I have a question as well.
The college asks whether any relative ever attended the school. My dad had attended fall semester of 1941 and dropped out after fall semester to enlist. He never returned once the war was over.
Should we include this or not? There’s no space to explain the circumstances and I don’t know if they still have records from 1941 to verify.
And for those of you on the 11/1 stress train–neither teacher has uploaded the LOR, and the English teacher hasn’t handed back the Cimmon App essay assignment. DS is supposed to be following up today…
Thank you @labegg . Do you know who can retract: teacher or GC? I don’t know how to check if school downloaded LOR. DD did not submit her Common App yet. Can they download LOR before the application is submitted?
for us the GC was responsible for uploading the LOR from Naviance to Common App. You will see on the Common App under the FERPA section if the LOR has been submitted and when it changes to downloaded by the school. I do not know if the LOR can be downloaded before the app is submitted. I suspect not. I recall reading the Common App pools all the info until the app is submitted. But that LOR and GC things can be submitted after the app is submitted and they all link up somehow.
@Ballerina2016 - I believe the teacher can replace/delete, but only in the “prepare” stage not in the “sent” stage. So if the teacher already “sent” the documents to the school, it has to be the GC or a kid/teacher mailing/faxing in new letters to replace the old ones.
Thank you @fretfulmother and @labegg . If I can see it under teacher’s LOR in Common App, but application is not submitted to school yet, is it in prepare or send stage? The teacher is not in school today, so she cannot follow up. Did I understand it correctly that it is possible to email school and ask them to replace one recommendation with another even though two recommendations been send to them via Common App?
@Ballerina2016 - if it is not yet submitted, I think that is the prepare stage, but the teacher needs to check because I’m not sure how it looks from your end (?). I don’t know the other answer, but the GC might? Sorry I’m not more helpful on this!
@Ballerina2016 My son’s school uses Naviance as well and we also had this question. My son’s GC said she was unable to remove and replace a LOR that was already submitted to the common app. In my son’s case she offered to send a separate paper LOR from his preferred teacher directly to the school but it could not go through the common app.
Oh, @LKnomad, I am sorry. What a frustrating situation for you and your son. I hope the teachers pull through. Maybe now that you are no longer as angry, you could go to the main teacher and lay out your reasons for the recommendation and why it is so important? Or maybe your spouse, who might be in a more neutral position, could do it?
to apps in. One ED and one EA. Both want first quarter grades, but those aren’t available till Thanksgiving time. Not sure what the schools will do…but…I kinda feel that once that “submit” button has been pressed…the rest is out of “our”/S’s hands! Congrats on all the acceptances so far!
@Almondjoy1 – if the question is “attended” as opposed to “graduated” I think your dad’s attendance there should definitely be entered. If there’s an “anything else we should know” section at the end of the app write the same blurb you wrote here. It’s fantastic, and will definitely get their attention. It’s the type of thing they simply eat up.
And even if there’s nowhere to explain it, your dad’s attendance should be entered.
@mysonsdad This was for the supplemental LoR - specifically to address non academic issues. His LoRs from his gen ed teachers and councilor are no problem. The crazy SpEd teacher kept insisting we use a gen ed teacher to talk about problems and I could not get her to understand why that would NOT work and that this was not for academics. It was like talking to a wall!
On no, @Almondjoy1 ! Are the teachers aware that 11/1 is a deadline for many? I admit I am purposefully NOT looking to see the status of LOR tonight. Counting on DS to do so and follow up if need be. I tried to get him to finish his part of all this over the weekend but it is not yet done and he is out at a school event with friends at the moment. He is booked tomorrow evening. I am busy on Thursday. I REALLY despise doing things at the last minute. I may need a glass of wine, or two, before this is all done–or we will be spending less on application fees than we thought.
so, what about all the arts supplements? If your kid is “really good” but not one of those “conservatory types” or maybe could be…but isn’t interested…do you bother sending in an arts supplement? I’m thinking it is going to just add so much more stress…but maybe that is short sighted?
@drmom123 I guess it depends on the college and the kid but I would think it would probably be a good idea to do the arts supplement if possible. I guess depends on how much effort / time would go into preparation vs. how much the colleges involved care about “talent” and where your child’s talent falls on the spectrum for that particular institution. Hard information to determine…
@momofzag yes. I am thinking the way you are. He has one school he wants to ED to…and their Arts Supplement is fairly straight forward, and since he’s “dying” to get into the school, he’s been working on a piece. However, as we all know…ED may not happen…and then each and every school seems to have their own “list”…I guess I see him filled with anxiety over this whole process…and I want to make it all go away … but, you’re right…if he weren’t to submit the supplement, it would not show his talent…and that is what he’s all about…maybe like Cinderella saying she really is Cinderella…but doesn’t show her glass slipper…?
To anyone who have similar problem with LOR, our GC said this is a common practice to call the school and let them know that they will be sending another LOR in place of the one submitted. She will be doing that later since messed up LOR is for two RD schools.
@drmom123 we struggled with the same question here. It does seem to depend on the school (and even which rep you get at a school on any given day.) There is one school on my daughter’s list that seemed very clear that they were only interested in getting submissions from prodigies, but other schools were more vague. It IS a lot of work though to put it together. In our case, I thought the process of developing the submissions was a worthwhile pursuit in itself, so my daughter did put together supplements for some schools (she plays two instruments, so there were two to prepare.)