When clicking on the save button after you complete a Common App Form, the form will be validated before it's ready to send. The result of the validation might show an error message. If this is the case for you, please find the following most common errors and how to troubleshoot them:
- "Invitation limit exceeded for AppID"
- "Recommender Email: ___ is already registered as Common App Recommender so can't be invited from here"
- "Relationship context: Validation Failed" or "Volunteer service description: Validation Failed"
- "Upload exceeds size limit for QuestionId: ____"
- Teacher Recommendation (TR) fails to send with generic "Something went wrong" error.
- ED1 Form: "An unknown error occurred, please contact support".
- "Teacher Recommendations error when saving: OTHER GRADES TAUGHT: VALIDATION FAILED"
- "File" or "Invalid PDF File"
1. "Invitation limit exceeded for AppID"
WHY: The student already invited (ie. requested recommendations from) recommenders (ie Counselors or Teachers) from the CommonApp website itself, before they paired their account with BridgeU. The student doesn't have enough recommender "slots" left. These existing invitations need to be manually removed before we can invite more.
SOLUTION: With Common App's recent update, applicants reporting this type of error can self-serve in the application by clicking on the trash can icon on their Rec & FERPA page.
2. "Recommender Email: ___ is already registered as Common App Recommender so can't be invited from here"
WHY: Recommenders can't write recommendations both within the BridgeU integration and outside it (ie directly through the CommonApp Website). So to invite them into BridgeU as a recommender, we need to get them removed as a recommender from the CommonApp Website.
SOLUTION: Send a message to hi@bridge-u.com and we will be happy to assist you with this issue.
Volunteer service description: Validation Failed"
WHY: Error served from Common App. Text limit of 100 characters.
SOLUTION: Edit text to remove to just 100 characters and you can send.
4. "Upload exceeds size limit for QuestionId: ____"
WHY: There is a file (probably School Profile, but could also be a transcript or recommendation) whose size exceeds 2MB.
SOLUTION: Reduce file size, then delete the file and re-upload. If you want to confirm which file is at fault, send us a message on livechat or to hi@bridge-u.com
5. Teacher Recommendation (TR) fails to send with generic "Something went wrong" error.
WHY: The University only accepts a maximum number of teacher recommendation letters.
SOLUTION: To see if this is the case, check the CommonApp Min/Max Teacher Recommendations, and find the university in question. Check column D: Max Teacher Evaluation.
6. ED1 Form: "An unknown error occurred, please contact support".
WHY: One reason this can occur is if the student does not have any applications with an ED1 deadline in their colleges list in the Common App.
SOLUTION: Double check that the correct deadlines are all in place. The student needs to update the college that they are applying to ED1, then sync their BridgeU<>Common App pairing.
[Note: Even if there is an ED1 showing in BridgeU, you may need to sync again, in case the Student has recently switched away from that ED1 deadline choice but not synced since that switch]
7. "Teacher Recommendations error when saving: OTHER GRADES TAUGHT: VALIDATION FAILED"
WHY: The number of text characters allowed has been exceeded.
SOLUTION: This field has a maximum value of 30 characters. Make sure it is at 30 or less
8. "File" or "Invalid PDF File"
WHY: The PDF file has been damaged or corrupted at some point. Usually happens with teacher recommendations. Firstly check that the file is under 2MB and has no password encryption.
SOLUTION: Download the file, right-click and open in preview mode, click "print" and "save as pdf" OR "export as PDF" to create a fresh copy with no encryption. Finally, re-upload that pdf to replace the corrupt one.
Other error messages apart from the above are mostly self-explantory. However, you can always drop us an email at hi@bridge-u.com for further support!