<p>Okay, my S did not waive his FERPA rights. He was never told that this may be viewed negatively by college admissions. I'm guessing there's no way to undo this and waive his rights. How big of a mistake is it? I'm kinda mad that his GC never eplained this to him. He was not aware of the implications.</p>
<p>Seems like I find out something we should have known about the college admissions process every day. Uggh!</p>
<p>Don’t worry about this one. Lots of students don’t waive their rights. In fact there even are some high schools out there that don’t allow their students to do so!</p>
<p>Until ONE (as in yes 1 the whole number between 0 and 2) college admissions officer is willing to formally go on record that he/she views waived letters differently from unwaived letters, there is no evidence whatsoever that any of them care about this. If any of them do care, it is probably because it creates a filing headache for them because if the kid doesn’t waive his/her rights they actually have to save the letters. If the student waives their rights, and the letters never make it into the student’s permanent file, who’s to know or care?</p>
<p>You see people, even some high school counselors, assert that you must waive your rights because otherwise the college will look badly upon you. That is not true. FERPA does not have to be waived, it would actually be improper for the college to assert that you must waive rights, and a rec letter is a rec letter regardless of whether the student has seen it or reserves the right to view it once it is in his college file.</p>
<p>Thank you. That makes me feel slightly better. </p>
<p>I feel bad that my first-born is our guinea pig in many ways. I know our younger children will benefit from my deepening understanding of the intracacies of college admissions.</p>
<p>^^^^^^^^^^</p>
<p>That’s why one has second and third children: to correct all the mistakes we make with the first one :-)</p>
<p>Imagine your car needs some repair work. In scenario A you ask a friend who you know has used a local mechanic about whether he thought the shop did a good job and had fair prices, doing this when the friend is over at your house. </p>
<p>In scenario B everything is the same except you ask the question at the supermarket and the mechanic is seen by both of you to be standing nearby, within earshot.</p>
<p>In which scenario do you think you are more likely to get your friend’s honest opinion?</p>
<p>So its not that the college “will look badly upon you”, not sure where that even comes from. But they’re likely to discount the rec, just as you would in the example above.</p>