<p>Many have posted a similar note, but it bears repeating. Do not trust your HS guidance office or reference writers. My S outlined in great detail what the guidance office needed to do and when, as well what teacher-reference writers needed to do and when. Found out today that, though formal transcripts were requested and paid for 6-8 weeks ago, they were not forwarded. Only one out of six different teachers forwarded S's references, though given four-week lead time. Stay on their backs. Check and re-check. We missed the deadlines (hopefully, not written in stone) for a number of key schools. So today my wife and I showed up at the guidance office and teacher offices and confronted them directly. And it's a small Catholic school.</p>
<p>Brian, the schools are used to dropped balls. If the application is in, it is OK to have the transcripts and references be late. They will work with you on that.</p>
<p>In our case the matter is complicated by the fact that my S is applying to BFA acting programs that require an audition. The letters must be in before the audition. Given that it’s tougher to get into a second tier BFA program than Harvard, they do not look kindly on incomplete records. Nevertheless, we will get them in before his first audition next week, but only because my wife and I showed up at the door unannounced - both of us are college professors.</p>
<p>Gee, it brings me back 35 years ago, when the guidance counselor at my “small Catholic school” came to me hat in hand and told me the reason I didn’t get into my #1 was that he neglected to send out my transcript and recs. Two other students were similarly affected. At the time, I blamed it on alcohol abuse.</p>
<p>woody - yea, I cannot comment on the ETOH issue until next year. We showed up, as we feared that if my S confronted them, he would get an in-school suspension.</p>
<p>It REALLY depends upon school. I guess being a “small catholic school” s not the best option. DD attends a large school, I guess they have more students per GC, but there is a system. For either ED or RD their GC forwards letters to a particular college on a particular date for all students, sometimes hundreds at a time (computers and databases at work). There are errors, but usually it works like a machine. Those in the maisnstream are fine. Similar with teachers. They may have deadlines. They may have limit on the number of letters they send for one student (10-12), they may have limit on the number of letters they agree to write, but deadlines are respected 100%.</p>
<p>We also attend a large public hs. Guidance is really on the ball. The GC’s have too many kids, but they focus on Seniors all fall and are up front about deadlines and remind the kids repeatedly. They require every senior to meet with them before mid-December to go over all apps and be sure everything is done, and any application with a 1/1 deadline must be in Guidance by 12/14. </p>
<p>That said, my son gave 2 teachers rec requests in early September. At conferences in Nov, we thanked one teacher for taking the time to write the rec and he said, “oh yes, does he have a deadline?” Ummm… you teach a senior AP course. Shouldn’t you be familiar with college app deadlines? As in: most of them are 1/1 unless the kid is going ED?</p>
<p>We had all sorts of deadlines - Stanford notably was 12/15 not 1/1. We made sure teachers knew the deadline for each college on the list. One of them still went missing - I doubt it was the teacher’s fault - as her letter made it to the other 7 colleges. It wasn’t a problem it just got sent in again a little late.</p>
<p>Briansteffy, how did you find out about the unsent transcripts? Did you check the school’s website, or call the admissions office, or did your H.S. teachers actually say that they screwed up?</p>
<p>Our H.S. requires students to give the teachers envelopes with postage affixed, college address written, and student’s name written on the inside flap, along with due date. It worked quite well. They also encourage teachers to have the rec. letters delivered to the school office so that they can be enclosed along with transcripts from the school.</p>
<p>Sometimes colleges misplace incoming documents, or have a lag time in consolidating applicants’ files and materials. My D had this happen with Emory, and actually had her teachers send in their letters 3 times.</p>
<p>What happened to us was the alumni rep for the college S was applying to
SCEA called us just before Thanksgiving to say his transcript was not in his file. We also found out that a very important letter of recommendation letter from a top scientist, who was also an alum, that S had been interning with for 2 years was also missing. I t was never found and by the time the transcript was sent in and the letter resent by a very ****ed off[ at the college] scientist, it was probably too late for EA consideration, and he was deffered, and ultimately rejected. Students at the HS who had been accepted[who were much less academically qualified], as well as his teachers and the head of the school were stunned. So were we, needless to say.</p>
<p>DD (and at the risk of starting another “helping thread”) and I and made up a folder for each teacher, suplemental recommender and guidance counselor. Inside in addition to a letter thanking the teacher/counselor/etc for writing the recommendation was a copy of her CV, a list of projects done for that teacher, a list with each school, its address and deadline. She prioritized the recommendations (clearly highlighting ED and rolling admisisons schools as priority). Each recommendation form was attached to the stamped addressed envelope to the college admissions office. Our trick - add inside each envelope a stamped postcard addressed to dd with the words “X university has received your recommendation from Jane Doe.” The schools know to send it back to the applicant. That way she knew who did what when and was able to gently prod the AP English teacher who (also) seemed to forget that ED deadlines were 11/1.</p>
<p>GC at D school, when reminded of a 12/1 deadline, daughter got “Oh I forgot” do you want to mail it? Found out MANY of her assigned kids(small school she only has about 40 seniors, about 20 wouldn’t even be sending major things out) had missed deadlines because of her “forgetting”. After that, I told D to go and get sealed transcripts/rec letters/school profiles with school seal on flap, and we did them ourselves.</p>
<p>^^^That’s how it works at our large public sch. The kids put in a request for transcripts. The first three are free and you pay a dollar each after that. After a couple of days, the kids go back to the guidance office and pick up their sealed transcripts. We then mail them off ourselves. I like this system better. Our guidance office is like a circus.</p>
<p>S also attends a small Catholic school but their GC office is definitely on the ball. They have a standard “release form” that needs to be completed for each college and student has to fill in all the information about the college (name, mailing address, deadline, etc.) and also fill in what needs to be sent - recs, transcript or whatever else. Then, a parent has to sign the form. Also, they will not process anything unless you have proof you have filed the application (email from common app and a copy of the app filed, including supplements if any) and paid the app fee. All the requested information is sent directly by the GC office to the colleges. My S noticed that one college was missing the teachers’ recs (checked his account online) and the GC was on the phone with that college for over an hour working with their admissions to figure out what happened. It was resolved - college misplaced the recs. The GC office is ran very, very well and I have been very pleased so far. They impose deadlines on the kids and this has made life a lot easier. My S and friends had a very stressless (college app-wise, that is) Christmas vacation.</p>
<p>Did everything right - clear instructions, envelopes, stamps, etc., etc.. Where we failed was trusting that we did not have to keep on their back. It will work out, and after our confrontation, perhaps the school will better manage the process. I just wanted to remind CCers that, S/Ds need to follow=up face-to-face, as instructions, envelopes, etc. are readily forgotten.
Mountains: Sounds like your Catholic HS has more resources than ours. I, by the way, did not mean to say anything derogatory about Catholic HSs. We transfered my S from a large, rich kids, up-scale, suburban HS because we did not want that experience. We are not Catholic, and we do not go to church. Nevertheless, my S learned something intangible the past four years that he would not have gotton at ‘SLURB High’</p>
<p>RE: post #7
“Ummm… you teach a senior AP course. Shouldn’t you be familiar with college app deadlines”</p>
<p>2 of the 4 AP classes at our school – Last year I asked our gc if seniors were taking calc AB or BC. She didn’t know. Neither did the teacher. I asked the AP English teacher which AP English class it was. She didn’t know. My husband and I thought this very pathetic and sad. That’s just the tip of the iceberg as to how college counseling/preparation goes at our HS.</p>
<p>My D’s school - performing arts high school - also gives the transcripts back to students to mail and I think that is really a smart thing to do - both for the student and the school. She was so worried about everything getting to schools in time to pick the audition dates she wanted, she completedd all her apps in September and October. Fear was a great motivator. Still, the person who needed nudging with regard to recs was her school voice teacher - the one teacher who should understand best how important it is to get things in early when auditions are involved. I was amazed at how long it took College Board to get the scores to the schools though - it should only involve a couple of keystrokes.</p>
<p>And it may not be the teacher’s fault. Just last week we received one of S’s teacher’s letter of recommendation in our mailbox. It was inside a sealed plastic bag with a preprinted apology from the USPS–something about a damaged envelope and postal machine gone awry. The 2-page form had S’s name and address at the top of the form, so it was sent to our home, rather than to the university whose seal and address was to the left. I stuck the plastic envelope-cum-letter with a handwritten note in an envelope and sent it to the university (teacher was unavailable by phone). S did not see it (but I told him about it, and his GC), and while I was tempted to read it, I didn’t–didn’t even hold it up the light!</p>
<p>So be aware that mail sometimes doesn’t make it, despite a teacher’s good intentions. This teacher had earlier contacted S to let him know he had written and mailed the letters (and of course S wrote a thank-you note back).</p>
<p>You all say the schools are pretty understanding and give some leeway for various parts of the application to come in. What if the student wasn’t very responsible and got their requests into the guidance office very late? (Thinking of a friend of D’s). His stuff will definitely not be postmarked by dates required. Does he get a pass because the university will just assume there was a hold-up in the office?</p>
<p>Whoa… before every one starts hating on GCs and teachers let me ask these questions?</p>
<ol>
<li>Are you upset because your GC did not send in the transcripts for a school with a 12/31, 1/1 deadline where they are applying for RD admissions?</li>
</ol>
<p>If your answer is yes, then please be advised that the deadline listed in the admissions section of the college website is the deadline that ** the student needs to submit their part of the application, general application, essays etc. The transcript/GC evaluation are not due to the schools on 12/31 or 1/1 **</p>
<p>Unless your child is applying for rolling admissions, SCEA, ED, EDI where they were receiving a admissions decision mid December (which has already passed so they would have already known the status of this application) the transcript that is sent out as this point in time will only have their grades as to the end of their junior year.</p>
<p>Has your child completed the fall term (1st semester of senior year )?</p>
<p>If the answer is no, guess what if the school were to send a transcript today to the colleges the grades would only reflect what your child has completed as of the end of junior year. Even if your child finished the first semester (for those of you whose students have a school year that ends in May) your school has probably just recently added the 7th semester grades. In NYS the first term does is not over until the end of January- state exams are given Jan 22-25, there is a grading days is 1/29 and at many NYS schools transcripts are not updated until Jan 29 and transcripts are updated afterwards (In NYC report cards are distributed on 1/30).</p>
<p>At many schools for RD applicants the mid year report, transcripts and evaluations are not due until ~ mid- February. The worse case scenario, if something is missing, your child will receive a letter stating something is missing. The take the letter to the GC, the GC contacts that school and most colleges will allow the GC to fax over a copy of the transcript (and send a follow-up official copy in the mail).</p>