<p>NOT waving your right to see teacher recs: good, bad, doesn't matter? i gave my teachers the recs a while back, and i did not waive my right to see them as i was under the impression that they couldn't even show me a rough draft if they wanted to. should i get them to fill out new recs if they didn't send them yet??? or will harvard just not care?</p>
<p>thanks for any advice!</p>
<p>Bump!</p>
<p>Byerly? Northstarmom?</p>
<p>As far as I know, nearly everyone waives their right to see the teacher recs. This includes "rough drafts." If a teacher feels that he needs more information to make a good recommendation, he may ask you to fill out a sheet talking about relevant accomplishments and activities. Otherwise he should be able to write a good one just based on what he learned about you during class. Waiving your right to see the recommendation is the only assurance the college has that you and your parents did not interfere in the recommendation process. While I doubt colleges will notice whether or not you checked the box, if they do notice it might raise questions about the integrity of the letter.</p>
<p>I am almost positive that most of your teachers will not have written or sent out recommendations yet. It would be rude to ask them to fill out a new form, so maybe you could just tell them that you forgot to sign the waiver and would appreciate if theay would let you fill it out now.</p>
<p>Waiving your right to see them doesn't mean you CANNOT see them. It means you can't demand to see them, legally. A teacher can still voluntarily show you the recommendation or a rough draft.</p>
<p>But the privacy notice says we have the right to see the rec AFTER matriculation...so there's no way I could interfere.</p>
<p>That's the point. You're not supposed to be able to interfere. If you could, people would wind up essentially writing their own recommendations in some cases, particularly students with particuluarly pushy or well-connected parents. If you can't trust the teachers you've asked enough to write good recommendations without prodding, then you picked the wrong people. Otherwise, you're just in the same boat every other applicant is in.</p>
<p>I also want to add that unless you have a vindictive teacher who wants to kill your chances at a school, the teacher recommendation can't hurt much. It can help alot to have a teacher who says glowing things about your abilities and character, but a bland recommendation won't be disasterous for your chances.</p>
<p>Uh oh... I didn't waive my rights. But I haven't seen either of them anyway. I just thought it meant that after matriculation you could see them! agh! Could this little check mark make or break an applicant?!</p>
<p>Can any one answer “LittleLis” question?</p>
<p>And sorry for bumping this old thread.</p>
<p>What exactly would be the disadvantages or advantages of waiving vs NOT waiving? As said ^ does it influence ur chances in any way?</p>
<p>Colleges expect for you to waive your rights. If they don’t, they really won’t look at your application as well. I’ve never heard of anyone NOT waiving their rights.</p>
<p>I didn’t waive my rights for my teacher recs, but my counselor made me waive them for her rec… I know I’m getting good recs. I just took it as a little thing I could control in admissions and didn’t waive rights. So, how will these LORs from teachers be taken? They are really good (I know it based on what they’ve told me), but I didn’t waive my rights. </p>
<p>My teachers didn’t say anything about it either. The school policy says that they just have to write the letter saying “student chose not to waive rights,” but I don’t think they noticed. I think they would have said something to me if they going to write a different letter based on the whole right-waiving thing.</p>
<p>Am I completely screwed? I’m applying to MIT, Emory, and UChicago. Do those schools care about this?</p>
<p>Schools don’t care. At all. They have so much to consider, it doesn’t come into play. I remember worrying about this last year too, but they don’t care.</p>