<p>I am curious to know how you found out what was in your child's GC recommendation.</p>
<p>Yeah, curiouse mind also wants to know. Just cross this thread, but how do you know what the GC or teacher put in the rec letter? Our school have you waive the rights. ... I've been curiouse how come so many ppl here in CC knows how good/bad their rec letters are?</p>
<p>We are finding out that the notion of "safety" is changing. Schools with midpoints well below an applicant might waitlist or reject if yield or better use of merit money is a concern. This is turning into a very complicated game. My advice is just move on from the setback - there is too much rather than not enough college opportunity out there.</p>
<p>D waived her rights to see her rec letters last year; both of the teachers she got recs from gave her copies anyway, so that's how she knew what was in them. I'm also curious about CBK's D.....I believe that she was pretty soured on UMD after this episode, unfortunately. (BTW, to add on to owlice's comments, D's hs friends at Georgetown go into Chinatown or the Nat'l Mall area MUCH LESS frequently that D and her friends from UMD do)....the transportation to the metro station is much more frequent and easier to use from College Park. Go figure!</p>
<p>I saw the letters for both my Ds- Ds did waive rights, but I was putting together outside scholarship packages and had a good rapport with the GC and his secy, so they seemed to have no problem with giving me a copy for the packets. I did not show them to the Ds though.</p>
<p>Soured is the UNDERSTATEMENT of the year.</p>
<p>Moved on, however will never suggest an app to Maryland for anybody I know.</p>
<p>Maryland's response has been abhorrent, lip service and outright waste of the app fee. </p>
<p>As an aside, her stats are well above the 50% range, comparing her stats to the kids at school that got in, (were all males, not one female was accepted) she was significantly higher. 95 GPA versus 82 GPA, ACT 31 to ACT 25 all APs versus no APS.</p>
<p>CBK, I'm sorry your d had to go through this; it seems as much her GC's fault as anything else. Hoping she has other great choices though.</p>
<p>anotherNJmom, remember that "waiving one's rights" means only that the student cannot demand, as a matter of course, to see the recommendation letters. It doesn't mean that the teachers/GC cannot voluntarily show the letters or give copies. In fact, somemom could have shown the letters to her Ds without violating the "waiver of rights".</p>
<p>perhaps it was Gcs fault, however, Maryland has received upwards of 20+ phone calls to rectify by GC and Superintendant of shcool district.</p>
<p>They have NOT returned one phone call, to me, that is absoultely dispicable.</p>
<p>As far as the recs go, daughter has all copies herself, they more than willingly shared the recs with her.</p>
<p>I know how troubling this is to you personally -- but given the enormous number of applications that Maryland gets, I don't think it surprising that an individual request for reconsideration simply doesn't get much attention. The admissions office is undoubtedly focusing their attention on addressing the questions of admitted students and gearing up for the class of 2013. Its a large institution.<br>
I am not trying to minimize your frustration and hurt -- its not a matter of whether they are right or wrong -- they just seem institutionally unable to address the situation in the manner you may have wanted them to.
I am glad to hear that your d has moved on.</p>
<p>For what it's worth, state schools tend to be horribly bureaucratic. They also have limited course openings which usually results in longer graduation times over that found in private schools. Finally, state schools are usually subject to the vagaries of state funding, which can affect class size, class offerings and a host of other things. For example, Towson University generally kicks most of their kids off campus starting in their junior year ( with some lottery exceptions) due to state funding cutbacks.</p>
<p>However, you get to pay 1/3 of what a private schools charges. Is it worth it? I leave that question to you.</p>
<p>CBK: Has your daughter decided where she'll be going next year?</p>
<p>"I just want to post something lest someone read this thread and actually get too scared to send their kid to College Park of all places! College Park is not an inner-city. It's not even an all-ANYTHING place. PG County <em>IS</em> one of the richest majority-black counties in the country. College Park itself has black people, hispanic people and white people (not a ton of Asians if I recall correctly). The area around the school is rather diverse. If I recall correctly, the houses across Rte 1 from the university are resided in mainly by white people-- many of whom are students or professors. The areas a few miles away have many working class people-- both Hispanic and black. "</p>
<p>I agree. I love U Md., have toured it several times, and even had brought college students there for a workshop. Also have taken workshops there, visited the honors program and the Academy of Leadership, which was founded by a friend of mine. And, I also took some courses there in order to fulfill the requirements for entering a doctoral program at GWU.</p>
<p>I love U Md., and was sorry that neither of my sons decided to apply there. It's a beautiful school, lots of living learning opportunities and similar programs, and is well located close to Baltimore, Annapolis and D.C. and all of the wonderful opportunities in those cities.</p>
<p>It is not at all in an inner city neighborhood or area.</p>
<p>CBK, I live near UMD. I don't know anyone in admissions there, but would be very glad to go see someone there in person, handcarry something there, talk/call on your daughter's behalf, get names/phone numbers of local reporters who cover education for regional papers, etc. If there is something someone local can do to help, PM me, please and let me know what.</p>
<p>This is SOOOOO UMD's loss! But you know that already, I know!</p>
<p>it is very nice that people are so concerned and want to help -- but if contacts by the gc and superintendant have gone unanswered, why would a stranger off the street walking in be expected to get any better results? why would ed reporters care about one of thousands of kids who think they should have been accepted? -- i would think you're more likely to get a story about how tough admissions are getting than one about an individual case of "injustice."</p>
<p>It's easy to ignore a phone call; much harder to ignore someone standing in the doorway. At the very least, one could physically hand documents to someone and know that person had them, rather than having to wonder whether the documents were sent or had arrived.</p>
<p>When my nephew had no good options 3+ years ago, his GC directed him to the lists of schools that still had openings. He applied to Knox College and was accepted with a nice merit scholarship. He had 3 good years there and is now at UIUC in a 3-2 engineering program. His mistake was applying to Princeton, Haverford and Carleton, thinking that was a safety--and the Carelton app, sent online, was never received. His family was living out of the country and didn't understand the changes that had come about in college admissions. But their son did find a very good school and is receiving an excellent education. Maybe it's time to move on. Or maybe OPs D can learn to love one of the others on her list.</p>
<p>My friend had a case of guidance counselor issues as well...out of three rolling/early admissions, the GC sent the materials in late or incomplete in 3/3 cases. Once, the late submission disqualified my friend from receiving any school grants/scholarships...my friend made the guidance counselor call and explain the situation, and the college made an exception and allowed scholarships. The key is to address the college WHEN the mistake is made, I think. However, in your case, you didn't have that opportunity because it sounds as if the GC wasn't forthcoming about the issues. Did they have an online system for checking whether the apps were complete at the college?</p>
<p>CBK, if they treat your daughter like this as a prospective student, you would need to be worried how they would treat her if she had a problem as a student. What did your d decide to do? The rule at our school with our GCs is check, recheck, recheck and check again!!! You can never rely completely on them to get these things done.</p>
<p>Thanks to all the response to my questions. ... CBK, dose your D have any other school choice? What the recs with other school go? Have you checked with GCs?</p>
<p>While I have nothing constructive to offer here, I have been following this thread and wish to tell you how sorry I am your daughter and you have had to go through this. With the schools's superintendent involved, and no return phone calls, it makes me wonder how many other kids from D's school will NOT be applying there in the future. </p>
<p>It's just plain rude.</p>