<p>Tell me if this is the norm or am I totally off base here. DD3 turned in her request for transcript/counselor rec on 9/2. Had her fall meeting with counselor on 9/11 (which I attended). Counselor indicated paperwork would go out that weekend. Today I found out it was sent 9/27. This is an office that tells the students to submit things 3 days ahead of time. No deadlines missed here yet however this is a concern for some other apps she has coming up. I emailed the counselor back asking if she thought the administration should be adding staff to her department. Thinking about discussing this with administration. Thoughts?</p>
<p>It’s an issue for rolling admissions, otherwise, all I cared about was whether recommendations came in before the deadlines. In general you won’t get zinged - at least one of my son’s teacher’s recommendations went missing - she just faxed it in when the college alerted us.</p>
<p>My thought would be not to say anything until the process is over for your child. BTW, our HS does not begin sending until about this time either.</p>
<p>LOL…our counseling office requires two weeks advance notice of anything they have to do or send.</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback; I do need to get this last child into college : ) I think I’m just ready to jump all over the counselor because it took quite an effort to have them remove test scores from a transcript for DD3 and then to subsequently find out that on the several occasions last year that DD2 asked for only certain scores to be reported, the counselor simply ignored the request.</p>
<p>Our public hs gives each senior (90% go on to a 4 year school) a timeline calendar with request deadlines. For example, an 11/1 app deadline, requests need to be in to GC by 10/15, etc. The shortest lead time is 2 weeks, and the longest is 4 weeks (for the popular 1/1 date). Our school sends out everything together, transcripts, profile, teacher recs and GC rec and they usually get them out earlier than stated. The kids then get a receipt listing what has been sent and when. I’ve also never heard of them not squeezing in a quick request for a kid who missed a deadline.</p>
<p>I like the idea of a receipt letting the student know what was sent and when. What frustrates me is knowing this counselor has fit it a quick request, submitted after my daughter’s, to the same school and that student has already been admitted.</p>
<p>Our public high school guidance office requires 2 weeks.</p>
<p>My goal next year is to have every one of daughter’s applications in to the GC by the first full week of school. She’s going to have every application done and envelope stuffed, with a note on each as to what’s needed from the school. She will be applying online to those schools that offer free online apps, despite the fact that the school frowns on that, and I’ll make sure that a list of deadlines is included. I have no intention of her apps getting caught up in the crush of other kids’ and most especially in the hysterical attempt to get kids in danger of not graduating the credits/night school attendance that they need.</p>
<p>Our HS provides a schedule similar to my3sons and we get it at the end of junior year; they have standardized forms for all transcript and rec requests, etc. Two years ago when S1 was applying, one college did not receive something by the deadline (can’t even remember what), but they sent a letter to us and S1 went in to the GC the next day and had it resent. No penalty from the school, I imagine, because the rest of the application was complete.</p>
<p>Our public HS requires 4 weeks advance notice for meeting college app deadlines. That said, however, my S met w/his counselor before school started in late August to get his letters, transcripts, etc out early (mid Sept) as all his apps were to RA schools. Since that was before the counselor was busy, it worked out for S. </p>
<p>Can’t say the teacher rec went as smoothly and timely, but those are finally out as well.</p>
<p>Many kids are using online or the common app and are applying to large numbers of schools. Most of the high schools are still using manual, paper processes and do not have the staff to handle the volume. The whole system needs to be re-worked. I guess there needs to be a central repository for grades/transcripts and an online system for recommendations.</p>
<p>add several weeks’ cushion to these deadlines because in our experience, the colleges lose some of the documents - particularly recommendations. Be sure to call and find out if the school has received everything or check on line. If you see on line that they don’t have all the documents, call the school because the admissions office doesn’t post everything on line right away. We also noticed that the online stuff never got lost, just the snail mail.</p>
<p>OP - Of course you should be incensed with the poor GC service. But there is NOHING to be gained by complaining. (I’m sure you said something after the DD2 debacle last year.) Just let it go, and follow the suggestions in post #13. JMHO.</p>
<p>And count your blessings:</p>
<p>Parent to GC: “I’d like a copy of my daughter’s transcript.”
GC: “You don’t need that. Is there anything else?”</p>
<p>Thanks Newhope33, your 2 posts put it all in perspective for me.</p>
<p>That’s a good tip, NJ Mom (checking to see if they received the regular mail docs).</p>
<p>Agree w/NewHope–however frustrating, it’s best to save any complaints until after your daughter has everything she needs for college. Don’t want to antagonize someone you still need stuff from.</p>
<p>I’ve put in a request (just for info, not transcript) for my son 2 weeks ago. Haven’t heard anything. When I call again, I’ll say: “I know you are swamped this time of year…”</p>