<p>Sealing letters wouldn’t stop someone from writing his or her own recommendation, LOL. I think that the letters are sealed for the reasons you next articulate:</p>
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<p>If it were proper to open up a letter just because you chose not to use it, then the teacher would have no reason to believe that the contents of the letter would always be confidential. </p>
<p>I can’t think of any teacher that my kids had who didn’t share the contents of the letter with my kids before it went out. It was a morale boost for them and any mistakes could be caught before the letters went out. At least for college applications, the letters of recommendation were mailed by the teachers directly to the schools, so this problem of peeking at the rec letter was not an issue.</p>
<p>The issue of factual correctness would still remain a problem for your situation, though…a third party looking at the letter for factual errors would be the best way to go, if you really need that letter.</p>
<p>My kids saw some letters, but not at all. You do kind of hold your breath and hope for the best. For one reason or another we did see letters (for summer programs) for my both my boys that were good, but led me to think he might be better off looking for more articulate teachers for college recommendations. </p>
<p>Since it wasn’t the kid who opened the letter, I think the Mom could go to the teacher and grovel, and then explain the problem. But I’d probably just let sleeping dogs lie, unless you are positive you want this teacher to write a recommendation again, in which case you have to find out why this happened. Was it carelessness? Was it deliberate sabatoge? Or did he mistakenly think the should inflate your kid’s resume? The first seems most likely, but reading between the lines I feel like the OP is worried something else is going on here.</p>
<p>Something our school does is have students ask for teacher recommendations that go to the guidance counselor to help her write her letter. These aren’t necessarily the same teachers that you have write the college directly. My younger son used completely different teachers and it seemed to work out well for him. (And that was why we saw one of the more formulaic letters that we knew not to use in the future.)</p>
<p>My D did not see any LOR’s. That being said, every single teacher was given a clearly typed resume. Listed summer programs, EC’s, etc. We tried to make it as easy as possible on the teachers. Some of the LOR’s were written for summer programs, we just updated as needed. The school requires a Brag Sheet to be filled out for the GC’s, we filled out their form and attached the resume.</p>
<p>I would definately provide a clear brag sheet/resume for each teacher for the LORs–for every teacher. Consider talking to a GC about the current situation. I hope the summer program sees this as a stressed teacher error.</p>
<p>@Nrdsb4, @gsmomma:
One of the two issues, the wrong summer program, can easily be an editing mistake on a template. I can accept that. The other, the false accomplishment, is different. It concerns the EC for which the teacher was a mentor, and contradicts what DS wrote about this EC in the apps. Since no other student in the school pursued it in that manner, I have no idea how the teacher came to write that. </p>
<p>@Agentninetynine: I guess @Youdon’tsay answered your question.</p>
<p>@ADad:
Those are the only ones. The rest are evaluations. General, but glowing.</p>
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I would use “deal with” instead of “tolerate” in 2b. But yes, I have to figure out how to deal with 2a and 2b while keeping Ds’s spirits going.</p>
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Pro: Another idea to think about. Con: Ds’s GC is new, just joined hs this year, and probably doesn’t know much about him (large class too).</p>
<p>@Seahorsesrock & @YaleGradandDad:
I have to agree that it’s better not to complicate the situation. A variant of talking to GC could work. See below.</p>
<p>@Youdon’tsay:
I’m trying to say that I don’t know what to make of it, and I am worried, honestly. </p>
<p>@ellemenope, @mathmom, @Mom2M:
Thanks for all the insight, and the ideas. It really helped to clear my mind on this.</p>
<p>Here’s the plan I put together so far, based on all the input. If anybody has some spare time, please let me know what you think:
I’ll have ds start working on the brag sheet and I’ll make sure he uses it with all future LOR requests. He already put together a resume, just didn’t give it to his teachers yet (they didn’t ask either, I found out).
I’ll also ask ds to think about additional teachers that he might like to approach for college recs. This one is tough.
I don’t think there is anything to do about the pending apps, except cross fingers and hope, just like ds does. Another tough one. Maybe, just maybe
Will check if college LORs are stored on Naviance for our hs. If they are, then will make sure to have the GC verify each one that Ds receives for consistency with his brag sheet and resume. If this works, the teacher problem will be solved automatically. If not, got to figure something else. Maybe have Ds ask teacher(s) directly to check together?</p>
<p>ellemenope: At our school they are sealed in a school envelope and signed over the seal so it would prevent a person from tampering. Otherwise they are submitted online to common app or mailed directly to school.</p>
<p>It can be a problem to find teachers who loved your kid, know the kid well, and are solid enough writers to do the job effectively. My D had that problem with STEM teachers. Her favorite who would have had good things to say about her is dyslexic and ADAD - he has trouble writing homework questions let alone a letter (was a GREAT teacher, though). All her peers advised her not to ask him even though he’s a great guy.</p>
<p>So sorry you are going through this vox101. This situation confirms what I believe to be true about a LOR: too much weight given to something that is completely out of our control. If it is truly a letter of recommendation, what is the problem with the student receiving a copy?</p>
<p>Don’t have much new advice but wish your son luck in getting into the summer programs.</p>
<p>If you’re so concerned about this guy’s ability/willingness to write a good letter, I think you should just write this off (no pun intended) and find someone else to do the next round of LORs. Doesn’t solve this problem but helps moving forward.</p>
<p>Vox: Is it possible to simply ignore the mistakes in the letter? I would imagine the program would conclude that the teacher made an error. The essence of the letter remains the same, your son is a bright and interested kid who should gain admittance into the program.</p>
<p>I’m still somewhat confused why a sealed envelope is necessary. If a teacher doesn’t think the student deserves praise, why agree to write the letter?</p>
<p>Can you imagine a bunch of highschoolers and their parents comparing letters? They compare scores, grades, etc, and then to have teachers thrown into that mix.</p>
<p>I can see the fallout now…calls to the principal, nasty emails to gc, </p>
<p>Dear gc, teacher smith wasn’t as glowing in his review of Timmy as he was of Tommy even though Timmy got better grades</p>
<p>First, I can’t see why these mistakes should hurt your kid with the summer programs, if the rec was glowing. The programs will either assume that the teacher made a mistake, or will ask somebody for clarification. The mistakes are positive, not negative. (This would be a harder case if there was something malicious in the rec.)</p>
<p>Second, you probably shouldn’t use this teacher as one of the two recommenders for college anyway, if he’s not teaching your kid in junior or senior year. The GC can talk about this interest, as can the other teachers if they are told about it. The brag sheet is a good idea for all recommenders. You don’t need a recommendation to confirm the student’s continued interest and involvement in an activity–the application itself can show that.</p>
<p>In other words, my advice is to forget it and get new recommenders. If your kid is rejected from the summer programs, it probably won’t be because of these mistakes.</p>
<p>As for the ethics, I can’t judge you too harshly. It’s not like you opened the letter before sending it. (I myself have a sealed rec for my son that was written three years ago and never used. I haven’t opened it, but I haven’t thrown it out, either.) But having opened it makes it almost impossible to tell the teacher about the problem.</p>
<p>Having just come from a meeting with my son’s guidance councelor where she repeatedly told us to pick up the phone about anything we needed and how she can pick up the phone to several area admissions officers… I would pick up the phone and let her know that this mix up happened. Hopefully she can call the 3 programs and give them whatever additional information they need to fix the problem. She might also be in a position to deal with the absentminded professor for you. Crossing my fingers for you.</p>
<p>What I meant was that a kid could get a hold of school stationery and envelopes and write his own letter, including signing a fake signature over the seal. The stuff is not kept in a vault at our high school.</p>