<p>We just went to "senior parents night." Regarding the counselor recomendation form, the counselors basically told us that they won't write the letter unless the right to view is waived.</p>
<p>Wave the right is the smart thing to do. If you do not trust your references, you should not use them. Typically, they are worth way less than if you wave the right, which is why people refuse to even bother if you do not wave the right. It usually says something negative about the applicant.</p>
<p>We waived the right with my s. He asked 2 teachers he was very close with. One, who was his instructor for two years including a college course at our local university gave the letters back to my s in sealed envelopes. As luck had it we had an extra, and the curiousity got the best of me and I opened it. I was devastated when I read that he felt my s was good enough for your University but not MIT or Cal Tech. The funny thing was when at the end of the year when this teacher was asked to say a few words about my s at a scholarship luncheon in his honor!! Be careful as to who you think will give a good letter.</p>
<p>littelmimi:</p>
<p>Exactly. In the incident I related above, the teacher actually solicited the student for the chance to write the recommendation. The student would not have been admitted except that they applied early and were deferred and while attempting to go through the normal neurotic calls with admissions about whether there was anything to do to strengthen their application were told...."Well, it can never hurt to have more recommendations." They went out and got some, and were admitted, but they never dreamed it the deferal was because the teacher had jerked the rug from under the applicant. </p>
<p>Admissions had drawn a big red X through the recommendation letter, but the student never knew anything about it.</p>
<p>Waive it. It shows the college that the teacher is writing without pressure from the student- which means they can give an honest opinion.</p>
<p>Some teachers may opt to show it to you anyways...some won't.</p>
<p>This issue comes up every year. As a faculty member at a top 20 medical school, I write numerous letters every year and am required to say if the applicant has waived their right to view my letter. I have only had one student in 5 years NOT waive, and this student was an extremely weak applicant both cognitively and clinically. Believe me, it sends a major red flag to program directors, adcoms,graduate schools,etc if they see that the student wants access to that letter. It also puts me on the defensive and I have a very difficult time writing a sincere letter as I worry about being sued!
If you make a good choice in who writes your letters to begin with, you should not hesitate to waive your right to ask to see the letter. If your teacher offers to let you see it, you are still permitted to see it. The waiver is only one sided-for the student,not the teacher.</p>
<p>I don't believe in waiving any rights ever unless absolutely necessary. The teacher isn't obligated to let you see them whether you waive or not. If they didn't want me to see it, I figured they won't let me. I didn't bother going to admissions to look at my letters of recommendation anyway.</p>
<p>Basically, if you're asking someone to write a letter of rec for you, you should be able to trust them and their judgment. If you don't trust them, don't ask them. Not waiving your "right" sends the message to adcoms that you don't really trust the writers of your LORs and may strongly influence how your LORs are evaluated. If you have trust issues, this would be a good time to get over them!</p>
<p>fyi, nyu, the teacher may not be obligated to but the college receiving them would be. you have legal access to any academic records concerning yourself (so you can challenge discrepancies and so forth). this would give you access to LORs written for academic reasons as well, but LOR writers may not feel comfortable being brutally honest if they know you will/may be able to see the letter at a future date.</p>
<p>After browsing the threads, I'm in a bit of a situation because I did not waive my rights for the recommendation letters. Fortunately, one of my teachers called to impress upon me how significant it was to have my rights waived. I'll be returning to school to sign all the forms I need to, except for a particular teacher's, because he had sent the form before I found out about this.</p>
<p>I chose not to waive my right initially because I was under the impression that it didn't matter anyway, since a student can only get access to the recommendations AFTER matriculation. It's not like I am able to influence what goes into the forms BEFORE it is sent. Also, I just thought it'd be interesting to know what my teachers think about me, whether good or bad. I just thought it could be a potential self-improvement opportunity. I trust my teachers to be completely honest, and knowing that I can handle their honesty was a reason why I chose not to waive my right. I also thought that the only reason why students may want to waive their right was because teachers might feel uncomfortable being overly honest.</p>
<p>I hope it won't appear too weird that only one teacher's recommendations are not waived, whereas the rest are. =x</p>
<p>I'm surprised that a lot of you guys said it doesn't matter</p>
<p>It does matter
Colleges see that you didn't waive it if you didn't, so they think that you're keeping your teacher from speaking honestly. The teacher may not be saying everything about you because you have the ability to see the recommendation.</p>
<p>I say - just choose teachers who you KNOW will write great recs for you instead of choosing any normal/okay teachers who are risky / not excellent rec writers.</p>
<p>I think it definitely matters. For one, it shows that you trust your teachers to write positive recommendations. That is important to the teachers (some won't even write them if you don't waive your rights), and to the colleges because it's clear that you're confident enough in yourself and your teachers to waive your rights on your recommendations.</p>