<p>I am applying EA to Georgetown University: McDonough School of Business and I was filling out the Personal Data Form when I saw that it has a section that deals with the waivering to the rights to certain portions of my application.</p>
<p>For example, for the interview, I could either choose to waive my right to see what the interviewer wrote about me or I could choose to not waive the right at all (and thus be able to see what the interviewer said about me if I am accepted to Georgetown). </p>
<p>This waivering thing also applies to Teacher Recommendations and Gudinance Counselor matierals.</p>
<p>Georgetown says that they are asking because of some law passed before and that they (Georgetown) feels that confidential matieral (such as teacher recommendations and interviews) provide a better picture of the candidate.</p>
<p>So what should I do?</p>
<p>Does it make a difference in the admission process if I waive the rights to these matierals or if I don't?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance for the responses.</p>
<p>Also, on the Georgetown Application Personal Data Form is asks my religious preference.</p>
<p>What is that about? (I figured religious preference might only come into play if I am dorming and they need to match up a suitable room mate. But the personal data form asks nothing about whether or not I am dorming.)</p>
<p>I am Muslim and I really have no religious preference. However, if I do choose to dorm, I might probably want to dorm with another Muslim but even then it honestly doesn't matter that much to me.</p>
<p>So what should I do about this question? Should I just put down: None? (As seeing as I really don't have a religious preference.)</p>
<p>I think almost all colleges have the waiver on them. It was suggested to us that daughter waive her rights to see any info coming from her high school. She knew that her recommendations were excellent so she did not hesitate to sign it.</p>
<p>About the religious question - I do not know why they would ask that. I doubt it has anything to do with dorm mates.</p>
<p>Suggestion reverse roles. If you were reviewing the applications for kids to join your HS whose recommendations would carry more weight ... </p>
<p>the ones the applicant trusted the recommendors enough to waive the right to see the recommendations and you knew the recommedor could write in full candor</p>
<p>or </p>
<p>the one the applicant maintained the right to see the recommendations and by doing this may have restricted what the recommendor would write</p>
<p>Which would you prefer to read if you were on an admissions committee? To me it seems at best it is neutral if you do not waive your right to read the recommendation and likely it hurts your application to some degree.</p>
<p>Waiving is just one of those "why not do it anyway" things. At least as far as I have learned, they have absolutely no impact on the admission process. Neither the reader neither the adcoms will say "oh wait, he didn't waive, this means we should lower his admission score/chance by 4.3 points", "or hm this kid waived, this one didn't...we should obviously accept the first, he is more credible". It's all just common sense. The waiver's use is elsewhere, namely after you get accepted at the respective college, it says whether you are allowed to view the rec or not.
The waiver (unless they changed it recently) says NOTHING about reading your rec BEFORE submitting. Signing the waiver makes no difference whether you can read the rec or not before sending. It's all just about if the college can show it to you later. Before then, it's solely your teacher's decision whether he wants to send a secret or open rec. It makes no difference to the college. If the teacher is ok with you reading the rec, the college is also perfectly ok. If the teachers is not however ok, the waiver just lets the college know this, so the they won't show it to you either.
But in any case if you're wondering, I for one did sign the waiver. Just one of those times where you need to suck it up, and just sign the stupid paper, so no one could possibly complain about anything.</p>
<p>Plus, as you can see from this topic, every highschool etc is telling students to sign it, regardless what it's actually for. The adcoms obviously know about this trend, so you can probably expect them not to care about it...since everyone is doing it anyway.</p>
<p>Georgetown MAY (check this) ask about religious preference because it may have some scholarships for Catholics. I was told this a generation ago, but this may not be current information.</p>
<p>The religious preference question might also just be so that Georgetown can collect data on what percentages of different religions apply, get accepted, etc.</p>
<p>You're right, it means what religion you are. I'm pretty sure that Georgetown doesn't grant any preference to certain religions (like Catholicism)... I don't have any specific quotes or statistics, but I'm also applying to Georgetown (SFS though) and I remember researching that topic.</p>