a private high school (Fusion Academy). She is getting a LOR from her public high school and one from her private school. Her public school uses Naviance and she has been told that for schools that only allow one LOR, it has to come through her public school. She thinks her private school letter will be stronger and wants to use that one for the schools only allowing one. We can’t figure out how to use this one vs. the public school one. Anyone out there with sthe ame issue or any insight? (I realize this is a bit confusing to read!)
Thank you!
Who is telling her it has to come from her public school? The Common App doesn’t seem to care. I can see the counselor forms would need to come from her public school but not necessarily the teacher LOR. The Common App just asks for the teacher’s email address. I am not sure how Naviance plays into this as our schools do not have it.
I tend to agree she will likely get a better LOR from a private school teacher. (Assuming equivalent positive relationships, I think private school teachers get more training in this area and have fewer students to tend to.)
The problem is that in the Naviance system, the LOR is already loaded by the public high school so when you are in the Common App and click on the specific college that allows only one rec, the button to invite another recommender is greyed out. (The common app and naviance are linked.) When you are in another college that allows multiple recs the button is not greyed out. I’m convinced there is a workaround, but can’t find the answer yet. (And I realize my typo in the topic! Good thing I’m not applying.)
In Naviance, when you add a new LOR, you can select “Choose specific colleges from my Colleges I’m Applying To List.” Then you can just select which schools you want that teacher’s LOR to be sent to. (As opposed to requesting a new LOR and selecting “Send to all current and future colleges on my Colleges I’m Applying To List,” which is what my D21 did and was a nightmare to deal with, bc once you add that LOR that way, it doesn’t seem to be something that can be undone. So, never do that.)
It seems that for those schools that only take one LOR and you don’t want it to come from the public school, just don’t request that it be sent to them. Then you can find an alternate way to have the private school LOR sent. It doesn’t make sense to me that they are saying one LOR has to be the public school teacher, because if you were requesting two LORs from the public school, you have the ability to choose one over the other, or none at all.
It sounds like she has the LOR setting set to “Send to all current and future colleges on my colleges I’m applying to List”, but I do not see where it asks you to select or where you can change it.
Also, although her private school rec is an Academic Rec, she has been told it can only be submitted under “Other Recommender”. I’m assuming that it won’t really matter…but seems odd because “Other Recommender” is for Coach/Employer etc. I’m planning on contacting the colleges directly to confirm.
That’s an option that you choose at the time you add an LOR, whether it’s to all colleges or to select colleges. I think you can delete a request and re-add it if the letter is in “requested” status, but not after the LOR has been submitted.
Like I mentioned, my daughter did it incorrectly and there were instances where a school wanted two LORs, but the two that common app was showing would go were not the two academic ones, but like, one academic and one from her coach. After submitting her app to the schools, she emailed the AO assigned to her to explain the issue. I think that is your best bet, tbh, get in touch with the AO and explain the situation and ask what the best way to get the correct LOR to them is.
Naviance is a mess. I loathe it.
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