<p>Absolutely check with each school that everything is received especially items sent by others. My friend's S got a postcard in February from one college stating that one teacher recommendation had not been received. No other school notified him of missing materials! The teacher in fact had not sent the recommendation to any of the schools, including his EA school from which he had been deferred. Big mess with the teacher and school but finally recommendation sent, albeit very belatedly. When my friend called each school to check on whether the recommendation had been received, she found out that one school had not received the SAT scores from the College Board! Even though they paid the College Board to send the scores to that school along with all others. Of course, the College Board then sent the scores right away, and the school said they were using the self reported scores but still wanted the official scores. </p>
<p>He got accepted by that school and several other terrific schools. So it ended up fine for him in the end. I know it is difficult to check when the schools are so busy, but it really is necessary. All schools do not let students know when materials are missing.</p>
<p>UPS just sent me an email saying the package had been delivered and signed for by the woman it was sent to - now that's great! Still no word on whether they have found the first package, which seems to be lost in some sort of delivery hell on the Earlham campus. :)</p>
<p>Fedex, UPS and the Post Office all have receipt systems and or tracking systems. Some posters, however, have had situations where there is no question the package arrived at the school. The problem was that it didn't go to the right place, or didn't get entered, or whatever. Sounds like a call is prudent to those schools that don't have an online checking systerm. You can't be too cautious.......</p>
<p>OK, the Earlham admissions person just called to say that the teacher who wrote the rep, called her a little while ago demanding to know why she hadn't received the recommendation. (By the way, when she gave the rec in a sealed envelope to my daughter the teacher made a point of telling her that she had saved it in her computer for next year so it's not as if she has to start from scratch) </p>
<p>The admissions rep said on the phone to me, only half jokingly, "She's a pretty intense person, isn't she?" She also said that she thought it would be best not to tell the teacher that the original rec is lost somewhere in Earlham-land for fear of how she would react. I can only imagine what the teacher must have said to to make the admissions rep say that to me!</p>
<p>Yeesh. This was the teacher my D. was planning on using for all of her rec's next year. Maybe we better rethink that one. What do you guys think?</p>
<p>Carolyn, we all know people who do what they do very well but sometimes have less than spectacular social moments. If the teacher is the right one to give recs, use her...it's unlikely that <em>all</em> of the recs will be lost next year...or really that any of them will be. </p>
<p>But, yes, being paranoid about checking to ensure that materials have been received is not a bad idea. Sometimes D (or me) checked and the computer with admissions tracking hadn't been updated...she kept following up until it was.</p>
<p>We used USPS delivery confirmation, but with some trepidation. Apparently, tracking the item via computer will tell you only when the item is delivered to the PO in the town where the college is located. I think I did it this way to keep them honest at the PO but to avoid the higher costs of doing UPS and Fed Ex. We did send the "Yes" card to S's final choice via certified mail, cause I didn't want to have gone through ALL THAT for naught. For what it is worth, we were blessed. Nothing got lost in 8 applications. (Of course, the final transcript hasn't gone out yet, better not count my chickens :) )</p>
<p>I took care of all the mailing except that final certified one. My son really made a deal about having the "Honor" of sending that one out. I was relieved, in more ways than one.</p>
<p>A pretty good indicator for me was seeing that the application check was cashed. </p>
<p>However some day I'd like to hear an Admissions Office 'splain just exactly HOW they produce the miracle of application, recommendations, test scores and transcripts--all sent by different people at different times--ending up in the right student's application folder. </p>
<p>I hear the tiffin (lunchbox) carriers in Bombay have this incredibly complex human patchwork system of delivering millions of lunches to millions of officeworkers from millions of different homes, every day without fail to the right office, and sometimes I visualize it must be a scenario sort of like that.</p>
<p>I remember another story from my college days. One of our religion professors was telling us (in about 1970) that 30 years earlier he had made his applications for graduate school. One of his schools, actually the most presticious on the list, never sent him a notification of acceptance or rejection. (He did know that his application was complete.) He therefore did his graduate work at his second choice school which had accepted him. Twenty years later a secretary at the prestigious institution wrote him to tell him that they had been rearranging the file cabinets in the administration office and had found his application file. He had been accepted after all.
I like to believe that with modern communications this wouldn't happen and that people on both sides of the equation wouldn't be too polite to call to find out what happened.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice TheDad. This is just the teacher's personality in general, She is the AP Euro teacher that nearly drove my daughter to collapse last year) but she does really know my daughter very well, and will have her for honors Asian Studies next year as well. I guess I'll just tell my daughter to suck up big time. :)</p>
<p>I hate to say it, but I'd reconsider that teacher. She sounds as though she could turn on a dime and rip someone to pieces, especially a young student that for whatever reason didn't please her.</p>
<p>Go back and reread all the posts for the last 3 years about teachers recs doing in kids, even those who knew kids well.</p>
<p>When we had to have 3 recs, one music and two academic, plus GC, we just about lost it--especially when Tulane lost it all (so I can sympathize on the Earlham situation)--especially with the trouble we were having with the overly dramatic theater teacher (we scratched him--too unreliable).</p>
<p>I guess it's which of two cases apply: is the teacher volatile or a generalized very demanding person? Asking the former might make one wary, I'd have no problem with the latter. </p>
<p>A student impressing someone who is very demanding comes across in a letter very well.</p>
<p>TheDad, I would say she is both volitile and demanding. She is one of those people who never raises her voice but can make her displeasure known (and she is frequently displeased) with a few well-chosen and very biting words. My daughter, in general, has gotten along well with her because D. is a fairly compliant sort who aims to please, but there were plenty of tears last year over some of the seemingly inadvertant comments she made to my daughter. At the time, I thought my daughter was just sensitive but after this whole thing, I'm not sure.</p>
<p>I guess my main concern is that her reaction to the news that we needed her to resend her recommendation seemed to be to not-so-subtly suggest that she didn't believe my daughter or I that her recommendation had been sent in the first place. The clear implication was that we had "lost" the recommendation and didn't want to admit it. </p>
<p>The only thing that seemed to appease her was when I told her that the GC and my daughter also had to resend their parts of the application. Yet, she still found it necessary to call Earlham and double check that they really didn't receive the package in the first place. </p>
<p>Remember, she specifically told my daughter when she gave her the rec. that she had saved a copy of it in her computer. So, with all of the time she spent questioning us and calling the school, she could have easily just taken our word for it and sent it.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the guidance counselor immediately said "no problem. I'll resend it" and called to let me know she had. </p>
<p>See the difference? I won't have any hesitation about my daughter's rec. from the guidance counselor, but after the way the teacher responded to this and my fear that she still doesn't believe my daughter or I, that she may not be the best person to ask for a rec.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, my daughter does not feel that she knows any of her other teachers well enough, or that they think highly enough of her, to ask them to write her a recommendation. I feel sick to my stomach thinking that this whole mess may have screwed up my daughter's chances at a good recommendation from the teacher who knows her work the best.</p>
<p>perhaps its better to find out now that the volatility factor could doom a rec.....I read somewhere (on cc?) that it's a good idea to strategize with the GC over recs -- conceivably, the GC has seen them for other kids, and knows which teachers write well, and which ones 'phone it in', i.e., give a perfunctory letter even to the class star.</p>
<p>Well, I would assume that it had to be a good rec since if you had opened it and it was not, she would not have been asked for the rec again. That is a trick used by some kids to scope out the recs and my making a fuss, she could be sending a message that this is a "no-no" and to intimidate anyone who is thinking of doing this. Word spreads in a highschool, and the fact that she did call the college sends a clear message that this would not work.</p>
<p>Jamimom, She let my daughter read the recommendation before she put it in the envelope. So did the guidance counselor. They were good enough that daughter was embarrassed by what they both said. I didn't get to see them, of course, because by the time she brought them home they were both sealed. </p>
<p>But I do understand that it was a pain for the teacher to have to print it out again and fax it: I too was annoyed at having to resend everything. So, maybe that was part of her reaction too. I will have daughter write her another thank you and perhaps bring her in a little gift to thank her for the extra time.</p>
<p>Actually, this is a good idea. D. has a very strong relationship with her guidance counselor and the GC has a good sense about this teacher too. I will suggest this to my D.</p>
<p>Having applied to about 15 schools and mailed over 90 items individually to my schools with USPS normal mail, nothing was lost.</p>
<p>On one hand, it's good to follow up. But on the other hand, don't be obsessive about it... the regular 'ole mail is more reliable than most people give it credit for!</p>
<p>None of the small parcel carriers offers real-time tracking. UPS and FedEx scan their parcels at certain check points such as posession, station, and hub scans. The USPS does offer tracking of Express Mail parcels, but it isn't as good of a system. It is the only carrier that will deliver 365 days/year though. They do not offer tracking for Priority Mail, they offer Delivery Confirmation. This service, provided free if you print your label at USPS.gov, merely shows that the letter carrier says it was delivered. Large customers like school and mail order companies get scanned at the delivery station, usually the local SCF. </p>
<p>None of the carriers actually deliver to the person named on the package as someone stated above. They get delivered to the mailroom, and many times get signed off after a cursory package count, not an individual receipt of each package.</p>