Teacher recommendation forms

cloudy15 · 10-12-2012, 08:56 AM

I apologize if I'm asking a stupid question, but I couldn't find an answer in any recent threads. My DS is applying to six BS, 4 are Gateway to Prep and 2 have built their own system

When giving standard recommendation forms to teachers and the school report (either TABS or SSAT) do teachers have to fill them out by hand?

I'm sure I'm just not understanding something here - but my son goes to a laptop school - the teachers and students don't use paper at all. He will get pretty lousy recommendations if they have to write them by hand.

I'm sure I'm missing something here.. Help?

alooknac · 10-12-2012, 10:17 AM

Gateway to Prep is all online. The teachers complete their recommendation online and then submit it to each school. They can tweak it for each school if desired. The student inputs the teachers' email addresses and then Gateway sends them login info. If I remember correctly, you can't get to the teachers section of the appl till you reach a certain point in the process.

That was the only system we used (just last fall) but I think another thread here did say that TABS and/or SSAT--not sure which one--did NOT have online recommendations. Don't take my word for it though.

cloudy15 · 10-12-2012, 01:02 PM

Thanks! So if a school isn't using Gateway, do you give paper forms to the teacher? Or can they print the Gateway forms for other schools?

spaceneedlesevie · 10-12-2012, 04:21 PM

Well I was finishing up my application today, and there is, in every form an option to fill in the teachers email and get a recommendation form to your teachers electronically.Good luck on the application process!

alooknac · 10-12-2012, 05:12 PM

A quick scan of the web leads me to believe that if a school does not participate in Gateway to Prep, you are looking at paper recommendation forms UNLESS the individual school has their own in-house online application system.

I am not sure, but I think if a teacher printed out from Gateway to send to a non-Gateway school, it would show the name of the wrong school. I would definitely suggest to teachers that they copy and save their entries for possible reuse for non-Gateway schools. It's really mind-boggling that any school might be using only paper recommendation forms. It looks like they can be filled out on the computer before printing, at least.

You should carefully check each school's website, or call them, to be sure of which application(s) they will accept and what additional materials they may require. It is ideal if you can come up with a selection of schools that can be applied to via one system, but I know that isn't always possible.

At least one of the schools that my D applied to would accept any of the applications. The process is daunting enough without having to duplicate effort and ask teachers to do the same.

cloudy15 · 10-13-2012, 09:08 AM

Thanks all! As four out of the six BS are Gateway, DS is going electronic and asking teachers to print two copies to mail to the non Gateway schools. Let's hope that's good enough.