Another head scratching rejection

<p>It's possible the GC sent the wrong transcript in addition to her other errors. Definitely call - this is some sort of mistake!</p>

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To me, this isn't a had scratcher at all...there was most certainly some mistake. I'm only a student, but I'm from Maryland, and I know the range of students who get in...your daughter should have been in, probably to the honors program plus money.

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<p>Listen to someone who knows. Look, UMD is way under-rated as an institution nationally, IMO. It's a fantastic university. And it gets amazing students and undoubtedly turns aways some really accomplished folks. But your daughter shouldn't take this no as a no.</p>

<p>DEFINITELY, follow up with BOTH the school and the GC. I am also from Maryland and see a lot of kids get into Maryland from our local high school. Your daughter definitely surpasses many of these kids academically.</p>

<p>CBK : There are just too any problems with your D's application for it to have been unintentional. Fight this with your administration! And I think the worst mistake you could make would be to fear further repurcussions for your son & not confront the GC. If you accept what she's done, she'll know she owns you & can sabotage your son's applications, too. Not to mention other kids who she's just not fond of. She sounds dangerous, and what you have on your side is the fact that the administration WANTS kids to get great acceptances all over. They now employ a GC who puts up roadblocks, rather than facilitates the best possible presentation of EVERY student to the colleges of their choice.</p>

<p>Your D sounds wonderful! She deserves a hearing from the administration on this ugly situation. I think they'll be shocked.</p>

<p>I would call folks at the BOE. We are homeschoolers, but have to deal with the local GCs for a few things - like SAT Fee Waivers. One of the families in the group I lead had a completely ignorant GC who refused to help them. I called a BOE member and wowey! I - and the family - had an apology phone call within a couple of hours and suddenly the totally unhelpful GC became very, very helpful. This is why we have a BOE - so at least someone is responsive to the public (because they have to get re-elected :-)</p>

<p>I am so, so sorry this happened to your daughter. I'd be pulling my hair out!</p>

<p>It may have to go up to the BOE level, HUguenot. But it's not wise to start there. GIve the principal a chance to rectify this. If not, then CBK will have lost a possible friend.</p>

<p>I'd get on the phone with UMD. Tell them you have reason to believe that wrong things were submitted on her behalf. See if they can tell you what exactly was submitted (or even better, if they'd give you a copy of the transcript or obvioulsly incorrect GC letter). Ask them how you should proceed. Did your D follow up and let them know she was an Intel SF this year (or was this an ISEF project from prior years)? I can tell you Intel STS SF and those grades/scores at UMD would get her in and probably $$$ to boot.</p>

<p>I don't know that I would play the sabotage card here. You need to make sure the same thing didn't happen at her other schools, too.</p>

<p>Once you have your facts together, I'd get the signed/sealed copy of the transcript (check an unsealed copy first to make sure it's right), new signed/sealed rec letters, an updated activity/honors list and have your D send it all together, along with a letter explaining her request for reconsideration and <em>referencing the conversation you and she have with UMD.</em> Get the names of whoever you speak to at UMD. They are likely to be getting hundreds of calls over the next few days, so document, document, document. You might even consider waiting a couple of days til the first wave of calls has passed.</p>

<p>Good luck. I am sorry things went so terribly crazy here.</p>

<p>You'll never prove that there was sabotage, but you could end up proving that the GC is incompetent. Deal with the colleges directly in terms of checking the transcripts, etc. (and double check the transcript at the high school office, something everyone should do early in senior year.) If you do find that there was a screw up, take it to the administration after May 1.</p>

<p>I don't think you need to worry about your second child, as long as you handle things calmly, and with good documentation. The other GCs may be aware of the problem, but not the extent of it. If this GC is incompetent, there will be other kids with the same problem - can you find any? Having multiple bad reports is probably the only thing that will get the office to take action.</p>

<p>I think I would definitely call the college. I would also call or e-mail the principal and tell him/her that you are contacting the college and that you appreciate that the file be double checked at the school's end also and that you receive a call or e-mail back that day.</p>

<p>I'm a UMD parent.</p>

<p>If your daughter is in-state, I think she should pursue it by inquiring with the university. There may have been a mistake somewhere along the line (more likely on the part of the high school than UMD). However, also be prepared for the possibility that the rejection was legitimate. UMD places great weight on the SAT (or ACT in this instance). An ACT of 31 is equivalent to an SAT of 1380. It is not inconceivable to be rejected from UMD with that kind of SAT score, although it is not typical. And having a lot of APs isn't going to impress Maryland because a lot of their local candidates have them. The DC suburbs are among the most AP-crazy places in the country.</p>

<p>If she's out-of-state, her rejection might be reasonable. Again, the relatively low ACT score might have been the deciding factor.</p>

<p>Also, I believe Maryland makes its decisions too early to take this year's Intel results into consideration, even if your daughter sent them.</p>

<p>Maryland doesn't defer, by the way. They don't have ED and RD. That priority application date is a date for people who want to be considered for special programs and perks (which every UMD applicant should be).</p>

<p>I would very politely speak with admissions at Maryland. I would. I know they don't like to explain/reconsider decisions, but I'm with mistake might have been made. If it involves flying to MD I would with D in tow. Even if it's just a 1% chance it would make me feel so much better.</p>

<p>With actual people in tow sabotage could be discussed in a way a phone can't. Bring intel research. </p>

<p>I would ignore the GC and go directly to the school, but butter wouldn't melt in my mouth. The Columbo routine. Play stupid. How could this have happened? Type thing.</p>

<p>Then, and only then, would I address GC.</p>

<p>Then I'd get professionals to do your son's.</p>

<p>I would also look at schools still accepting apps. You may have missed something more exciting than what's still on the table and you may be able to control the process more now that you know you have to.</p>

<p>See if UMD has an appeals process and if so, appeal with the new information about the other ECs your D did in HS and other letters of recommendation. </p>

<p>Also, I don't understand why this is all on the GC's shoulders. I understand the GC might have messed up but why must everything go though the GC in the first place? Wouldn't your D normally have stated all her ECs on the app and obtained/sent letters of recommendation from teachers on her own? We didn't rely on my Ds' GC for any of this other than he himself wrote some great recommendations but the rest of the footwork with other teachers, ECs, etc. was outside of the GC. At a typical public HS the GCs have a lot of kids assigned to them and that's a basket I wouldn't want all my eggs in.</p>

<p>Why didn't you send her SAT scores? From previous posts, they were excellent. UMD doesn't require SAT-IIs, if middling scores on those were your concern.</p>

<p>I'd suggest she take a gap year, keep doing the research she was doing (didn't you say she was getting a paper published?), or something equally worthwhile, and apply to more selective schools next fall. Honestly, I would have considered UMD a safety for her, especially if she's in-state. Sure sounds like something fishy going on to me.</p>

<p>I agree you should follow up just in case it is a mistake. My daughter was initially rejected from the honors school at her college - after talking to the admissions adviser and going over some information it turned out a wrong figure had been entered into her records making her seem ineligible when she was in fact eligible. Worth checking at least.</p>

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Just me beefing about this, and honestly, I think parents should be in TOTAL control of transcript/rec sending, whose future is being compromised with a scew up at the school level? Not the GCs.

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<p>This is something I have repeated so often it must have become a broken record. The stories about GC clerical mistakes are so rampant that one ought to assume something will go wrong. That is why it is so important for parents to become or remain involved in the entire process for DAY ONE of high school (if not before.) Since most GC will display ranges of openness and absolute control, the trick will be to straddle a fine line between offering help and support on the one hand and keeping firms on demands for class selection, allowed activities, and documentation of activities. This is especially important for students who fall just below the superstars the school pushes but well above the troublemakers who need more attention. </p>

<p>Unfortunately, relations with GC are tricky as they tend to protect their domain with vengeance. While being on their good side is paramount, it's even more important for parents to keep an iron grip on ALL the documents that leave the school. If the school insists in mailing out everything, DO tell them that you want to inspect everything with your child name on it. The school can mask the contents of LOR's but you're entitled to see if being stuffed in an envelope and put in the mail by the due dates.</p>

<p>Great post, xiggi! I can't tell you how many times we had people tell us that our student should "own" the process of college admissions. But, after 3 college counselors at son's HS in 3 years, we decided to at least be more than curiously involved. Yes, I was the secretary in helping him to stay orgranized. No, we did not write essays or take the SAT's for our student, but you better believe that I tried to stay in pretty good communication with the counselor as well as counselor's secretary with regard to deadlines, needed postage, envelopes, etc. Whatever secretarial help I could offer, I did. And, believe me, we have absolutely no regrets. And, yes, son is a mature, responsible soph in college right now!</p>

<p>I don't know anything about U of MD specifically but I looked up their SAT statistics and the 75th percentile is 1390. Since the 1390 is based on the sum of the 75th percentile for Verbal and Math (680 and 710), even less than 25% of students scored above 1390, and the SAT score (Math plus Verbal) which represents the 75th percentile is actually below 1390. Based on this and the OP's daughter's other credentials, I do not believe that her ACT score is "relatively low" for UMD. I believe she was either rejected because of some other perceived weakness in her application (either due to some factor not presented on this thread, or mistakenly due to the negative "spin" the GC put on the application) or her rejection was an administrative mistake which should be called to UMD's attention.</p>

<p>Xiggi: I agree with you in principle, and I have been thinking about the issue as I read through this thread. But parents tread a very fine line when they deal with GCs. To insist on watching as recommendations and transcripts are stuffed into envelopes delivers a not-so-subtle (if all too frequently well-deserved) message of "no confidence." What happens later when you need that GC to go to bat for your kid who is, say, waitlisted at a favorite school? Will the end result of your earlier insult be tepid support for your kid or, worse, sabotage? </p>

<p>Your point is well-taken, but it is a thorny problem.</p>

<p>To the OP: I have nothing to add to the excellent advice you’ve gotten. Something went terribly wrong with your D's decision, and I hope that by taking action you’ll be able to rectify it!</p>

<p>I'm close to 100% certain that this rejection resulted from a mistake.</p>

<p>I'd guess there are 50-50 odds that the wrong transcript was sent (safe guess, can't be proven wrong either way). As far as the suggestions of "sabotage" go, I've often found Napoleon's maxim to be more accurate: "Never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence." Or even, excessive haste. Maybe the GC was ill during the three days out, and still "out of it" on the day of return. </p>

<p>The concerns that have been expressed all seem peripheral to me. They might conceivably account for early rejection from an Ivy. Of the highly selective public universities with which I'm familiar, all would welcome a 3-time Intel semifinalist with a 95% average (even though weighted) and a 31 ACT. Some future Goldwater scholars fit this profile.</p>

<p>Even the comment about "cheering other students on" might possibly have been viewed by the GC as positive--intended to convey that the student was happy for others' success, and not self-centered.</p>