School optional report (SOR)
What:
The optional report is used to update grades or send corrections at any point in the year. The School Optional Report is not a substitute for the Midyear or Final report.
- Click on the Document Sending tab on the left hand side
- Search for the relevant student and click their name
- Click on Common App
- Click 'Documents'
- Click 'Add Document'
- Search for the relevant Document Type, ie 'Transcript' (for any transcript corrections, updates or predicted grades), 'School Profile' (for any updates to the original School Profile that was sent) or 'Change Explanation for Common App Reports' (to explain any changes - you'll ned to create a PDF with your explanation first).
- Give it an identifiable name ie 'Transcript for Optional Report' and press Upload.
- Click on 'Common App' on the right hand side
- Click on 'School Optional Report' to complete the form and attach the documents to it.
- Complete the form and scroll down to where it says 'Transcripts' to attach the relevant documents to the report
- Press 'Save'. It will be ready to send when the bubble has changed from a red dotted line to a grey one.
- NOTES on the Form Transcripts section:
- You'll find the question: "Please indicate the most recent grades included on the transcript accompanying this form". Make sure to update this if you are submitting a transcript different from the one previously sent with the school report or the school midyear report.
- FORM Summary section:
- You'll find the question: "
- You'll find the question: "This optional report is sent to convey" and the choices
- First quarter / trimester senior grades - Make sure to attach these grades as 'Transcript'.
- School report / transcript correction -Make sure to attach these grades as 'Transcript'.
- Other E.g., Predicted grades - make sure to attach as a 'Transcript' document. If you need to update several transcript documents, you may need to combine the PDFs into one file.
Points to note
Similar to the School Report, the accompanying documents (e.g., school profile, transcripts, change explanation) are sent bundled WITH the School Optional Report. They don't have separate checkboxes for sending.
The Optional Report is like the school report and the counselor recommendation in that it is a standard document submitted to all universities. You CANNOT send different versions to different universities. For more, see the CommonApp help center here.
"Important note: The Common App Recommender system is a one-and-done process. That means that once you submit a form, it’s sent to all the colleges you’re assigned to. That’s why it’s important not to customize your forms for a specific institution."
The Optional Report can only be submitted ONCE (for example, for the same student you CANNOT use the optional report to correct something from the school report AND use another optional report to correct something from the mid year report).
Similar to the School Report, it will say 'submitted' for the Optional Report on the student's Common App under the 'Recommenders and FERPA' section for any university.