Lets talk letters of recommendation

glassharmonica
Wed, 08 Aug 2012 08:33:10 +0000

Aha, thanks, Glassharmonica. I had no idea that the Common App sent in outside recommendations, sorry. Letters submitted through the Common App would go straight to admissions, though, I think.



It was probably a red herring when I said that my daughter used a cyber school- in my state they operate just like regular public schools. This particular school did not use Naviance last year, although they will this year. So my experience for her (and my other 3 daughters) was with the Common Ap, but not Naviance. Last year, the Common Ap allowed you to send requests to multiple recommendation letter writers (teachers) and one guidance counselor. For specific schools you were able to pick which letter would be sent to which school. We found this to be a nice flexible option, as some were purely academic letter and some were artistic/academic letters, and some were artistic only. I don’t think you will have as much flexibility with Naviance.

In my daughter’s case, she had taken some college courses and she felt that these academic recommendations would be more valuable than recommendations from her high school teachers, so these were added via the Common Application (the teachers were sent an email prompt generated by the Common Ap.) These were among the choices she had to send to individual schools. Which rec letter was sent to which school was a decision she made on a school-by-school basis.

NJTheatremom, I’m sorry that I was unclear, but my daughter sent postal letters to the Theatre departments under separate cover, as a separate task. Many of the schools have online tracking systems where one can log on and track receipt of application materials. She could see that several schools had duly logged on the receipt of these letters (and some other supplementary material.) She did not send these packages to schools that specifically requested no extra material. Some schools seem very open to extra materials, some seem neutral, some discourage it. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that each school has its own specific admissions process, Common Ap or not, so you have to keep on your toes.