Common App Recommendations - ARRGHH!

[Shelly in VA]

Just venting, but this process of applying to colleges is SO FRUSTRATING!! Ds asked two teachers to write letters of recommendation, and they both agreed. One is a professor who has led ds's math club for the past 2 years, the other is a CC professor that he took a class with this summer. The math club prof provided paper letters of recommendation (oddly, required by JMU to be submitted via USPS along with a paper copy of his transcript), as well as electronic copies to several non Common App schools and also to the Common App site. The CC prof said she would write a letter and started the process (indicated by the "incomplete" status on the Common App site), but then it stalled. Ds talked to her, she thought the thing was finished and submitted, but it isn't. Ds has already been contacted by one of the colleges that requires 2 teacher letters telling him that they only see 1 on the site. Arrgghh!! So now we've contacted the admissions/advising center at the CC to see if they can help.

 

I know this isn't a homeschool only problem, and I've heard even more frustrating stories from friends with kids in brick-and-mortar schools. Run arounds on letters of recommendation, no assurance that transcripts are actually being sent, that sort of thing. But I'm still frustrated! And I'm thinking that if I can figure out how to jump through all the hoops and forms and submissions required to do this thing as a homeschooler, how hard can it be for this woman to click "Done" at the bottom of the page?!!

 

Rant over. Trying to take a few deep breaths. It's not helping that we somehow have yellow jackets nesting in our siding, and now they're coming into the house. Unrelated to homeschool, college, or any of that, but it's not helping my frazzled state of mind!! 

 

 

[regentrude]

The CC prof said she would write a letter and started the process (indicated by the "incomplete" status on the Common App site), but then it stalled. Ds talked to her, she thought the thing was finished and submitted, but it isn't. Ds has already been contacted by one of the colleges that requires 2 teacher letters telling him that they only see 1 on the site. Arrgghh!! So now we've contacted the admissions/advising center at the CC to see if they can help.

 

I know this isn't a homeschool only problem, and I've heard even more frustrating stories from friends with kids in brick-and-mortar schools. Run arounds on letters of recommendation, no assurance that transcripts are actually being sent, that sort of thing. But I'm still frustrated! And I'm thinking that if I can figure out how to jump through all the hoops and forms and submissions required to do this thing as a homeschooler, how hard can it be for this woman to click "Done" at the bottom of the page?!!

 

I am not sure what contacting the advising center at the CC will accomplish. They do not have access to the Common App, and basically announcing "We think your faculty member is a moron" will not endear the student to the professor who has agreed to write the recommendation, is using her time and effort, and may simply have overlooked an extra button or run into a technical snag  with the Common App. There is no reason why she should be any more familiar with the Common App than you are - she may never have seen it before.

You can figure this out because it is your child and you have a very strong interest in wrestling with the software and doing whatever it takes to get this to work. You might want to cut the instructor some slack, because she is in no way obliged to do your DS this favor. Writing and submitting recommendation letters is time consuming and a pain.

Your DS should talk to the CC prof again, explain the situation, express his appreciation for her going back and trying to figure out why her application did not send. Ratting her out to the administration will accomplish nothing but a reluctance by the prof to ever agree to another recommendation letter.

[bettyandbob]

I am not sure what contacting the advising center at the CC will accomplish. They do not have access to the Common App, and basically announcing "We think your faculty member is a moron" will not endear the student to the professor who has agreed to write the recommendation, is using her time and effort, and may simply have overlooked an extra button or run into a technical snag  with the Common App. There is no reason why she should be any more familiar with the Common App than you are - she may never have seen it before.

You can figure this out because it is your child and you have a very strong interest in wrestling with the software and doing whatever it takes to get this to work. You might want to cut the instructor some slack, because she is in no way obliged to do your DS this favor. Writing and submitting recommendation letters is time consuming and a pain.

Your DS should talk to the CC prof again, explain the situation, express his appreciation for her going back and trying to figure out why her application did not send. Ratting her out to the administration will accomplish nothing but a reluctance by the prof to ever agree to another recommendation letter.

 

The cc professor is probably an adjunct. Adjuncts get paid little and certainly are not compensated for time spent on recommendations.

[Shelly in VA]

Your DS should talk to the CC prof again, explain the situation, express his appreciation for her going back and trying to figure out why her application did not send. Ratting her out to the administration will accomplish nothing but a reluctance by the prof to ever agree to another recommendation letter.

 

He actually already did this. Twice. The first time, she told him that she thought she had done everything on her end to finish submitting the recommendation, but that she would look at it again. She did, and she got back to him to say she had checked and the recommendation should be there, but it wasn't. So he talked to her a second time, and she told him that she didn't know what to do, and that if he could direct her to "support" she'd take a look at it with them. We aren't "ratting anyone out" to the administration, just trying to figure out who might be able to provide that support. The professor actually suggested we talk to the First Year Programs Counselor, who then directed us to the Advising Center. Also, he has thanked her for her time, both in an email and in a handwritten note that he mailed.

 

In all honesty, I don't appreciate the tone of your response, suggesting that I'm subverting this woman's kindness. Ds is actually working with her to try to get the snag resolved; my frustration lies in the amount of time and effort that is involved in every little teeny tiny step of the college app process. The Common App is aggravating, in part because it isn't "common" once every school adds their own requirements to it. The schools that aren't Common App require all the same information, just on their own form. The recommendation letters sometimes have to be submitted electronically, sometimes through the common app, sometimes to an individual school, sometimes by mail. Some schools want a guidance counselor letter from homeschoolers, some don't. Some schools want extra outside validation, some want extra test scores, some want additional "evidence" of what schooling took place. Some want interviews. Some schools want lists of texts and courses accompanying the transcript. Some want a transcript and a resume. Some want a transcript, a form restating the transcript on the school's header, and a resume. It's very, very annoying. It's very, very time consuming. And it's very, very much this way for all students, parents, and school staff involved in the process, regardless of the student's educational background. The essays alone are enough to drive a person batty - I mean, some of the prompts!!! I assume the process is a headache for the college admissions staff as well, although for school staff and college staff, the annoyance is somewhat mitigated by the paycheck that comes with it.

 

At the same time, as a professional, when the professor agreed to write the letter, she agreed to see it through to completion. She was not required to do this, nor should she have felt compelled to for any reason. His other recommenders have figured this out, and I'm not quite sure why the system is causing more trouble for her. But no one is "ratting her out," and I was in error for relaying my frustration in a way that implied that. 

[Muttichen]

I just wrote a common app recommendation for a student, and it is actually a little tricky.  There is a tab where you have to fill out info on yourself and until you do that, you don't see the submit button.  You can upload the recommendation, save it, and think you're done -- it never tells you there is more to do.  It bothered me that there wasn't a submit button, so I fiddled around and figured it out.  Someone less familiar with it might not even think to look.

 

Anyway, you might want to have your ds suggest this.

[Elise]

This is happening to us, too.  One of dd's uni. professors has written her a lovely recommendation letter (he sent her a copy) and even emailed her to confirm that everything had been submitted properly -- only the Common App says "Started" rather than submitted/downloaded.  He has been very kind and apologetic, offering to do it all over again if need be, and we feel badly about inconveniencing him since he has already put so much time and effort into this.  We've decided to just give him a self-addressed, stamped envelope and let him mail it in.  Luckily we can do this by completely bypassing the Common App since this particular rec. isn't required.  If it was required, and if we weren't able to resolve the submission problem, we would probably scrap the initial invite, re-invite him, and then have him opt out and do it on paper.  Could this be a possible solution for you as well?

 

Sorry you're having to go through this, too.  It would help so much if we could see what they are seeing.....

[Elise]

I just wrote a common app recommendation for a student, and it is actually a little tricky.  There is a tab where you have to fill out info on yourself and until you do that, you don't see the submit button.  You can upload the recommendation, save it, and think you're done -- it never tells you there is more to do.  It bothered me that there wasn't a submit button, so I fiddled around and figured it out.  Someone less familiar with it might not even think to look.

 

Anyway, you might want to have your ds suggest this.

 

Thank you for posting this!  I'll pass this on to dd and see if maybe that's the problem her prof is having too.

[Shelly in VA]

I just wrote a common app recommendation for a student, and it is actually a little tricky.  There is a tab where you have to fill out info on yourself and until you do that, you don't see the submit button.  You can upload the recommendation, save it, and think you're done -- it never tells you there is more to do.  It bothered me that there wasn't a submit button, so I fiddled around and figured it out.  Someone less familiar with it might not even think to look.

 

Anyway, you might want to have your ds suggest this.

 

Thank you! I will have ds see if this is the issue.

[Caroline]

Submitting a common app rec only works on certain browsers. I used chrome this year. And, some firewalls block it, too. You think you have submitted, and, really, everything looks submitted, but it isn't.

[regentrude]

In all honesty, I don't appreciate the tone of your response, suggesting that I'm subverting this woman's kindness.

 

I am sorry that my response was offensive. Being an instructor myself who has to write recommendation letters and figure out online submission systems, I guess I was a bit miffed by the tone of

 

 

 

, how hard can it be for this woman to click "Done" at the bottom of the page?!!

 

 

I understand your frustration with the process. Been there, done that, for 12 applications, last year. But the complicated nature of the application process  is not the CC instructor's fault.

Good luck in getting it all straightened out.

[Shelly in VA]

You are right, and my tone was out-of-line. My apologies. 

[Lynn in Caribbean]

Both of my dd's recommenders had trouble with this.  They both thought they were done, but they were not showing up on dd's side as being done.  We thought the problem was a glitch with Common App - after all, what were the odds that two teachers would both think they were done when they were not done?  But, it was really that they had not gone through the submission process.  At some point, there is just no prompt to keep going, they have some nice green checks, and think the student is done.   

 

When the first teacher got hers submitted, I asked her how it had worked, then sent her notes to the other teacher.  Maybe you could send this to the teacher...Here's what the process looks like (from her teacher's point of view):

 

-answered the questions

-uploaded a document as my letter of recommendation

-clicked "save"

-clicked "submit" (this is right under the save button)

-this took me to a screen where I reviewed a PDF that was generated by my previous input - there was a checkbox on this screen to check that I had reviewed the PDF and it was exactly the way I wanted it to be - I clicked "yes"

-then I was shown a screen with a checkbox and a signature box - I clicked the checkbox to indicate that I realized this submission could not be changed, and typed my name in the name box as an electronic signature

-clicked "submit" from this screen

-the screen then said this student's submission was complete

-student went to check her account, and my rec showed up as "submitted"

 

[saw]

Three of dd's five recommenders have had trouble with the "submit" function on the Common App. One still doesn't seem to have gotten it to work, so I just sent a paper copy of the recommendation along with the supplemental materials I was sending anyway. It's been such a pain -- none of DD's recommenders is accustomed to writing recs for US colleges (if at all), only one was written in English, and not one had any experience with the Common App. It's been incredibly nice of all of them to help out and I'm just annoyed that the Common App seems to have made it more difficult than it could have been, as far as I can tell, since these are all intelligent computer-savvy individuals who shouldn't really be having so much trouble with an online form!

 

[snowbeltmom]

Submitting a common app rec only works on certain browsers. I used chrome this year. And, some firewalls block it, too. You think you have submitted, and, really, everything looks submitted, but it isn't.

 

This!  Submit buttons will not show up if someone is using the "wrong" browser.  You would think that the tech people for the Common Application would have been able to design a system that works correctly using multiple browsers.  Apparently, that is expecting too much.