Guide to the FERPA rights

Applying to College Common and Coalition Application
1

<p>** * What are FERPA Rights? * **

[quote]
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. The law applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education.

[/quote]

[quote]
By signing this form, I authorize all schools that I have attended to release all requested records covered under the Federal
Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) so that my application may be reviewed by the Common Application member institution(s) to which I am applying.<br>
I further authorize the admission officers reviewing my application, including seasonal staff employed for the sole purpose of evaluating applications, to contact
officials at my current and former schools should they have questions about the school forms submitted on my behalf.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>** * What does this mean? * **
This basically states that if you waive your rights you will not be able to get your recommendations from your college once you are attending. THIS DOES NOT MEAN YOU CANNOT SEE THEM AT ALL. If your teacher allows you to see them, that is fine. If you do not waive your rights, you will be able to access your letters of recommendation once you enroll at your school.</p>

<p>For more information go to <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>** * Should I waive my rights? * **
Most people will suggest waiving them. These people believe that if you waive your rights, colleges will not take your recommendation seriously because teachers will know that you can read them in the future and may be nicer than they should be. There is no actual evidence that colleges will look at recommendations any differently if you choose not to waive your rights. In fact, most colleges I have contacted have denied that not waiving your rights will hurt you.</p>

<p>** * What to teachers and guidance counselors prefer? * **
Most teachers and guidance counselors prefer you to waive your rights. The reason for this, is that common app will make the teachers explain why the student did not waive the rights. Some teachers will only write the recommendation if you waive your rights.</p>

<p>** * I accidentally did not waive my rights and I want to waive them. What do I do? * **
The first thing you need to do is contact common app. They can change allow you to waive your right. However, if a recommendation has already been submitted, you cannot waive your rights online. You can still submit a paper recommendation if you truly believe that it is to your advantage to waive your rights, but that is up to you.</p>

<p>I hope this clarified the issues people had with the FERPA rights.</p>

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<p>

</p>

<p>Which colleges have you asked? And did you thus decide to not waive your rights?</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Is this really true? </p>

<p>I contacted CA Support of this issue and they replied: “If you ask your teachers to submit paper forms, the FERPA is signed on the document that you give to your teachers, and it will apply to those documents. Any documents submitted online cannot be altered and the FERPA applies as it is signed online.” Not so sure if they meant that the options selected online for the FERPA waiver applies only towards documents submitted online or that it also applies to the paper forms. I assumed that I could waive my rights with the paper forms under the “Download Forms” tab, but CA gave me a link under the names of the teachers I invited to a *.pdf document of the Teacher’s Evaluation form filled out with my information and my FERPA agreement. So I’m skeptical of whether I can or cannot waive my rights through the paper forms.</p>

<p>Anyone want to clarify this for me?</p>

3

<p>

</p>

<p>I have contacted many schools. Most notably, Harvard and Stanford said that the student is at absolutely no disadvantage. Every schools I have contacted told me the same thing. I did not waive my rights. I did not do this on purpose though. I did not waive my rights so I could do some research about the pros and cons, expecting to change it if I needed to, but Guidance Counselor submitted his recommendation before I had the chance to change it. I wanted to waive them to make it easier on my teachers. </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>You can. It is on the front page of the paper form.</p>

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<p>Interesting. Thank you for the thorough reply.</p>

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<p>No problem.</p>

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<p>@Anonymous1993: thank you for the detailed post. I was just about to ask the very question when I landed on your post.
Curious - I will check with the school counsellor as to what she would prefer. we are in Bangalore India and things are a bit different here - not as well-laid out (for the admissions process I mean)</p>

<p>thank you, a</p>

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<p>Did you ask Yale about this? In another post I read that Yale adcoms see not waiving your right as a red flag.</p>

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<p>Ha. nne, was that ^ other post from an adcom or a hs kid?</p>

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<p>^ It was a post from Silverturtle who was relaying what an adcom apparently said.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/common-application/997046-so-i-retained-my-rights.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/common-application/997046-so-i-retained-my-rights.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Yale was one that I did not contact. I assumed I would get the same result that I got at other Colleges. I will check on Monday for you. Most schools only see that as a negative if your stats do not match your recommendations. If you have a kid with an amazing recommendation and amazing statistics in that subject, it will be no problem at all. It is unfair to assume that a kid is influencing a teacher that much. I have seen the FERPA rights issue so many times. I am certain colleges know by now that students with great applications sometimes waive their rights on accident and they will not be affected by that. I will post back when I know for sure.</p>

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<p>

</p>

<p>Silverturtle was wrong (Gasp!)
I hope that helps.</p>

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<p>^ There appears to be a disagreement among those at the Yale admissions office. What I reported, as I indicated, came directly from a face-to-face conversation with a Yale admissions officer.</p>

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<p>I think most schools find it to be a red flag when recommendations do not match up with the rest of the application. They are not going to look down upon it if they match up.</p>

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<p>Thanks a lot for this post, Anonymous1993. It’s definitely eased some of my concerns.</p>

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<p>I’m wondering, is my school counselor allowed to deny me a recommendation if I refuse to waive my rights? I was called to the office and told that my transcripts could not be processed and I could not get a recommendation unless I waived my rights, and that all the colleges would throw my application out because “They see that you didn’t waive your rights and wonder why you want to look at what people said about you. They wonder if you have something to hide.” (paraphrase) From reading this thread, it looks like that is a lie.</p>

<p>I generally err on the side of keeping any rights I’m given. Can I tell them that I refuse to waive my rights and still get a recommendation? The counselor said that she’s never had someone refuse to waive their rights, but at my school the counselors tend be very good with pressuring students.</p>

<p>I figure I won’t make the EA deadlines now with this stuff hitting the fan, so that gives me time to argue my case. Can the administration virtually strong-arm me into giving up my legal rights?</p>

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<p>Sec. 99.12 What limitations exist on the right to inspect and review
records?</p>

<pre><code>(3) Confidential letters and confidential statements of
</code></pre>

<p>recommendation placed in the student’s education records after January
1, 1975, if:
(i) The student has waived his or her right to inspect and review
those letters and statements; and</p>

<p>[[Page 292]]</p>

<pre><code>(ii) Those letters and statements are related to the student’s:
(A) Admission to an educational institution;
(c)(1) A waiver under paragraph (b)(3)(i) of this section is valid
</code></pre>

<p>only if:
(i) The educational agency or institution does not require the
waiver as a condition for admission to or receipt of a service or
benefit from the agency or institution; and
(ii) The waiver is made in writing and signed by the student,
regardless of age.</p>

<hr>

<p>Does that fall under a condition for receipt of service?</p>

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<p>Some administrators and teacher will refuse to take apps unless they know that you will never read it in the future. That is a teacher by teacher thing and it is usually based on the teacher’s preference. They can do whatever they want. They are doing you a favor. It is a shame that you cannot do whatever you want, but unless you find a teacher who will write it without you waive your rights, you have to waive them. Colleges will not throw them out though, it is based on your high schools policy.</p>

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<p>Thanks.
Then my next question is: Does signing it waive the rights across all the documents or just for that one recommendation?</p>

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<p>On Common App, it is all of them. Some schools do not use Common App. You can waive your rights on on Common App and not on the other App.</p>

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<p>Thanks again.
3/4 of my applications are on Common App, so that’s the group I’m looking at. On Common App, does signing only on the counselor form waive only that form, or does it waive teacher reccomendations and the application itself as well? I think you already said this, but I’d like to make sure.</p>