1. Naviance & Common Application
Your college planning and application tools

2. Family Connections (Naviance) and Common App: Working together to submit a completed application

3. Naviance and CA: the Breakdown
Common App
Request Teacher Recommendations
Request Transcripts
Update your list of “Colleges I’m Applying to” to ensure that all of your colleges (both Common App and non-Common app colleges) are included.
This list should match your “Release of Records” List.
Common Application form
Profile, Family History, Education, Writing Sample, etc.
Finalize your College List
Fill out supplemental information for each school
Determine number of teacher recommendations allowed
Sign FERPA Waiver

4. This is your Family Connections login page.
It should look familiar!
Enter your Montrose and the password that you set last year.

5. Quick Refresher: What is Family Connection?
Family Connection is a comprehensive online tool that allows you to:
Research, track, and store information about colleges that interest you
Communicate with the College Guidance Office
Find the latest information about college visits and fairs, testing deadlines, required forms, etc.
Request Teacher Recommendations and Transcripts
Track information and materials throughout the application process

6. Family Connections and Common App: Account Matching
In order to submit a Common App through Family Connections, you must “match” your Naviance Account with your Common App account.
Here’s how:
Create a Common App login at
**The address used for your Common App login must be the same as the address used for your Naviance Login.
**Your first and last name and date of birth must be the same as your name/DOB on your Naviance profile.

7. Account Matching, continued:
2. Fill out the
2. Use the College Search feature to locate your schools. Add them to your list of colleges.
3. Under the Common App tab, fill out all required information.
4. Sign the FERPA release (see next slide).

8. FERPA Waiver Click on the “My Colleges” Tab. Select one college.
The FERPA question is found within the 'Assign Recommenders' tab of your application.
**IMPORTANT: You will NOT be assigning recommenders though the Common App website. You will be requesting teacher recommendations through Naviance.
Do not provide counselor or teachers’ names or s on the Common App.
To make your FERPA decision, click on the 'release authorization' link and follow the prompts.
Complete Form and save.

9. Account Matching, continued:
Log back into Naviance.
Click the Colleges Tab
Click Colleges I’m Applying To
The Common App Account Matching screen is displayed at the top of the page. If you have completed all of the above steps, you will be eligible to complete the remainder of the account matching process.

10. Common App : Helpful Tips
Education: a) The only educational information you need to supply is grades 9-12 b) Always report your weighted GPA. This information can be found on your Naviance Account. c) GPA Scale: 4 points d) Course Credit Value: One point for a full year course, .5points for a semester-long course e) Career Interests: Keep in mind that this application will be sent to each of your schools. You may want to keep this general. Testing: If some of your schools require testing, provide the test dates and scores. For test -optional schools, you will be able to “opt out” of providing this information on the school’s individualized supplemental section of the Common App. Activities: a) Use the information from your resume. b) You can rank order the activities once you have entered all of them. Writing: Last year, there were glithces with the copy/paste feature. DOUBLE CHECK your essay to make sure that it has been pasted in its entirety. If the formatting has gone awry, continue on to the next page. You can then return to the essay, and the problem should have self-corrected.

11. Requesting Letters of Recommendation:
You need one counselor recommendation. You can either ask your advisor OR your college counselor.
If your advisor is writing this letter, she must send it directly to your college counselor via
You will NOT request a counselor letter of rec on Naviance.
You most likely need two teacher recommendations.
Your teacher will be uploading the rec letter directly to Naviance.
Bring a completed copy of your Student Information Sheet to each teacher/counselor.
Inform the teacher that she will be receiving an generated through Naviance for her recommendation.

12. Teacher Recommendations and Naviance:
From the Colleges I’m Applying To list, go to the Teacher Recommendations section.
Click the Add/Cancel Requests link.
Choose a teacher from the drop-down menu.
Enter a personal note, optional.
Repeat these steps to add teachers.
Click the Update Request button to complete the request.
This will generate an to the teachers you have selected. They will upload their recommendations to Naviance.

13. Transcripts and Family Connections:
From the Home page, click on the Colleges tab
On the left hand side, under Resources, click the transcripts link
You will see three options:
Request transcripts for my college applications (Use this page to submit official transcript requests for your college applications.)
Request transcripts for scholarships or athletics
View the status of all my transcript requests
*Once you submit your request, you will receive a confirmation and a tracking number.

14. The Completed Application:
Montrose Provides:
Student Submits:
Transcripts
Letters of Recommendation
Counselor Recommendation
School Profile
Student Application
Essay/Personal Statement
Supplemental Info
Request Official Score Reports
Important: Colleges communicate with the student. The student must keep the college counseling office informed of any missing material or requests for information from the colleges.