Collaborate with counselors, teachers, and more
All colleges need things like official school forms. Many colleges will also ask for letters of recommendation.
Counselors, teachers, and recommenders will submit these kinds of forms on your behalf. Here are the types of recommenders you can invite in the Common App.
Counselors
Parents
Teachers
Other Recommenders
Advisors
Every college gets to choose their own recommendation requirements. You can find more details on each college's "College Information" page.
Inviting and Assigning Recommenders
From the My Colleges tab select a college and open their "Recommenders and FERPA" section.
If you have not done so already, you will need to complete the FERPA Release Authorization.
Invite recommenders using the invite button from each section. You may also use the "Invite Recommenders" button at the top.
Select the type of invitation you would like to send. For each invitation you will need information like their name and email address.
After you add a recommender, you can view their info using the Manage Recommenders button.
Note that teachers, parents, and other recommenders will not receive an email invitation until you assign them to a college. To assign these recommenders, go to their section within this screen. Select their name from the dropdown and use the assign button.
If your high school uses Naviance or another partner software, you will not invite your counselor or teachers here. There will be instructional text on this page explaining what to do next. You will still add other recommenders and advisors using the steps above.
In general, each college has their own recommendation requirements. For example, one college may need two teacher recommendations. Some colleges may not want any teacher recommendations. Colleges can also determine what kinds of other recommenders they want. Some may allow for any recommender type, whereas others only allow an employer recommendation.
