School letterhead?

[rbk mama]

Just read this from Jeanette Webb (article linked in the recent thread about counselor letters http://www.home-school.com/Articles/counselor-letter.php):

 

Design a School Letterhead

Some of my clients have hired professionals to design a letterhead for them and the results were fabulous. My students each created their own with our desktop publishing software and came up with a very suitable design. Whatever method you choose, I encourage you to make sure it is professional and use it any time your school contacts the university.

Our letterhead included the name of our school, address, phone, student name, birth date, and common application number or social security number. Different schools ask for different numbers. But whatever number they ask for, they want it on EVERY piece of paper you send them.

 

Did you do this?  I would never have thought of it.  Does it really matter or make a difference?  

 

[Rebecca]

I did just do this. I posted that article.

 

It does look professional.

 

I am interested to know if it is necessary also!

 

I just used a Microsoft Publisher template and learned how to import it into Word as a watermark, etc, etc.

 

-Rebecca

[8filltheheart]

Just read this from Jeanette Webb (article linked in the recent thread about counselor letters http://www.home-school.com/Articles/counselor-letter.php):

 

Design a School Letterhead

Some of my clients have hired professionals to design a letterhead for them and the results were fabulous. My students each created their own with our desktop publishing software and came up with a very suitable design. Whatever method you choose, I encourage you to make sure it is professional and use it any time your school contacts the university.

Our letterhead included the name of our school, address, phone, student name, birth date, and common application number or social security number. Different schools ask for different numbers. But whatever number they ask for, they want it on EVERY piece of paper you send them.

 

Did you do this?  I would never have thought of it.  Does it really matter or make a difference?  

 

I am not sure why a student would use letterhead when contacting the school with a question.  No other student would be using letter head when contacting a school with questions, etc.  A guidance counselor would either call or email a question.  They also would not use a letterhead for a question.  They would use a professional signature in their email, and that I do. 

 

In terms of application materials, I don't use a formal logo-type letterhead, but I do format my materials in a consistent manner with identifiable info but not all of the info listed in blue.  That is too much, imho, for the header of every document. That info is on the transcript, but counselor letter, course descriptions, school profile have more limited info with the student name and student ID number in the upper corner (or as specified by the individual school).

[quark]

Yes, I did. I did not use a letterhead for every continuing page but included a header and footer for consistency. If page 1 is the letterhead with page# as footer, then page 2 might just have the topic of the document on the header with student's name and continuing page# in the footer.

 

I did this for all of our documents: counselor letter, school profile, course descriptions, academic/ extrac resume, etc. The transcript was different because it was a one page document with more personal info in it than the other documents.

 

Strictly my own humble opinion: It definitely looks more professional (I also designed a school logo). I definitely don't think it's necessary. In the end, schools will want to see academic/ extrac substance more than a snazzy looking document. What it can help do is help the homeschool transcript to stand out or blend in (in a nice way) with the sea of school-ish transcripts without looking too plain. But many people, including yours truly, did not do it to make our homeschool blend in.

Edited September 4, 2017 by quark

[regentrude]

I see no reason to have a letterhead. The student would not use a school letterhead, and email is better for questions anyway.

Having a professional looking email address and a signature help being taken seriously.

 

When I sent the transcript by snail mail to DS' school (the only school that wanted paper for anything), I simply had my address on the cover letter. Really, I cannot imagine anybody cared.

On documents uploaded electronically, I had a footer stating type of document and student name (Jane Doe - School Profile).

Edited September 4, 2017 by regentrude

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I formatted cover letters and correspondence as a formal business letter. Most of the suggested info (address, phone number, date) was either in the from section of the letter header or under my signature.

 

I did not include ssn in correspondence. I did include candidate number when sending things to service academies. My sons have uncommon names and I was confident there were not other apps with those names.

[JanetC]

I didn't create letterhead, or even use a letter format. The letter was uploaded with the Common App so contact info was available through that.

[Bootsie]

I can't imagine paying someone to design letterhead.  With Microsoft Word, it is very easy to create a header that stands out from the rest of the page, using a different font and size, to create a letterhead look for your school.  It would be appropriate to send a counselor's letter on the school's letterhead.  It would not be appropriate for the student to send a question or other correspondence on the school's letterhead.  A student at a brick and mortar school would not use the school's letterhead for private matters.  Also, the school's letterhead should be about the school, not the student, so it should not contain information like the student's SS number.   A brick and mortar school doesn't have individualized letterhead for each student.  It would be appropriate to put that type of information in a subject line of a letter.

 

[KarenNC]

I'm working on the counselor letter, school profile, etc for my daughter. Only one of the schools uses the Common App, so she will just be doing the individual school apps for all of them and I'll be mailing in my packet. I'm thinking trying for a letterhead is more than I am interested in trying at this point, but I do have a question about how to include the identifying info.

 

On the counselor letter, I have it in a subject line, and there are two full pages, with page numbers at the bottom. Is preferred format on both sides of one sheet or on two separate sheets? If one, do I need to include the identifying info again, which means I will have to take out some of the info I've included?

[rbk mama]

I can't imagine paying someone to design letterhead.  With Microsoft Word, it is very easy to create a header that stands out from the rest of the page, using a different font and size, to create a letterhead look for your school.  It would be appropriate to send a counselor's letter on the school's letterhead.  It would not be appropriate for the student to send a question or other correspondence on the school's letterhead.  A student at a brick and mortar school would not use the school's letterhead for private matters.  Also, the school's letterhead should be about the school, not the student, so it should not contain information like the student's SS number.   A brick and mortar school doesn't have individualized letterhead for each student.  It would be appropriate to put that type of information in a subject line of a letter.

 

I'm wondering the same thing.  If the letterhead is supposed to look like a school's (professional), why would it include the student's name and SS number?

 

Speaking of SS number, old threads here had several people saying not to, so we were going with DOB.

[regentrude]

On the counselor letter, I have it in a subject line, and there are two full pages, with page numbers at the bottom. Is preferred format on both sides of one sheet or on two separate sheets? If one, do I need to include the identifying info again, which means I will have to take out some of the info I've included?

 

Two separate, one sided, pages. They will likely scan this into an electronic system, and this makes it easier.

 

Why oh why are colleges still dinosaurs and want paper mailed to them???

Edited September 6, 2017 by regentrude

[Julie of KY]

I did not do a letterhead.

 

As far as social security number, many schools said it was optional, but then we couldn't get any financial aid award until they contacted us for the ss# - it was a pain. Others were getting financial aid awards and we were still waiting for information.

[Angie in VA]

No letterhead here and zero college application fails. Neat idea. We just didn't do it. 

[Mom22ns]

Two separate, one sided, pages. They will likely scan this into an electronic system, and this makes it easier.

 

Why oh why are colleges still dinosaurs and want paper mailed to them???

 

None of the colleges that I dealt with wanted paper mailed to them. I mailed paper copies of ds's transcripts only to have one school lose them and ask me to email a replacement. With dd, I asked each school if email was acceptable and they all preferred it. 

 

I certainly never bothered with letterhead. I worked in a print shop when I was in college and could have made something, but I didn't see the need and neither did the colleges.