Send a recommendation letter to the institution
userEducator Xello productXello 6-12 Time8 minutes

The National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) is our partner for sending electronic documents to colleges. Most colleges are part of the NSC network, but some are not. These are considered out-of-network and require an educator to email the completed recommendation letter to the institution.

If a college is part of the NSC network, the letter will be automatically sent to the institution when the referrer uploads their recommendation.

If the college is not part of the network, the letter is emailed through Xello. When a letter has been completed by the referrer and it’s ready to be sent to the institution, the status on the student’s recommendation letter will state Ready to send with the date the referrer submitted it.

To make sending the letters easier and more accurate, Xello has collected the Transcript and Receiving office email addresses for many out-of-network schools. The addresses were sourced directly from the college.

In this article

Upload and send from Xello

If you're a Xello administrator or educator, you can complete student requests right in your Xello account. Rather than accessing the request via email, log in to your Xello account to view all student requests. Click into a student's request to view their personalized note, upload your completed letter, and send it to the institution.

To upload a recommendation letter from your educator account: 

  1. From your Educator account, click Features and select College Planning.
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    • Or, from your dashboard, click the College Planning card.
  2. Next to Recommendation letters, click Manage.
    Recommendation Letters tile highlighted on College Planning page
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    Recommendation Letters tile highlighted on College Planning page
  3. Locate the student request you want to complete and click Upload letter to view the personalized student request.
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  4. Take this opportunity to:
    • View the student's personal note to you.
    • Click View tips for idea-starters on what content to include in the recommendation letter.
  5. Click Upload PDF to locate the recommendation letter on your computer or device.
    Click to enlarge
  6. Click Choose a local file to add the recommendation letter. Ensure it's the PDF version.
  7. Once you've found and selected the file, click Add.
    • To double check you've uploaded the correct file, the file name is visible where the Upload PDF button was.
  8. When finished, click Send.
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  9. If the institution is in-network, click Send in the modal window. If the institution is out-of-network, choose between: the admissions office email, manually entering the email address, or assigning it to Xello administrator at your school.

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Complete requests with the Ready to send status

You and other educators can write and upload a recommendation letter without sending it to the institution. This might happen if you want to revisit the letter to edit or complete it. These letters will have the status of Ready to send.

To send a letter that has been uploaded but not yet sent to the institution:

  1. From your Educator account, click Features and select College Planning.
    Click to enlarge
    • Or, from your dashboard, click the College Planning card.
  2. Next to Recommendation letters, click the number above Ready to send to filter student requests to those that are uploaded to Xello.
    Recommendation Letters tile highlighted on College Planning page
    Click to enlarge
    Recommendation Letters tile highlighted on College Planning page
  3. Locate the student with the letter that’s ready to send.
  4. In the Status column, click Send now.
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  5. If the institution is in-network, click Send. If the institution is out-of-network, choose between the Admissions office email (if available), or manually enter the email address.
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Send on behalf of another educator

If you have administrator access, you can send recommendation letters that have been completed and assigned to Xello admin at your school. A referrer will complete the recommendation letter and upload it to Xello. If they choose to defer it, then Xello admin at your school will be assigned to send it to the institution. You'll receive an email stating the educator has deferred the recommendation letter to you.

Example of an email notification where a recommendation letter was deferred.

You can find the requests that were deferred in the Other requests dropdown with the status of Pending submission.

FYIFYI: You can turn off these email notifications. From any page in Xello, click your profile image dropdown, then click Profile. Scroll to the bottom and switch the Recommendation letter email notifications toggle to OFF.

To send a recommendation letter on behalf of another educator: 

  1. From your Educator account, click Features and select College Planning.
    Click to enlarge
    • Or, from your dashboard, click the College Planning card.
  2. Next to Recommendation letters, click Manage.
    Recommendation Letters tile highlighted on College Planning page
    Click to enlarge
    Recommendation Letters tile highlighted on College Planning page
  3. In the My requests dropdown, select Other requests.
    Click to enlarge
  4. Locate the student with the letter that’s ready to send. The status will be Pending submission. You can also view the referrer who completed the letter, along the due date and other relevant information.
    Click to enlarge
  5. Click Send now.
  6. If the institution is in-network, click Send. If the institution is out-of-network, choose between the Admissions office email (if available), or manually enter the email address.
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