Covenant Specific Information

Every high school has characteristics and practices unique to their college advising program. At The Covenant School, we want to prioritize empowering and educating the student to take ownership of the college application process. The College Advising Office will support and coach students through this process, but the student will ultimately need to show initiative and demonstrate responsibility for applying to college.

Websites Used for Submitting Applications and Documentation

It is critical to be aware of the two different websites we use for the vast majority of college applications, which serve very different purposes. To learn more about each website, click the drop down button.

The Common Application

This is the main website used for students to submit applications. The Common Application includes:

Personal Statement: An essay written by the student to explain who they are as a person. There is immense flexibility in the topic of this essay, but it should ideally explain something that is not demonstrated elsewhere in the application. Word limit is 650 words.
Activity List: Up to ten different clubs, sports, camps, jobs, or other involvements of the student throughout high school. Descriptions are short and factual.
Demographics: Some general information required of the student, including family and educational background. Self-reported testing may also be included.
Supplemental Materials: Some schools will have their own essays/questions, which can be found on the Common App.
Additional Materials: The Common App has the option of requesting letters of recommendation and other required documents for application. At Covenant, we do not use the Common App to send these documents. Please refrain from emailing your teachers through the Common App website.

SCOIR

The Covenant School does not use the Common App to submit supporting documents. Instead, we use the website Scoir. The use of Scoir depends on your role:

Student:
- Research Colleges: Scoir is an excellent resource for discovering colleges. Without leaving Scoir’s website, you can learn about majors offered, acceptance rate, diversity on campus, community on campus, how far to the closest airport, and much more. There are many websites you can use to explore college options, but Scoir is one of the best.
- Track College Applications: After you have created a profile, you are able to track which colleges you are interested in, which ones you plan to apply to, and where you have applied. You can also track admissions decisions and other major admissions information. Not all colleges use the Common App, and you may not be able to access your application after submitting if you need to recall information from your application (e.g., you declare a major for a specific college but can’t remember what major you chose). Scoir offers a single location to keep track of this information.
- Communicate with College Advisor: Not only is it useful for you to keep track of your application information, but it is crucial that your college advisor knows the status of your applications. Your advisor has access to your Scoir profile, so they can see all of the updates that you make. This will be discussed later in this profile, but Scoir is used by your advisor to submit essentially all supporting documents to colleges (letters of recommendation, transcripts, etc). The advisor has no way of knowing when these documents are due unless Scoir is kept up-to-date, so it is critically important that this is updated and checked frequently.
- Signing ED Contracts: If the student is applying to a college Early Decision, they will need to sign an Early Decision Contract to demonstrate that they understand the binding nature of such an application. That document also needs to be signed by the school counselor and their parent.
- Submitting applications: Scoir can be used to submit a student’s college application (essay, activities, etc), much like the Common App can. At Covenant, we do not recommend using Scoir as the primary means of applying to colleges.
- Note: While Scoir is an essential part of your process to getting into college, most of your actions with Scoir are to communicate with the college advisor or keep yourself organized; it is not frequently used by the student to send things directly to colleges. This can make it easy to forget about. However, it is so critical for the advisor that it cannot afford to be forgotten.
Advisor:
- Tracking Student Activity: As the counselor, I have the ability to see what colleges you as the student are interested in, how many colleges you plan to apply to, and what deadlines we are working with. I can also keep track of admissions decisions as these are made in the late fall/spring.
- Suggesting Colleges: If I notice a school that is not on your college list but I think it would be a great match, I can send you a "suggested school" through Scoir. In no way does this require you to apply or start the application process, but it can offer a chance for you to be exposed to options you otherwise may not be aware of.
- Sending Supporting Documents: The most essential use of Scoir is submitting the materials required for your application to be considered complete. Scoir will let me know what is needed by what deadline, as long as you keep your profile updated. Every school is different and requirements will vary. Potential documents may include: letter(s) of recommendation; school profile; secondary school report, transcript; fee waiver; early decision contract; midyear report; and other documents.
- Manage Letters of Recommendation: Teachers who write letters of recommendation for you will either upload them to Scoir or have me upload them on their behalf. This allows me to send them wherever they are required. After you have asked the teacher for a letter and they have agreed to write it, a request will be sent to that teacher through Scoir. At that point, I will handle contacting the teacher, reviewing their letter, and sending them. All I need from the student is for Scoir to be updated, so that I can communicate to teachers deadlines for having their letters completed.
Parents:
- Viewing student account: The easiest way to set up a parent account is to have the student invite a parent via their profile page. Parents can use the link sent to their email to create their account, which will automatically be tied to the student's profile. Parents are able to view a student's college list, any documents they are including in their Scoir drive, and other profile details. However, they can only view these items; they are unable to edit.
- Suggesting colleges: Parents are able to explore different colleges that may be a good fit for their student, and can suggest that their student gives a college a look by adding it to their "suggested" column (much like a counselor can).
- Signing ED Contracts: If the student is applying to a college Early Decision, they will need to sign an Early Decision Contract to demonstrate that they understand the binding nature of such an application. That document also needs to be signed by the school counselor and their parent.

Calculating GPA

The method for calculating GPA can vary greatly depending on the high school. This section will describe how it is calculated at Covenant.

For a standard course, a grade of A earns 4 points, B earns 3 points, C earns 2 points, and D earns 1 point. No credit is awarded for a failing grade.
If the grade is a (+) or (-), the point increases or decreases by 0.3. For example, a B+ would be awarded 3.3, and a B- would be awarded 2.7.
We calculate a weighted GPA at Covenant, which awards extra points for more rigorous courses. For Honors courses, there is an extra +0.5 for each course. For AP or Advanced courses, this is an extra +1 for each course. An average above 72 must be achieved to qualify for this.
We are officially on a 4.0 Weighted GPA Scale. While some classes are able to earn more points than this, a 5.0 is impossible to earn as an overall average. The "Weighted" title explains why some student GPAs may be higher than 4.0.
As of the 2024-2025 academic year, we no longer award A+ as a grade.
A main takeaway from this should be that calculating a GPA, even for just one high school, is complicated and time consuming for a college to do. For this reason, colleges tend to care much more about grades and course titles than specific GPA numbers.

Letters of Recommendation

At Covenant, it is typical for students to ask two teachers and their college advisor for a letter of recommendation (LOR). Additionally, they may ask for an outside reference, but this is often not required.

Different Recommenders:

College Advisor/Counselor: As the only college advisor for The Covenant School, I am prepared to write a recommendation letter for every student that requires one. However, it is the student’s responsibility to get to know me through meetings and other initiatives. If this does not happen, the letter may not be as strong, but it will never speak ill of the student.
Teacher: Students are recommended to ask two of their teachers for letters of recommendation, typically in May of their junior year. The letter will likely not be written until fall of senior year. Things to consider when choosing which teacher to select for writing a letter:
1. - How well the student knows the teacher: The chief purpose of this letter is for colleges to learn about the student from an adult’s perspective. The person who writes this letter should be someone who has spent time with the student, has seen them grow and learn, and can speak well of them.
  - How recently the teacher had the applicant as a student: A junior year teacher has the most recent, up-to-date experience with the applicant. If the recommender hasn’t had the student in their classroom for two years, there may be some question as to why there hasn’t been a formative relationship formed since then. There are situations to go against this suggestion, but it should generally be considered best practice to have a recent teacher write the letter.
  - What subject the teacher teaches: This is often less important than students think it would be, but a science teacher praising the studiousness of a pre-med applicant can carry extra weight.
Additional Recommender: Some schools may require or allow for additional LOR. Examples could include a faith mentor letter when applying to a religious school or a dance instructor for a conservatory. Other schools will consider a letter written by a coach, boss, or additional influential individuals. Typically, schools do not put considerable weight on these letters, so I do not necessarily suggest them as being worth the effort. However, they rarely hurt if you feel strongly about including one.

Important Things to Know:

Teachers are allowed to say no. If you ask a teacher for a letter, they have complete permission to say no. They may have a busy schedule in the fall; they may have already said yes to multiple students, and need to create boundaries; they may not feel equipped to speak to you well enough. For whatever reason, do not feel that they are obligated to say yes.
Letters are written on an as-needed basis. Some schools do not accept any letters of recommendation. If you never need a letter, but your teachers and I spend hours writing them, that is not a good use of our time. For this reason, I will write your letter/instruct teachers to write you a letter only after I have seen it as a requirement for a school you have listed as “Applying” on Scoir.
Letters take a while to write. If you don’t let me know that you need a letter until the night before an application due date, that letter will not be ready in time. I typically require at least two weeks advance notice of a due date in order to get your letter prepared, and your teachers also deserve this.
You don’t see the letters. These letters are sent by me through Scoir to colleges, but you do not get to see them. If you have an outside person writing you a letter, they should send it to me to upload. Upon receiving letters, I read over them to confirm accuracy and a positive recommendation. You may be asked to sign a FERPA Waiver to officially waive your right to read these letters.

Classes with College Advising

Every Covenant student is required to take two classes to prepare them for college:

College and Career Readiness (Juniors)

This class is held in the spring for juniors. It meets approximately once a week for 8-12 meetings. The purpose of this class is to educate students on the basic terminology of college admissions, familiarize them with Covenant’s specific practices, and begin to curate a personalized path to college. The structure of class is similar to a typical course at Covenant; there is a balance between instruction, discussion, and independent work.

College Workshop (Seniors)

This class is held in the fall for seniors. It meets approximately once a week during the first quarter. The purpose of this class is to build in time for students to work on their college applications, provide students an opportunity to ask for individual assistance with their application, and to create a touchpoint for College Advising to update students on deadlines and trends. Unlike the junior class, this time is largely formatted for independent work.

Meetings and Communication

My favorite way to communicate is in person, but I regularly check my email (hfrancis@covenantschool.org). I can also be reached by my office phone at (434-220-7332). Below are a few rules, expectations, and boundaries:

Meetings

Any student or parent/guardian, regardless of the student’s grade, is welcome to sign up for a meeting with me. Meetings are typically 30 minutes during the school day, but can be shorter or longer depending on the need. Meeting after school can be arranged if necessary but is not preferred. Typically, I prefer to meet with the student before meeting with the parents/guardians, and to not have meetings with both students and parents/guardians present until I have met with everyone individually. You can sign up for a meeting on my Google Appointment Calendar.

Workdays

I will be reachable from 8-4 on every day that school is held. It is unlikely that I will respond to an email outside of school hours, over weekends, or when school is not open (including summer). That isn’t to say that I do not work outside of those hours, but I am unlikely to respond to correspondence outside of those times.

Availability Around Application Deadlines

There are a few days in the fall that are common application deadlines, chiefly October 15 and November 1. There are many things that I need to do these weeks, and new applications may not be possible to process. Please do not assume that I will be available the day before or the day of one of these common deadlines.

Response Time

I will do my best to be prompt (within one business day), thorough, and accurate in my communication with you. In response, I ask that you also monitor your email regularly and that you practice proper email etiquette in your correspondence with me.

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