Senior College Application Process

• In your portal, under "Additional Resources" click on SchooLinks. This will automatically open up the SchooLinks website and you will be logged in.
• Next, you will be prompted to begin the SchooLinks onboarding process. Click the "Let's go" button and answer the questions that follow. 
• You will be shown a personality match and then will be prompted to select a career cluster, career, and major. As you select each option, click the blue "next" button at the bottom of the screen.
• When you have finished, you will click the blue "Go to Dashboard" button at the bottom of the screen. 

• In your dashboard, click on the College icon.
• Click on College Applications.
• Then click "Let's go" in the Welcome message that pops up.
• You will first need to complete the information in the pop-up box. This will include Personal Details, Fee Waiver Eligibility, and the School Links FERPA Waiver. SchooLinks will automatically populate other information uploaded by the district.

IMPORTANT NOTE: YOU NEED TO UPDATE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS TO THE PERSONAL EMAIL ADDRESS YOU USE WITH COMMON APP.
Do NOT leave your school email address in the box for your email. 

• Under Fee Waiver Eligibility, please check the correct box to indicate whether you do or do not qualify for a fee waiver (you will also need to complete the fee waiver information in the Common Application for your Common App schools).
• Under the FERPA Waiver, please read the provided information and click the appropriate response. We recommend that you DO waive your rights -- some teachers will not agree to write your recommendation if you do not waive your rights, and this is also what colleges expect to see so that they know they are receiving unbiased recommendations.
• Scroll down and click the blue "Finish application setup" button.

**Please make sure that you completed steps 1 and 2 before adding colleges and requesting teacher recommendations.**

• If you applied to colleges via Common App, you will need to connect your SchooLinks account to Common App, so that the school staff can send the colleges your materials. 
  • On the left-hand column, you will see a button to connect to Common App. Click on this button. Best practice is to make sure that you have created a Common App account PRIOR to connecting your SchooLinks account. It is also best to sign the FERPA waiver in Common App prior to connecting.
  • A box will open with instructions for connecting your existing Common App account or creating a new one. You can scroll past these instructions and click on the green "Link Common App Account" button. Follow the steps to log into your account and authorize the connection with SchooLinks. Then click on "Connect and continue." When you are finished, you will be redirected back to SchooLinks.
     
• To add non-common app schools, search for the college in the search box and click "Add Application"
  • Select your application method.
  • Select the application type (Early Action, Early Decision, Regular Decision, Rolling -- this will determine when your application materials are due).
  • The checkboxes under Student Requirements are optional. Checking these boxes will add these items to your personal checklist, but will not impact the sending of your documents.
  • Click "Save Application."
  • When you add the application, a transcript is automatically requested, along with any required school reports and letters of recommendations. 

• Navigate back to the College Application Page.
  • You will need to add teacher recommendation requests individually for each school.
• In your application list, click on the pencil icon for one of your colleges to add a teacher request.
• In the middle column, click on "Request Teacher Evaluation."
• Click in the search bar and add your teacher.
  • Do not add your counselor or a mentor, coach, religious leader or other person who wants to write a recommendation for you. If your college allows non-teacher recommenders, you can add them on the Common App as an "Other Recommender."
• Follow the steps to add your teacher. You will need to do this for each of your colleges.
  Once you complete steps 1-4, you are done! If you have any questions or concerns, please contact your counselor.