Getting Started with Scoir + Common App™

The Scoir + Common App Integration for the 2025-26 school year is scheduled to go live the first week of September. 🚀 Learn what to expect between now and the release date, how to best prepare, and grab additional resources to help along the way. 

Opting into the Scoir + Common App Integration is closed for the 2025-26 school year. If you would like to opt in for the 2026-27 school year, please contact your Customer Success Manager. 

Table of Contents:

• Scoir + Common App Overview
• Preparing for the New Integration 
• How the Integration Works
• Additional Resources & Training

Scoir + Common App Overview

As a whole, the Common App integration reduces steps for students and allows you to monitor application submissions and supply supporting materials to Common App through Scoir. 

Throughout Scoir, you’ll continue using tools that you're already familiar with when managing applications and sending documents, as well as notice a few updates that standardize some of those processes to align with Common App. 

Connecting Accounts: Students will be prompted to connect Scoir and their Common App accounts.

College List Syncing: Your students’ My Colleges lists will sync with their Common App activity, and you’ll know where and when they’ve applied, all within Scoir.

Preparing Counselor Forms: Students will complete their FERPA Release Authorization, make Fee Waiver requests, and complete their portion of Early Decision Agreements in Common App for those colleges they’re applying via Common App. 

Counselors will finalize their portion of shared forms, as well as build and send all other required forms entirely in Scoir. When submitting forms, they will be routed through Common App, which will then send it to the college for a consistent delivery experience.

Teacher Recommendation Requests: You and your students will request and manage teacher recommendations in Scoir, and Common App will no longer prompt students to request teacher evaluations and recommendations, so you can say goodbye to duplicate recommendation requests! 

Sending Application Documents: Application documents will be sent via Scoir and routed through Common App once submitted, allowing them to be sent to the college for a consistent delivery experience.

If you have questions about where you and your students should take action when Common App is the application method, here’s a quick view to help. 

Preparing for the New Integration 

Over the last few months, we’ve been hard at work building the experience and the integration is scheduled to go live the week of September 2nd.

In case you missed it, over the summer we released a few updates in Scoir to align with Common App requirements and strengthen forms:

• Teacher Recommendation Updates
• Counselor Recommendation Updates
• School Report Template Updates

While these releases support the upcoming integration and you can use them today, there are initial components that won’t be available until September. 

Here’s a rundown of what you and your students can do now to prepare, and what you’ll access when the integration is turned on. 

August ✅

• Students can create a Common App account and begin completing their My Common Application. They’ll need to add their high school in the Education section, which is how Common App will recognize them as a Scoir student
• Students can indicate in Common App which round they intend to apply for colleges on their list and submit their applications, and this will be reflected in Scoir’s My Colleges in September.
• Students will complete their FERPA Release Authorization, make Fee Waiver requests, and complete their portion of Early Decision Agreements in Common App for those colleges they’re applying via Common App. Signing their FERPA in Common App will be required in order for documents to be sent in Scoir to schools they apply to via Common App 
• In Scoir, counselors can configure their School Profile and School Report in School Settings > Documents & Templates, while individual Secondary School Reports are created from each student's profile
• In Scoir, Counselors should complete their Personal Profile, including title and phone number 
• Students and counselors can request teacher recommendations, and teachers can complete these. Counselor recommendations can also be requested and fulfilled in Scoir
• For colleges where students are using another application method to apply, there will be an additional step to assign which teacher recommendations should be sent to which colleges (and this will also be required for Common App colleges once the integration is turned on) 

September 🚀

• Students will connect their Scoir & Common App accounts
• Students' Common App activity will sync with their My Colleges lists in Scoir, so you'll see where they've applied and for what round
• For colleges that students are applying via Common App, there will be an additional step to assign which teacher recommendations should be sent to which colleges. 
• Counselors will be able to send forms and documents for students who choose Common App as their application method
• Counselors will finalize their portion of shared forms like Early Decision Agreements and Fee Waivers in Scoir

How the New Integration Works

Now, let’s look at how the integration works in more detail.

Live Now: Teacher Recommendation Requests & Preparing Counselor Forms

Coming in September: Connecting Accounts, College List Syncing, & Sending Application Documents

Live Now

Over the summer, we've updated the experience for Teacher Recommendation Requests & Counselor Forms to support Common Apps requirements! These experiences are available now.

Teacher Recommendation Requests

Teacher recommendations will be managed in Scoir, and Common App will no longer prompt students to request these in their platform, which means no more duplicate recommendation requests 🎉 Instead, Common App will let students know their school uses Scoir for these requests. 

As you go through the recommendation process, you’ll notice updates to align with Common App’s standard forms, including the teacher evaluation that Common App submits as part of every recommendation.

Let’s walk through the experience. 

School Settings for Letters of Recommendation

First, your Account Administrator should revisit your Recommendation Settings to ensure everything you need is enabled this year. A few settings to pay attention to:

1. Choose whether to allow students to use Scoir to request and assign recommendations from teachers. You can also require counselor approval for those recommendation requests. If this setting isn’t enabled for students, counselor will request and assign for the student
2. You can choose to allow students to request college-specific recommendations. However, due to Common App limitations, we recommend using this option only for non–Common App colleges. Important details for Common App colleges:
   1. Common App allows only one recommendation per teacher to be submitted across all of a student’s applications
   2. If a teacher writes multiple college-specific letters, only one can be submitted—whichever is assigned by the student or counselor
   For Common App, we recommend that teachers complete one general recommendation for a student which can then be assigned to multiple colleges.
3. If you enable the setting to Auto-Send Teacher Letters of Recommendations, know that once assigned, the recommendation will be sent immediately. 

Requesting & Assigning Letters of Recommendation

Whether applying via Common App, or another method, your students will continue following Scoir’s recommendation process. 

One difference in Common App schools is that students will need to take an additional step and assign teacher recommendations to their colleges. 

• Once a teacher’s recommendation has been completed, students will need to go to My Colleges > Docs and assign which colleges, whether that’s one or more, should receive that teacher’s recommendation 
• For every college they’re applying to, they’ll see how many recommendations are required or accepted optionally, so they'll know how many to assign
• If students do not currently have the ability to request letters of recommendation directly, a counselor must assign where each letter is sent
• Students will see a reminder icon for any schools that are waiting to be assigned a recommendation 

Teacher Recommendation Forms

When a teacher receives a request in Scoir, they’ll get an email notification with a link that sends them to the request. From there, they’ll complete the steps outlined in this help article. 

This summer, we released updates to support Common App requirements and strengthen teacher recommendations. Now, teachers will: 

1. Need to review and enter required profile information when they log in. (This only needs to be done once, and failure to enter this information could result in errors when sending documents)
2. Complete new required fields and optional student ratings. The new required fields include: 
   1. Subject Area
   2. How long have you known this student, and in what context?
   3. List the courses in which you have taught this student, including the level of course difficulty (AP, IB, accelerated, Cambridge, honors, elective; 100-level, 200-level; etc.)
   4. What are the first words that come to mind to describe this student?
   5. In which grade level(s) was the student enrolled when you taught them?

Teacher Recommendation Reminders

As you begin using the Scoir + Common App integration, here are a few reminders when it comes to teacher recommendations.  

✅ For Common App schools, counselors will not be able to upload recommendations on behalf of teachers 

✅ Teachers will need to review and enter required profile information when they log in, including title and phone number to avoid errors when sending their recommendations

✅ We recommend that teachers complete one general recommendation for a student which can then be assigned to multiple colleges

✅ Applicants will make 3rd party recommendation requests in Common App

✅ While students, teachers, and counselors can move forward requesting and preparing teacher recommendations, assigning and sending them for Common App schools will not be available until September

For more details on how Teacher Recommendations work for students applying to colleges via Common App, please take a look at our FAQ. 

Preparing Counselor Forms

While you won’t be able to send documents until September, you can begin preparing some of them now. Common App supports the following documents:

• School Reports (Required for all Common App Applications)
  • An initial transcript is required to be included for Common App schools, and if your template is configured to have Senior Courses turned on, these will also be included
• Teacher Evaluations
• Counselor Recommendations
• Midyear Reports
• Final Reports
• Optional Reports (Prepare in September)
• Fee Waivers (Prepare in September)
• Early Decision Agreements (Prepare in September)

Counselors will continue to manage forms in Scoir with a few differences: 

1. Students will sign their FERPA Release Authorization, make Fee Waiver requests, and complete their portion of Early Decision Agreements in Common App for those colleges they’re applying via Common App. Signing their FERPA will be required in order for documents to be sent in Scoir to schools they apply to via Common App 
2. Counselors will finalize their portion of shared forms, as well as prepare other forms, in Scoir to be submitted for applications
3. When configuring School Report Templates, you’ll see they’ve been updated with new and renamed fields and clearer sections
4. Counselor Recommendations have been updated to include 2 optional evaluation fields:
   1. How long have you known this student, and in what context?
   2. What are the first words that come to your mind to describe this student?

As you get started, we recommend your Account Administrator review your Documents settings to ensure your School Profile is up to date, School Reports are enabled, and everything aligns with your school’s processes for this school year.

While students will complete their FERPA Release Authorization in Common App, you’ll see the option to collect these in Scoir for both Common App and other application methods, so you know which students have, and haven't, signed these. For Common App, you’ll see this reflected when the integration is live in September. 

Once you’ve revisited your settings, head over to Documents & Templates in Scoir and review your School Profile to ensure it’s current. 

From there, you’ll configure your School Reports Template, which allows you to complete roughly 80% of the report, making it less time-consuming when you add student-specific information.  

Coming soon, you'll see updates to the Secondary School Report to support Common App requirements.

Before completing your Secondary School Report (SSR), double check to ensure your School Profile and transcripts are uploaded for the student, as well as any other documents your team may have indicated were needed, to ensure they’re attached when submitting to Common App.

Regardless of whether your student applies via Common App or another method, the School Report creation flow will generate the proper forms based on the application method for each school. 

So, if your student is using Common App to apply, we’ll generate the Common App School Report, and if they’re using another method, we’ll generate Scoir’s Secondary School Report. 

Coming in September

While there are some actions you and your students won’t take until September, you can still prepare supporting application materials now, and students can build their college lists and apply to colleges. Your students won't be blocked from taking necessary actions to complete their college applications.

Connecting Accounts

In September, seniors with an assigned counselor will connect Scoir and their Common App accounts by logging in at the touch points we provide. 

Until then, they can create a Common App account,  begin adding colleges to their list, and prepare for applications as usual. Students can also submit applications prior to the connection, and these actions will be reflected in Scoir in September. 

Once their Common App account is created, they’ll need to take two steps:

1. Add their high school in the Education section, which is how Common App will recognize them as a Scoir student
2. Complete their FERPA, which is required for documents to be sent in Scoir to schools they apply to via Common App. 

Students should continue building their My Colleges lists in Scoir, indicate colleges they’re applying to using other application methods, and keep it as up to date as possible. In Scoir, we’ll also support marking colleges as Applying when Common App is the application method, but we’ll limit the information provided and prompt when necessary to take actions in Common App. 

College List Syncing

Once the integration is live, your students’ My Colleges lists will sync with their Common App activity and you’ll see where and when they’ve applied via Common App, all within Scoir. From that point on, any changes made in Common App’s My Colleges will be reflected in Scoir.

Know that changes made in Scoir won’t update in Common App. Instead, when students choose Common App as their application method, we’ll prompt them to head over to Common App to select their app round and complete the application process. In September, that information will be reflected in Scoir. 

Students won’t be able to move colleges in Scoir beyond Applying when they indicate Common App as their application method. We’ll mark these colleges for them in Scoir in the meantime so they know action is not required on their end. Once the sync is live, these colleges in Scoir will align with what’s reflected in Common App.

Sending Documents

Sending documents through Scoir for students who choose Common App as their application method will be consistent with other application methods. Once the integration is live in September, you'll receive notifications in Scoir regarding which Common App colleges your students have applied to and that supporting documents are ready to be sent.

Application documents will be routed through Common App once submitted, allowing them to be sent to the college for a consistent delivery experience.

1. Common App documents are not batched and sent nightly. When you send a document, in most cases, it will be delivered to Common App within moments of you taking the action. Of course, the timing is subject to volume limits and demand. An initial transcript and senior courses are required to be included in School Reports for Common App colleges.
2. Once sent, the documents are collected and stored at Common App and made available to colleges when the student completes each application submission.
3. If students add colleges to their list after you’ve sent documents to Common App, that’s no problem. Common App will recognize this and tie those docs to the student after the fact.
4. Next, documents are submitted to Common App by type and not necessarily by application. Because of that, as soon as you create and send a School Report, it’s made available to all colleges where the student has applied, which is a key aspect of what is meant by "one & done."

“One-and-done” means counselors only need to submit each required form once per student, and Common App will automatically deliver those materials to all colleges. Know that documents are made available to all colleges, regardless of their requirements, with the exception of teacher recommendations.

As soon as one of these colleges downloads the document, it can not be updated or replaced. Instead, the counselor will need to submit an Optional Report to notify the college of what was wrong with the initial submission.

Additional Resources & Training

Now that you've learned more about the Scoir + Common Integration that's coming in September, here are a few additional resources to help.

• Student Getting Started Guide

Feel free to share this quick guide for students that covers where they should take actions and what to expect in September.

View Student Guide

• Scoir + Common App FAQ

See specific questions that counselors have asked and learn more about how the integration will work.

View FAQ

• Scoir + Common App Training

Join us for our Common App training on Wednesday, August 27 at 2PM ET to get a full walkthrough before the release in September. 

Save Your Seat

If you have any questions or need additional help, you can also reach out to your Customer Success Manager!