<p>Does it make a difference whether or not I waive my right to access? To be honest, I don't want to waive my right, but I've heard it is recommended that you waive your right. What should I do?</p>
<p>Waive your right unless you really have a good reason not to</p>
<p>Thanks. Another question: Is it necessary to fill out the education section on commonapp.org (the section that asks you for your GPA, class rank, etc.)? I thought the transcript takes care of all that stuff.</p>
<p>It should be on your transcript as well, but I think you are supposed to go ahead and self-report it anyway</p>
<p>I know common knowledge says to waive your right, but lets take a look at what the Common App tells you about it to begin with.</p>
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<p>It doesn’t imply that there is any benefit to waiving your right. Teachers aren’t guaranteed confidentiality through FERPA in writing recommendations regardless of your decision; it shouldn’t benefit one way or another, whichever option you choose. Assuming that the Common Application is correct in its interpretation of FERPA, refusing to waive your right does not grant you the right to see the recommendation before it is sent to the university of your choice. Regardless, I don’t see why your teacher wouldn’t want to waive your right unless they have reservations about writing a letter in the first place, and in that case you wouldn’t want them writing you a letter anyways. I don’t know of any teacher that would rather write a negative letter of “recommendation” rather than an ineffective one. It has nothing to do with the dignity or trust of the teacher since the act does not ensure that you see the recommendation before it matters. </p>
<p>I just think it would be best that you reconsider before succumbing to popular opinion.</p>
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<p>It’s not that you waive the right for a specific benefit. Most people suggest that you waive the right to avoid indicating a lack of trust in your teacher recommendations. Most colleges see it that if your teachers know that you will be able to see what they wrote, they might not be inclined to be as honest as they would if you waived the right, and colleges might therefore give the recs less consideration.</p>
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<p>It’s not so much that they would write a negative letter either. It’s just that no one is perfect, and colleges want to know your weaknesses as well as your strengths, but if you don’t waive your right, the teacher might not be comfortable saying something along the lines of “he was an excellent student, always did well on the tests, participated in class, but…”. If that’s the case, colleges won’t get as complete of a picture of what kind of student you are.</p>
<p>I didn’t waive my right because I’m an international student and I thought it would be careful to check if my teachers have completed the form correctly, since they are not used to this kind of forms, English is not our mother tongue (therefore they probably will have problems understanding the website) and they might make mistakes filling it out. Is this a good reason?</p>
<p>^This is not a good reason to avoid waiving your rights. By the time you would actually be able to see the rec, the time for correcting any problems will be long past. If you do not waive your rights, you will only have the right to see the rec after you matriculate at the school (assuming the school still has it in its records). That means even if you do not waive, you have no right to see the rec until after the school has accepted you and you have enrolled there.</p>