<p>at most schools u can ask to see the application/recommendations after you are accepted, unless you check that box that says ur waive ur right :P</p>
<p>Not checking the box that waives one's right to see the recommendation can cause some recommenders to leave out info that actually would help one's application. Their recommendations may be so bland or overly glowing that colleges don't put much stock in them.</p>
<p>y17k,
What kind of questions are you e-mailing Harvard with?</p>
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Princeton on the other hand is very prompt. I got a reply within a day
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<p>So very true. The Princeton uaoffice was great in answering questions quickly.</p>
<p>Our hs has an ironclad policy against allowing parents or students to see teacher/GC recs once they've waived that right. I'm not aware of a single teacher offering to share letters, I believe because our administration strongly discourages the practice. They're big on slippery slope arguments in our district, and the reasoning is probably that, once one student knows another has seen his/her (positive) rec, other students would besiege the teacher to see recs that might not be as favorable.</p>
<p>One of our school's policies that does benefit the students is our counseling center managing the entire rec process. Kids are told in spring of junior year to request recs from 2 teachers, each of whom is given a form. The best rec-writers also request an essay from each kid about interests, ECs, specific colleges, etc. The recs are written over the summer (still another way teaching requires far more than 6 hours/day, 10 months/year) and handed in to the GC in the fall. When the student finishes an app, the GC sends the recs along with her own rec, school profile, and transcript.</p>
<p>No surprises, follow-ups, or extra legwork required. If a student wants to wait to ask for recs until fall of senior year, it can be arranged. I imagine most recs are fairly generic as far as particular schools are concerned (no "Charmaine would be a perfect fit at ABC U because of xyz program") but I think the fit question is really up to the student to address in his/her app.</p>
<p>We have no idea how effective the recs my d's teachers have written will be. Each of the teachers approached her about doing the rec, and she has worked with one of them, her Latin teacher, since 8th grade, so we certainly hope they'll be enthusiastic. One unusual thing - an adcom at UPitt wrote a letter to the Latin teacher, thanking her for writing such a detailed rec. I'd never heard of this before - and my stepdad, a retired engineering prof who reviewed apps for many years, just about fell over when we told him about it.</p>
<p>I gave a rec to a teacher like that this year. however, I checked up on him like two days before the deadline and he had completely LOST ( or "misplaced" it as he said) my form. Never bothered me to ask for another one. I couldn't believe it. However, it was a common app so I just printed another for him. got it sent off on deadline. I wonder about what kind of recommendation I will get from him.<br>
One question: what if my teacher sends a letter to a school with some other school's name on it?</p>
<p>It looks bad, but at least it's not your fault (not as bad as you writing "And that's why I think I'd be perfect for Yale" to Harvard). They'll probably ignore it. To prevent that, I suggest you don't tell them what colleges you are applying to. It is infinitely easier on them to write a general letter and photocopy it as many times as necessary - which, at the h.s. I attended, was what the GC office would do - then give them the individual forms for them to check the checkboxes and write "see attached letter".</p>
<p>i am so sorry that happened to you! i gave my teacher a resume w/ all my accomplishments and 2 weeks later she gave me 10 copies of her rec so i could send them myself! also the copies weren't copied on the copy machine.. they were all signed with pen so they all looked like the original! anyways.. i gave her a thank you note afterwards.</p>
<p>My teachers were awesome when I applied. I gave each teacher like 8 forms to do, and they did them all, and in record time (like three or four weeks)! But I guess it was because we had a really small school.</p>
<p>It's funny, Harvard has this weird system. You ask a question through their website. They e-mail you a generic statement that says pretty much what you saw on the website that didn't answer your question. And in the e-mail they say, If this doesn't help then reply to this with the title HELP, and we'll see what we can do. And it's been a couple of days and no luck with that yet.</p>