<p>OK, this may seem obvious, but can anyone tell me if my son needs to have recommendations letters sent directly to his schools? I'd thought we could send copies along with his homeschool transcript, but now I have heard about students providing envelopes for the letter writers. </p>
<p>Also, is it important to send everything in one shot, or can we send the transcript and then letters or other supplemental material separately? </p>
<p>thank you SO much!</p>
<p>Rellie</p>
<p>Generally letters of recommendation are sent directly to the college, and it is a nice courtesy to provide the recommender with a stamped, addressed envelope. Alternatively, the recommender can give you the recommendation in a sealed envelope (with their signature across the seal) to forward to the college.</p>
<p>Items may be sent separately to the college, but be certain they all contain the students name and social security #. You may also want to send them certified mail, return receipt requested to ensure they arrive. Your son may also want to contact the admissions office to ensure they have everything in his file (sometimes things get misfiled).</p>
<p>I recently called both of my son's EA admissions offices because the "check the status of your app." site showed no test scores (S had ordered them to be sent a month previously). Both Adm. offices said they hadn't received the test scores, but "they had a lot of mail they hadn't opened yet". When I told them the scores should have been sent a month ago, they "looked in a different place" and found them. One adm. office had to look in 3 different places before the scores were found!</p>
<p>It increased our peace of mind to check.</p>
<p>Should parents be calling admissions or should students?</p>
<p>I'm just curious because my D is stressed about everything being received. She asked me to call, but I told her I thought it would be better if SHE called.</p>
<p>MaMom23 - Do whatever works for your family. I called about that stuff for my kids. While there is some thought that the students should do everything I don't think it's realistic or important regarding who makes sure paperwork was received. Definately not worth stressing about.</p>
<p>I agree kathiep. A lot of high school students start their day by 8:00 and have no phone access until after 5:00 (unless you count all the cell phone text messaging that's going on - but that's a whole different issue). If it's doable, it's a good learning experience, but certainly not something to be concerned about if it's not practical.</p>
<p>thats why emails sent either by the admissions to confirm that the file is complete or by the student asking to verify if file is complete is a good solution
email allows you to keep a dated request as a reminder of when you last asked
It saves you and the admission office time as you can schedule when convienent
and it allows you to be clear and brief with your request
schools often will send a confirming email when complete &/or give you access to a web site where you can check yourself- but my impression is, they would rather deal with it that way- than with lots of phone calls</p>
<p>I'm sure admissions offices would like us to use their web sites to check on application completion. But they aren't always updated very well.</p>
<p>The fact is that when you call to check the status of received items, you're generally speaking to a secretary who doesn't care if you're the student or the parent. If the student does not have access to a phone because of after-school committments, it's certainly fine for the parent to call and explain that.
I've said this before, but putting a self-addressed stamped postcard with the college's return address in each envelope (including letters of reference) will ease the applicant's mind as to what was received.</p>
<p>Thanks! I'm glad to hear the tips on followup too.</p>