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Counselors: Optional Reports for Common App

Cristina Hernandez Updated by Cristina Hernandez

Optional Reports allow you to make corrections, updates, or changes to some of the information or documents that are included in your School Report such as GPA, Enrolled Courses, and Transcripts. This is not a substitute for the Mid-year or Final report. 

Optional Reports are only accessible after a School Report has been sent. These must be created for each student individually, and you can send up to 2 Optional Reports per student any time during the year. Once you send an Optional Report, it becomes available to all colleges the student has applied to (or later applies to) through Common App.

Even if you can access an Optional Report, before creating one you should check if you can still unsubmit the Secondary School Report instead to make the corrections or updates. 

If you can’t unsubmit the Secondary School Report, that means one or more colleges have already downloaded it, and you should use the Optional Report.

Important Reminder: You can only send up to 2 Optional Reports per student each application year. Be sure to use them wisely. Once both are used, you’ll need to contact the college directly for any additional updates or corrections.

Creating an Optional Report

Optional Reports follow a sequential order.  You’ll start by sending the School Report. Once that’s been sent, Optional Report 1 will become available in Manage Documents. After you create and send Optional Report 1, Optional Report 2 will then be available.

If you can still unsubmit a document, that’s usually the better approach. For example, unsubmit the School Report, make your updates, and send it again. Optional Reports are meant for updates or corrections to documents that have already been delivered.

To create an Optional Report:

  1. Search for the student you’d like to create an Optional Report for and go to their profile.
  1. From the student’s profile, expand Colleges & Applications on the left and select Manage Documents.
  2. In the documents table, you'll see "Optional Report 1" appear once the School Report has been sent. Click Create to get started.
    Before creating an Optional Report, be sure to double check if you can still unsubmit the Secondary School Report to make updates.
  3. At the top of the form, you’ll see the student’s information. Expand this section to review their details, which are pulled directly from the student’s profile.
  4. Under Update Details, use the dropdown to select one or more reasons for sending the report. As you make your selections, additional sections will appear with relevant fields to complete the report. Some academic information may pre-fill based on your School Reports template. Be sure to review and adjust any pre-populated fields as needed.
  5. When uploading a document for your selected reason, you can only attach one file per upload option.

    For example, if you selected “Updated Transcript or Predicted Grades”, you can attach only one file. Previously uploaded files will also appear for you to choose from, and you can preview them before deciding which to include.  

    If there are multiple files, you must click Attach next to it to ensure it is included and sent along with the Optional Report.
    If you need to send more than one file, consider creating an unencrypted PDF file that contained all the documents into one PDF that adheres to the size limit of 2 MB.
    When indicating the most recent grades included on the transcript, choose Correction if none of the dropdown options apply.
  6. If you need to pause and finish later, click Save as Draft. When you've completed all required information, click Complete. If no error messages appear, your form has been successfully saved.
  7. On the Send Documents page in the student’s profile, you can see the Optional Report once it’s created and preview it before sending.

    It appears in blue in the document list for all of the student’s Common App colleges. Any documents you’ve attached are bundled directly under the Optional Report, listed just below its title (For example, Initial Transcript appears beneath Optional Report 1).

    Attachments are part of the report and do not appear separately as individual documents.

Sending Optional Reports

Go to the student's profile, expand Colleges & Applications, and select Send Documents. Before sending, we strongly recommend previewing the Optional Report by clicking on it for any Common App college—this gives you a chance to confirm that all details and attachments are correct.

Click Send next to the Optional Report for any of the student's Common App colleges. Sending it to one school automatically sends the report to all of the student's Common App colleges. You'll see the status under "Last Sent" update in real time.

The status should move from “Pending” to a date under "Last Sent" within a few hours. If it stays pending for a day or more, please contact our Support team.

Once Optional Report 1 is sent, Optional Report 2 will become available for you to create in Manage Documents.

Unsubmitting an Optional Report if Not Yet Downloaded

You can only unsubmit an Optional Report before any college downloads it and before the student submits their application. Common App requires you to unsubmit Optional Reports in the reverse order you sent them:  

For instance, you have to unsubmit Optional Report 2 before you can unsubmit Optional Report 1.

To unsubmit, go to the Send Documents page on the student’s profile and click Unsubmit next to the Optional Report for any Common App college. This pulls the report back from Common App so you can delete and recreate it.

If at least one college has downloaded the Optional Report (indicated by a date under Last Delivered), you will not be able to unsubmit. Instead, use Optional Report 2 to submit corrections. If both reports have been used, contact the college directly with the correction.

Restrictions and Requirements

  • Only 2 Optional Reports can be sent per student throughout the year and these are not intended to be substitutes for Midyear or Final Reports, but rather corrections or updates to already sent school reports.
  • Before creating an Optional Report, be sure to double check if you can still unsubmit the Secondary School Report to make corrections and updates this way instead
  • Any files you attach—transcripts, school profiles, or other updates—are bundled together with the Optional Report and sent as one package, not as separate documents
  • Reports must be sent in sequence: School Report → Optional Report 1 → Optional Report 2
    • If a report needs to be unsubmitted, you'll go in the reverse order: Optional Report 2 → Optional Report 1
  • Once sent, the Optional Report will be made available to all Common App colleges the student has applied to or later applies to. There's no way to send it to select schools only
  • On the student’s Common App account, under Recommenders and FERPA, the Optional Report will appear as “Submitted” once it has been sent from Scoir

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