As we begin getting ready to send documents via cDocs, counselors need to complete a few things.
1. Adding new staff member on Cialfo
Any new teacher/counselor that has recently joined the school needs to be added to Cialfo first before students may be able to request letters of recommendation from them. The staff members would then able to upload the recommendations from their accounts. You can do this in 2 ways:
If you have bulk uploaded your staff, please trigger the registration emails from the Team section.
2. Launch Cialfo to the newly added staff member
We have resources to launch Cialfo to teachers introducing Cialfo and explain how to complete the recommendation process on Cialfo. You can forward this self-help article to your teachers.
3. Students requesting letters of recommendation from teachers
Based on your school's preference, students may request a letter of recommendation from their teachers via Cialfo or counselors may add the recommenders on behalf of the students. Click here to learn how students can request for recommendations.
* Please note that students should not request recommendations directly via Common App.
4. Students to link their Common App accounts with Cialfo
In order for documents to be sent for a student from Cialfo to colleges and universities that accept the Common App, a student’s Cialfo account must be linked to their Common App account. Click here to learn more.
5. Review the different configuration settings for your school
There are three important sections for your school to review before beginning the recommendation and document preparation process.
Student Connectivity - This set of configurations allows a school to decide what students can edit within their own profile. Click here to learn more.
School Search Permissions - This set of configurations is for both students and guardians. It will determine if a guardian and/or student can add or remove colleges and universities from the student’s different lists. Click here to learn more.
Application Preferences - This set of configurations helps guide how a school manages recommendations and the document preparation within Cialfo. Click here to learn more.
6. Upload School Profile & Complete School Information
Before you begin the sending process, ensure that Common App sending and Parchment sending have been enabled.
For sending out Common App documents, you need to upload the school profile and complete the school information. Completing your School Information ensures that you provide the needed information to Common App accepting institutions as well as helps auto-populate some fields found in other Common App forms. This School Information must be saved and completed for the auto-population to work.
Note: The school profile is not a mandatory document from CA. Cialfo has decided to make it mandatory for consistency purposes. This means that schools that do not upload a School profile will be unable to send documents. If the school does not have a School profile - they have the choice to 1. Create one (see example below) 2. Take a screenshot of their website and upload it as a PDF. 3. Upload a blank PDF.
Example of a School Profile from Collegeboard or NACAC.
7. Ensure Sending is enabled for all your students.
For your current graduating batch it should show as enabled, unless the student has linked their Common App account in the previous application cycle and/or a Common App form was prepared for that student in the previous application cycle. To check the sending status for your students, Go to cDocs > Documents or Submission page. The sending status will be the last column on this page. If the Sending status shows as 'Restricted', click here to learn how to troubleshoot this issue.
*If you are unable to see the Sending column, click on the layout button beside Export button to toggle it on.
8. Bulk Assigning CA Counselor
For students you'll be sending documents through our Common App (CA) - Cialfo integration, you're required to have a counselor set on cDocs in order to send documents. This is the same counselor name that will be sent over to CA when the documents are sent. You can now BULK ASSIGN this counselor through Bulk Actions!
By bulk assigning the counselor, you'll be able to send your documents much quicker and prepare those needed Common App forms. The counselor name will be found in the Common App Account tab of your student on cDocs > Documents.
