<p>It's understandable that colleges need high school transcripts, but expecting teachers and GC's to spend hours on recs and counselor reports is costing high schools millions/billions that they don't have. And, select upperclass teachers who do this on their own time are being ripped off since typically only science, math, and English teachers get this burden.</p>
<p>At what point are high schools going to band together and say to colleges...we don't rank and we don't do recs or counselor reports anymore because there isn't any funding for all this stuff that you're demanding. All we're going to give you is a transcript; do with it what you want. We'll electronically send it to you to save even more money. Take it or leave it.</p>
<p>I think your being a little dramatic. most teachers are happy to write recs for students and it is a counselors job to handle college stuff and are within their right to tell colleges they don’t rank, mine don’t</p>
<p>Why stop there? Preparing students to read and write so that they may write cogent essays is also costing high schools millions that they don’t have…ditto in the physics lab…and history, what a bizarre luxury in these tight economic times…</p>
<p>I’m really glad my school system didn’t take that attitude. If they did, there would be nobody living in this district. Then think what would happen to property values!</p>
<p>Maybe… I agree that some teachers like to write recs for their students, especially their best students. But, I doubt all the math, science and English teachers enjoy being snowed with requests from everyone during the application season. There is a point where “liking to do something” quickly becomes a burden when the requests are piling up.</p>
<p>These math, science, English teachers can each have 180 students or more. If only 1/3 of their students ask them to write only one rec each, that’s 60 recs per teacher. I doubt any of them are “loving” that, especially if they find that they must do some/most of them at night on their own (unpaid) time. </p>
<p>Heyalb’s analogy is off-base. Teaching is their primary job. That is what they’re funded to do. They aren’t funded to process 8 college application needs for each of their students.</p>
<p>There was a time when kids were applying to 2 or 3 colleges at most. Now kids are applying to 6,10,12 colleges or more, and if most of those apps require counselor reports and teacher recs, along with the req’d transcripts, then who can claim that this isn’t costing our schools a lot of money that they don’t have? </p>
<p>And, don’t be too surprised if a trend didn’t occur. Maybe not refusing to do recs altogether, but by insisting that the only recs they will do will be simple “fill in the blank” or “check the boxes” form recs.</p>
<p>They aren’t funded to serve cafeteria duty, detention duty, or counsel students when a classmate dies young.</p>
<p>When you work in a service industry, you should not have punching a clock in the forefront of your mind. I, too, am glad that my school district doesn’t feel the same way as mom2collegekids.</p>
<p>I have heard of high schools that are charging for transcripts of kids apply to more than 8 or 10 colleges. That seems completely reasonable to me.</p>
<p>No. They were only able to that because you applied to schools that took the common app. It wasn’t THEIR decision. You may have solved their problem by picking such schools, but they weren’t in control of that. Your post makes it sound as if they had a choice.</p>
<p>Huh, no history/government? What about kids applying for a foreign language program? </p>
<p>Yes, the recs are a burden on HS teachers. Yes, it is a burden on senior high school teachers. But, in our HS, teachers teach classes in all four years, so senior teachers teach AP courses and Frosh courses.</p>
<p>Moreover, at least in our state, the public colleges will not accept recommendations. Thus, the vast majority of kids don’t need them nor ask for them.</p>
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<p>That’s why a copy machine was invented. One letter can be sent to 2 or 12 colleges…colleges are extremely flexible with regards to teacher recs. A one-page rec on school letterhead is all they ask – it does not have to be on “their” form.</p>
<p>No. Some schools - many, actually - will not use the online common app program even if you apply to only common app schools. My old school, for example, will not.</p>
<p>When my sons applied to schools they asked for letters. They got one letter from requested teacher that was copied and sent to all the schools to which they applied - common app or school app. It didn’t matter. </p>
<p>Transcripts are the responsibility of the school. The transcript is the official document that shows the student has actually completed the stated course work and at what level (grade earned). Transcripts should be scrupiously kept each year a student is enrolled. When the time comes to apply to college, the computer generates the transcript. But not just colleges need them. They are used for all kinds of things including job applications, military service, etc. Even if colleges never ask for another transcript, schools would still be required to keep them and have them available for students.</p>
<p>The counselor report on the school is usually a form letter that is sent with each application. It describes the school, type of grading policies used, ranking system, course offerings, etc. It is the same letter that goes with every application regardless of where students apply. The counselor recommendations probably are the most time consuming since the counselor must do one for every senior on their caseload. It requires some gathering of information and analysis of the classwork for each student. But this is one of the reasons that counselors are hired. </p>
<p>I work in a school and I don’t see any of the this as an undue burden. It is certainly costing schools “billions” of dollars.</p>
<p>no one is suggesting ending the work involved with transcripts, so that’s irrelevant. :)</p>
<p>Counselor reports are rather simple, I agree. However, I imagine even those can take a lot of time, especially if each student needs more than one completed.</p>
<p>My point was really about teacher recs. And, yes, some history and art teachers do recs, but I doubt that they get the same number of requests as English, Science and Math teachers do simply because many colleges specify that the recs must come from those kinds of teachers…especially the upper grade teachers. </p>
<p>But that said…this thread was really just me taking a “devils advocate” approach to see what the feeling was out there. So, for those who got kind of insulting, I just chuckled. </p>
<p>My SIL has taught French for 25 years, and she’s hasn’t had to write nearly as many recs as her math and science counterparts have had to do…not even close.</p>
<p>My wife teaches US History and AP USH. She gets more requests by far than the English teachers, and not because the kids requesting a letter from her plan to major in history and poli sci. Many of them ask her because she gets to know them both in class and through extracurricular activities she serves as an advisor for. She also has taught many of them how to write; the English department focuses on literature and many 11th graders come into her class not knowing how to write a simple essay. She and her colleagues in the Social Studies department and those in the sciences write 90% of the recommendation letters. Just one school, I know.</p>
<p>My S requested and received a LOR from his AP English Language and Lit teacher. The last sentence of her letter indicated it was her 40th year of teaching. She is very much beloved and parents who’ve had her shudder to think their kids won’t get through before she retires. I am just in awe imagining how many LORs she written over the years, even though we’re in CA where the UC/CSU systems don’t required LORs. After my S showed me a copy of her LOR, I knew instantly he had made the right choice.</p>
<p>Have faith in your school. If they were able to gauge you AP teacher’s worth, they will find someone similar. We went through that with DDs 1 and 2. DD1 had the AP English teacher with 30+ years experience who retired the same year DD1 graduated. DD2 two years behind had the replacement. They both loved their teachers, and I believe both got great recs.</p>
<p>I think Senior HS teachers are glad to take time out of their own day to write a recommendation for a student they have taught and come to know. Teachers want to see their students attend a good college and succeed – in their own classes, in college, and in life itself. If they don’t, well…they’re working in the wrong field.</p>
<p>And that, McMarlin13, is really the point. No one goes into teaching thinking that they’re going to get rich doing an easy job. Every teacher I know entered the field because they love kids, they love their subject, and they love to teach. If I were a teacher, I think I would be flattered to get a recc request, and very, very satisfied that I was getting to make a direct contribution to a student’s future. </p>
<p>One of my D’s reccs was from her French teacher, who taught her though all 4 years of high school. He has a recc-letter tradition that is visible in his classroom, and which is highly motivating to students. When a recc’d student makes their final college decision, they give him a pennant from the school, partly as a thank-you, partly as a well-earned “brag” moment, and partly to inspire the kids coming up. The pennant is hung with many others from this and prior years, in a colorful display that’s threatening to take over an entire wall of his classroom. That’s one teacher at least who doesn’t mind writing letters for his students.</p>
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