<p>D is getting ready to apply to colleges. I went to a meeting last month at her school. The college counselor said she discouraged teachers from using the Common App rec form. She said that it's best for the teacher to just write a letter of recommendation and send that in to each college. She said that she doesn't like to have teachers filling in forms in general because some teachers are "easy checkers" (that is, they think each kid is great) and some are "hard checkers" (they never give any kid a top rating, feeling that there's always room for improvement). I hope I'm explaining this adequately!</p>
<p>I can see her point, but it seems to me that if a form exists and the teacher chooses not to use it, that might make the school angry. I know that many of my fellow parents have been through this already! Can you please help out a confused parent? I hope I am stressing out for nothing. D is an only child, and this whole process is a mystery to me. Thank goodness for this site!</p>
<p>My teachers filled out the circles then wrote letters to the colleges. My counselling office, however, does not fill out any of the forms. I gave the forms for every college to the office for my counsellor rec, and they just put a stamp on it saying "we dont fill out this form, look at the school profile and the letter attached". Maybe the teachers at your school will just write "I am not allowed to fill out this form, please see attached letter" or something to the effect. </p>
<p>Does your school send a hand full of kids to all the colleges your daughter is applying to? If so these colleges know what to expect from your school and will not hold anything against you. It becomes an issue (maybe, maybe not) if she is the first to apply to a college from her school.</p>
<p>One of my d's teachers didn't fill out a form. I called all the schools she was applying to, and they said it was perfectly fine as long as they could identify her from the letter.</p>
<p>My daughter's teachers did fill out the forms, as well as writing letters, and gave her copies of what they had filled out. What I noticed is that they actually filled out the form very accurately (at least arguably), rating my daughter very highly on what I know to be strong points, not so high on areas that are not her strengths. My guess is that if a college sees a form that has all the boxes checked in the "best" category -- they probably just disregard it, figuring that it hasn't given them any real information. But if they see one like my daughter's, then they may give it more credence - they can see that applicant A is very strong on initiative and leadership skills, applicant B is talented in arts and is very creative, etc. </p>
<p>If they can glean the same sort of information from the letter, then all is probably well. </p>
<p>The problem would come be if there was no form coupled with a very generic letter.</p>