Parents, PLEASE I need your help here

Parents Forum
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<p>Dear CC Parents,</p>

<p>I am not a parent, but I am writing to you because I need your help-- especially if you have experience in terms of dealing with counselors.</p>

<p>I am applied to a college in December, and I had my transcripts sent out in November. All seemed fine and dandy, because I assumed it would take 1-3 weeks for my transcripts to be processed, just like it was stated on the admin website. I continuously checked my account to see if they had been processed, but they hadn't. On the day of the deadline, I checked again once more to see if my transcripts had been received, but they still hadn't. Three weeks had passed, and I was getting very scared.</p>

<p>So I contacted my counselor the day of, called her/sent her an email explaining what was going on. The following morning she contacted me, and told me that she contacted the Admissions Office, and that she faxed my transcripts to my uni and all was good. Our winter break started the next day, but I had already confirmed w/ her that my transcripts had been faxed, so there was no need to confirm again.</p>

<p>I was still slightly skeptical, so just to be safe, so I emailed my admissions counselor asking if he had received my transcripts. I checked continuously during winter break, but my transcripts were still a no show. I sent her, my high school counselor, an email, and I didn't get a reply. By this time, I was very very very worried, so I found her number on the internet [i know, sketchy, but this is my reach school, and i am slightly desperate here] I called her, left a message w/ my email and number [i said i was SUPER SORRY to disturb her over winter break, i would never want to call my teachers over winter break, but this was extremely important to me]... her husband even gave me his email to send her a msg in case she didnt get my phone call. I still havent received an email back yet.</p>

<p>I just got an email today from my admissions counselor saying that my uni DOES NOT ACCEPT FAXED TRANSCRIPTS. Period. And on top of that, my application will now be considered LATE unless they receive it in a few days because admissions decisions have already been sent out to some applicants. </p>

<p>I haven't recieved any feedback from my counselor, and my school is still on break, so it is unlikely that I can send it in a few days. I emailed her nvthless, and I am afraid to call again because I do not want to overstep my boundaries. I also emailed my admissions counselor again explaining everything and how I will do my best to have overnight delivery, despite the fact that I'm overseas.</p>

<p>But, I feel so depressed. I did EVERYTHING I could, and I am still being penalized for it. If... my counselor had sent out another copy or told me to pay for rush delivery or something, my app still might have made it in time, because my admissions counselor told me that alot of the paperwork WAS processed over the winterbreak.</p>

<p>The same thing happened to my sister's transcripts.</p>

<p>What should I DO? Did I over step my boundaries? Should I have not called her internationally over the break?</p>

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<p>Don’t worry about things you can no longer control. You did everything you could and without seeming to be obnoxious from what you just posted and the fact that the counselor’s husband aided you in getting your message to her. I give you high marks for problem solving and not just accepting snafus. Have an alternative in case your materials don’t meet a deadline or of they do and you are rejected anyhow. Have a plan B for college and love your alternative. Life is like that- things don’t always go our way. Put this out of your mind and enjoy whatever direction your life takes you.</p>

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<p>I think that I would ask the university to use the FAXed transcripts in their decision while stating that you will get them official transcripts as soon as possible. I would also consider contacting your schools superintendent’s office (or asking your parents to) to see if they could provide an official transcript to your university or a sealed copy to you that you could send to the university. Hopefully your school district has a centralized administrative computer system so that administrators in general can print out transcripts.</p>

<p>In our districts, administrative staff work through the year and they are generally available outside of holidays.</p>

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<p>Maybe you could have a favorite teacher try and get involved. When your counselor emails your transcripts, have her attach and make a notation of the fax transmission. Good luck!</p>

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<p>Just based on what you’ve stated, may I make the obvious observation? Your counselor needs to be slapped. I commend you for being patient and resourceful; I would have egged her house by now.</p>

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<p>Let this be a warning to other students/parents (my kids have been in similar situations)–Never wait until the deadline to try to follow up on a missing transcript, reference or any other important document with a deadline. </p>

<p>Don’t just check with the college/receiver to see if the document was received. Check early and often with the person who was supposed to send it out to make sure it was sent. Best to ask him/her, when originally making the request, to let you know when the document is sent. And then check with the receiver as well. </p>

<p>OP, I am sorry for your trouble. You’ve learned something: You can’t depend on people–most of them are unreliable. Remember this next time. Breathe down their necks until you are sure the job is done.</p>

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<p>I like BCEagle’s suggestion about asking if they can evaluate utilizing the fax. I would also get a FedX envelope take it to the school, wait while they insert the transcripts and seal the envelope in your plain view and then you take it directly to FedX and send it overnight delivery. I would send an e-mail to your admissions contact with the date you sent FedX, the expected delivery date given customs processing and the tracking number. In my experience FedX seems to be the fastest for getting “stuff” into and out of foreign countries. FedX should be able help you with the custom’s paperwork that needs to go with the “overnight” envelope. You’ll be able to track your package on line and see when and who signed for it.</p>

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<p>I would e-mail the principal immediately. Perhaps it’s time to also get a parent involved to contact the principal as well.</p>

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<p>Forget email, it’s time for your parents to walk into your school and demand action NOW. The FedEx solution above is an excellent one, and there is no reason why your transcripts should not be shipped overnight tomorrow.</p>

<p>You have done an admirable job of being persistent and proactive. The adults involved, at both your school and the college, have not.</p>

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<p>Yep. Time to call in the big guns (parents). They should call admissions for you (very, very pleasantly) and explain that you really have been working hard to dot all the i’s and cross all the T’s and that you were MISLEAD by your school counselor. Your parents should also tell admissions officer that they intend to file an official complaint at your HS. </p>

<p>Then, they should email AND telephone the school principal to document the problem – and, the MORNING the school re-opens, parents should be on the doorstep of the principal (not the counselor – the principal) breathing fire and outrage. </p>

<p>Copies of their complaint should go to all school board members (or all school trustees, if it is a private HS). </p>

<p>This is a MAJOR Fxxx up. The counselor may loose her job over this and . . .she probably should. Remember, you are going to bat not only for your application and your sister’s but also for all other students in your class and in future years. The school should be shook to it’s foundations over this. IT IS HER JOB to get this sort of paperwork done on time. </p>

<p>Quit being so timid. There clearly is a mix up somewhere – it is still possible that the counselor did the right thing and there is some other problem (like you supplied the wrong address for the transcript) – but be bold that you worked hard to do the right thing and it is right and reasonable to expect both HS staff and Uni staff to work with you to resolve this. </p>

<p>Where did the counselor get the idea that the faxed transcript was ok? Did she talk to someone at Uni who said “good enough?” – if that’s the case, then we are back at Uni’s door, with the expectation that you/counselor were working to comply. </p>

<p>Furious parents need to go to bat for you – not profane but very, very irked and wanting clarification and fixing NOW.</p>

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<p>What a shocking degree of incompetence!</p>

<p>All of the advice here is good. I would add that you should have your parents ask the principal to call the college’s admissions office immediately and explain the problem to them. You should not be handling this alone at this point - you need more responsible adults to advocate for you.</p>

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<p>In defense of the counselor (if there is one to be had), it is clear that she did not understand the requirement of the institution in question. She may not be experienced with this particular institution or their practices may have changed since she last worked with them. I don’t know the particulars of your school, but back in the day, I had 1 counselor for a graduating class of 700. Yes, things were simpler back then - send photocopies to the school - and typically most students where I went didn’t even go to college and the ones who did applied and went to 1 of 2 local state U’s or the CC, all of which had the same requirements (fog a mirror). She did handle the exceptions very well, even for the one and only kid who applied, was accepted, and atteneded MIT in the history of my school.</p>

<p>So this may be a lack of attention to detail on her part or she may simply be overmatched for the job at hand.</p>

<p>In any event, I do agree with the above posters that your parents should be escalating this to the principal at 8 AM tomorrow morning and to the Board of Ed by Noon if that transcript hasn’t made it to the Fed Ex dropbox.</p>

<p>Another thing that is confusing me about this situation, why the heck is the admissions person dealing with you when you should be directing her to deal directly with your counselor and/or principal. Admissions person is probably assuming here that you haven’t followed your school’s procedures for getting transcripts shipped and seems to be giving you a hard time. This correspondence should have your counselor’s email Carbon Copied, so the Admissions person knows you are working in the system. Phone calls are fine as long as you follow them up with email that summarizes the results carbon copied to all. If you do this, the Admissions person will quickly turn to grilling your counselor over her lack of following procedure.</p>

<p>Good Luck!</p>

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<p>I would suggest going to the superintendent’s office before going to the school board as the superintendent may be able to provide the transcript. The school board members, if contacted, would simply direct the superintendent to get the job anyways so going directly to the superintendent would save a hop. This is if going to the principal doesn’t work.</p>

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<p>While I think the counselor is showing some incompetence here, what I don’t understand is why there is such direct contact between the university and the school? If the documents were faxed the admissions counselor should have picked up the phone and called the school. Obviously this student is working in good faith and i think the college is acting a little punitive knowing full well this is mostly out of the student’s control. This is why my main concern in talking to the school (first thing AM as has been suggested) would be to make sure they contact the university and be clear that this was not your fault nor did you miss deadlines. Mostly you want them to reaffirm you to be a conscientious student. If you have parents that cannot be helpful in this case, I want you to go directly to a trusted teacher and calmly explain your position.</p>

<p>If nothing else, this sort of confirms my feeling that it is really really important for a kid to create some degree of personal relationship with at least one adult at his/her school.</p>

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<p>Because there are several “loose” pieces here (We don’t know exactly what counselor did or did not do, we don’t know if student performed flawlessly, etc) that’s another reason for parents to get involved. They can play the huffy, outraged ones and if it turns out the student goofed in some fashion (provided wrong address, didn’t provide stamped envelope, whatever) , then the student still has a fig leaf – the parents pushing to get things straightened out and, if it is a problem from the kid, then they can make redfaced apologies. No fun, but at least the kid is saved from being huffy and wrong.</p>

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<p>I’ve noticed that sometimes it takes a while for the computer to be updated to show that a piece of the application has been received.</p>

<p>When dealing with admissions with a problem, get an actual admissions officer on the line–maybe an admissions director or assistant director. Lower down people can only say “no,” not yes.</p>

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<p>Thank you to all of the posters! </p>

<p>The FedEX idea is a GREAT IDEA! Both of my parents work, but I can definitely make sure that they call up my counselor IMMEDIATELY and ask her what the heck is going on. I do not want to take this too far because [1] she still has to write a letter of rec. for me for two other colleges im applying to [2] what if she makes all of my other teachers hate me. </p>

<p>im so furious-- i still havent received an email back yet.</p>

<p>i dont want any drama, i just want to get accepted into college! </p>

<p>ok. here’s my game plan:

  1. parents call up counselor. sounds super angry. ask for my transcripts to be mailed immediately! also, want her to personally call up the admissions office and tell them that they told her it was ok to fax. Tell her to call up the place and figure out exactly where she went wrong. ill come to the school and do the fedex bit, or my school DHLs so that could work to.
  2. if she’s not there/refuses to cooperate. call superintendent. ask for transcripts. fedex idea.
  3. since its probably night time in the us now, ill have my parents call the school, tellthem that i tried everything, and everything. then i will give the admin officers my counselors number. tell them to talk to her, expl. the situation. i will also tell them that i have fedexed my materials, and they should reach soon. tell them i will email info.
  4. Email admissions office fedex code, day/time shipped out, date its supposed to arrive, etc.</p>

<p>thank you for your advice. btw* i checked once more, just to make sure that i had the right admissions office address. and i did. </p>

<p>wish me luck, im so nervous, i really need it.</p>

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<p>LOL- her husband is the superintendant of the school.</p>

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<p>Please do come back and let us know if and how this was resolved. . . inquiring minds want to know!</p>

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<p>OK. i feel SO much better now. i didnt follow through the game plan because no one at my school was picking up their phones, so there would be no point. my parents didnt contact her.</p>

<p>my counselor just got back, and she knew i was panicking. she did call the school over winter break, but as expected, no one picked up.</p>

<p>she and her husband have been working round the clock to make sure that my transcripts got in, calling all of my admissions counselors and everything. me and my sisters transcripts weren’t the only ones- there were other kids from our school whose transcripts had not been registered either. so that was a teensy bit comforting.</p>

<p>she called me up in the morning, and i feel SO much better now. =D i shouldn’t have lost my faith in my counselor. ;D i know she has my best interest at heart, i just panicked SO much.</p>

<p>she called up all of my schools, and got everything sorted out. nothing dramatic happened, thank god, and i feel like i could use a breath of fresh air. i guess the panicking made the situation seem more urgent, so all of that worry might have been a good thing after all!</p>