• Requesting a Recommendation Letter 

    For Colleges Applied to on Websites & Common App 

    From your Xello account, follow the instructions:  

    • From the Student Dashboard, under Goals & Plans, students click College Planning. 
    • Under College Applications, they select the institution to which they’d like a letter sent. 
    • If the institution isn't visible at the top of the list, they click View My Applications to open their full list of college applications. 
    • Under the Application Checklist, they find Recommendation Letters. 
    • To the right, they click Request to open the Add Referrer page. 
    • After filling out the referrer’s name and email address, they click Next. 
    • They are prompted to write a personal note with a minimum of 100 characters. 
    • Helpful tips are included in the Need Help? section to foster ideas on what to include in the note. 
    • Students can opt to attach a resume or brag sheet. 
    • To finish sending the request, the student clicks Send. 
    • The next page is the Application Checklist. Students click on Recommendation Letters to view the updated progress of the letter. 

    Requesting a Teacher Evaluation or Recommendation Letter for Common App 

    A teacher evaluation is a recommendation letter or recommendation form. Students use Xello to request Teacher Evaluations for Common App colleges. Teachers only need to fill this out once for it to be sent to every Common App college the student has saved. Make sure the letter is specific to the student’s accomplishments and not to the institution. 

    How students request Teacher Evaluations: 

    • From their Student Dashboard, under Goals & Plans, students click College Planning. 
    • Click View My Applications to see the full list of colleges they’re tracking. 
    • Click on a college with the Common App logo to open a brief profile of that college. 
    • Next to Teacher Evaluations, they click Request to open the list of every educator at their school in Xello.  
    • If the option for Teacher Evaluation is not there, that may mean the college does not want a recommendation.  
    • They choose the referrer they'd like and click Select to begin filling out the Teacher Evaluation request. 
    • Once finished, they click Send and are returned to the college page. 
    • A banner at the top of the page indicates success. 

    Adding a Due Date to a Recommendation Letter Request 

    Students can opt to add a due date to the request for a Recommendation Letter. This due date will show on their Application Checklist, on your Educator Tools under Recommendation Letters, and directly in the letter for the referrer. This gives students greater freedom and control over their own application tracking process. 

    How students add a custom due date to a request: 

    • From the correct institution, under the Application Checklist, they find Recommendation Letters. 
    • To the right, they click the Options dropdown and select Add Due Date. 

    Click to enlarge 

    • They select the correct date and click Save. 
    • The due date will now show in the same line as Recommendation Letters on their Application Checklist, in the letter sent to the referrer, and in your Educator Tools.