I agree @coffeelife, rejection at Northeastern, Brandeis, BU, Macalester for a 2280/34, decent grades applicant is honestly shocking. NEU and BU admit a ton of students. I would have even expected merit aid at the Boston schools. I have heard tales of GC rec keeping students out of honors programs but I find it hard to believe that a bad rec would cause all these rejections.
Sorry you are experiencing this but in the end I hope you are able to embrace your acceptances and move on.
I am getting less stressed about the decisions everyday, but it is still kind of painful. I am really happy with UCI at this point and I hope some good news comes in by April 1st. I will try to do the scholarship thing in order to see if the counselor is hurting me. I know that even if my GC didn’t write a letter saying bad things about me, even a sloppy or really poorly written rec would hurt me in a holistic process, since the letters show my personality through someone else’s point of view.
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I got rejected from UCB and NYU 
I’m going to look at my USC portal today, but I don’t expect to get in.
I am very sorry…maybe you can appeal to one of these places and get clarity? I would really like to know why, if I were you…http://marymountcollegeadmissionblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/when-recommendations-attack-worst.html
That letter is great. Thank you for posting
Did you waive FERPA? If you didn’t, that could be one of the reasons why you are getting more rejections/waitlistings. If you did waive it, then you cannot read your GC recommendation or you risk being rescinded from the schools you have been accepted to.
What does FERPA have to do with it? it does not make any sense to me… Could you explain, please?
Students who don’t waive FERPA have unreliable recommendations, so universities discard them. At universities that require recommenations, it can be a big problem.
So, it’s almost like admissions officers might be suspicious of students who don’t waive their rights to see the counselor School Report, Teacher Evaluation Forms and other recommendation letters? Does it mean that Colleges will automatically decline the applications of the students who did not waive FEPRA?
What does it matter if she looks at it after they’re already sent?
@fallenwinter the idea is that the student never looks at it so the teacher and counselor can be completely honesty. The student not seeing the recs is agreed to by waiving FERPA
Right, I don’t believe FERPA means you can’t read your recs post-acceptance, right? Surely you can waive your rights to read something and read it anyway should the rec writer allow you to? I don’t believe that’s something that would risk being rescinded.
You cannot read recs post-acceptance if you waive your FERPA rights, unfortunately.
Where does it say that?
I don’t think that’s right, though - I think waiving FERPA means waiving your right to let your college show you your letter of recs once you’re enrolled. However, the rec writers themselves still have the right to show you the letter if they wish. Which is why I think it’s completely untrue that one risks being rescinded from the schools one’s been accepted to if they do read their recs with rec writer permission.
The whole point is so that colleges know that the recs are genuine, so it would not matter if you look at them now if the colleges already have it.
That’s not the situation though. The question was weather the OP did waive FERPA. If FERPA isn’t waived than rec letters aren’t considered.
Yes, and this discussion came from this statement by a poster:
Which is untrue.
Jmbakh, that IS the situation though. I might be wrong but I’m pretty sure OP did waive FEPRA, but that isn’t important NOW because the colleges already have it…