Has anyone else had recommenders shun the Gateway site due to Gateway’s request of the recommender’s birthdate in the online form? Two of my DD’s recommenders did not feel comfortable answering this question (which must be answered before the online form appears) and instead completed DD’s recs via hard copy. Of course now these are not showing in the Gateway portal since a hard copy rec is considered “Offline.” Fun times for our family with now having to follow-up with schools individually to see that these recs (one of them the school report/transcripts!) were received.
On the same note, I emailed five of the Gateway schools yesterday that we applied for to verify that they did, indeed, receive our hard copy recs. Received five responses back within the day that varied from a personal email written by an AO who was actually still on vacation (! “Hidden Gems” school) to a canned-looking response that clearly had been cut-and-pasted before (large HADES school). NONE had yet processed these hard copies which were mailed between 12/18 and 12/22.
ALL of our school transcripts, teacher recommendations, and extracurricular recommendations for Gateway applications were mailed as hard copies, and most of them before Thanksgiving. Of course, they will never show on the Gateway website but I’m checking with each school’s admission portal, and it’s a mixed bag. Some showed relatively quickly, others only after several weeks. One school still shows them as missing, although I called to confirm that they’ve been received. (They have, but haven’t been processed yet, and no one knows how long it’ll take for them to be processed.) I would just call to follow up in person.
@GoatMama-- Thanks for your response. Several weeks is where we seem to be at for five of our seven schools. Some of these schools don’t have their own admission portal. Waiting several weeks wasn’t even on my radar . . . . yipes. . . hope this isn’t indicative of LOADS of applications.
I hear ya… In one of the schools, the first person I got on the phone told me that the materials haven’t been received and I need to make arrangements that they’re mailed again. A few minutes later, I called back with another question and BTW mentioned that I’ll be making arrangements for everything to be sent again. The person on the phone that time, a different one, said ‘Let me check’ and reported that the materials have been received. However, they are still not showing on the admissions portal. It’s quite unnerving.
If you end up having to send it again, ask teacher/counselor to scan the document and then send it by email to admission@yourschool.org
There was one school that kept misplacing the email (!) but at least dogs cannot eat the email.
Another dimension of hard copy strife: It looks like we have now ended with two personal/extracurricular recommendation for some of our schools. (A long story, but the first recommender, who wasn’t able to submit a recommendation, suddenly came through and just reported that he/she has mailed hard copies of the forms, long after another recommender was asked to do the same.) Do you think that AOs will be overly annoyed by that? Should I attempt to explain?
D asked her English and Ceramics professors to write one recommendation, make multiple copies and mail them with labeled and stamped envelopes that she gave them. Out of all the schools, only Andover insisted that the recommendations should be online. I will write English recommendation online for the school if it doesn’t change the position. I already did the Math teacher’s and counselor’s recommendations online myself as a homeschooling parent.
@Goatmama–which school? I seem to remember a few of them had both a “Special Interest” and “Personal” recommendation. Overall, I think it should be fine–I think they are used to “too many” recommendations.
We are completely stressed as our DD’s math teacher STILL has not downloaded the Gateway Rec forms. I emailed him over the break and just re-sent them all again. Very weird in that she is the top student in his class and he thinks highly of her. ARGHH.
@jwalche-- I DID NOT KNOW that Andover has requested ALL online. Are you sure? When I emailed them re: hard copy, they emailed me back with a response that sounded like they had most definitely answered these questions about H/C before!
@itcannotbetrue Choate and Loomis. They allow for only one supplemental recommendation. I’m now worried that GoatKid fall in the “thick file, thick applicant” category.
Thank you. Good luck to DD! I am so ready for this to be over! Luckily, GoatKid2 is applying to a local day school where the application process takes about 12.5 minutes. And, he could walk to school in less than that.