Article in today's USA TODAY

<p>There is an article in the Life Section of today's edition of USA TODAY on recommendations worthy of reading. I have the hard copy, but if available on line, perhaps someone can post the lind. FYI</p>

<p>The article mentioned one parent who pretended to be a teacher. They sent a college two negative recommendations for two students who where applying from their child's high school. </p>

<p>Yikes! That's pretty low.</p>

<p>Interesting...nothing surprises me anymore...</p>

<p>"<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2005-12-27-admission-letters_x.htm"&gt;http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2005-12-27-admission-letters_x.htm&lt;/a&gt;"&lt;/p>

<p>If the link is broken, go usatoday.com then "life" then search for "admissions."</p>

<p>
[quote]
Big backfire </p>

<p>Recommendations are supposed to be confidential and sent directly from the teacher to the college. But McLaughlin says that many teachers "don't want parents to get on their case," so they allow them to preview the letter.</p>

<p>Though admission deans decry the practice, they are not surprised. Observes TCU's Brown: "It's another way to game the process."</p>

<p>Forged recommendations, while relatively rare, are another way to undermine the process. </p>

<p>Poch recalls one case in which the forgeries took the form of negative recommendations designed to derail the chances of two students who attended the same high school as a third applicant. </p>

<p>Poch suspected that the letters were phony, so he called the school. "The counselor gasped and the teacher was furious," he says. Poch believes the parent of the third applicant wrote the phony letters, hoping it would somehow improve her child's chances.</p>

<p>But the story had a happy outcome. The two unfairly maligned students were admitted. The third was rejected.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Try this link</p>

<p><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2005-12-27-admission-letters_x.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2005-12-27-admission-letters_x.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>wow that's dirty</p>

<p>The 2 students were admitted? Wow, I wish somebody from my school sent fake recommendation letters about me and got caught...</p>