<p>I saw this print in my Columbia undergrad app. I would like some clarification as to its purpose:</p>
<p>The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, effective January 1, 1975, provides that an applicant admitted to and enrolling in Columbia is entitled to review records on file in the
Office of the Dean of Student Affairs. If an applicant wishes his or her recommendations to Columbia submitted on a confidential basis, this right of access may be waived. While confidential
recommendations are no longer required of applicants, if you wish this form to remain confidential please sign below.</p>
<p>I will not seek access to this confidential recommendation submitted on my behalf and used for admission and initial academic counseling purposes only.</p>
<p>What the heck does this mean? Should I sign or not?</p>
<p>If you don’t sign the statement, and you ultimately go to Columbia, you can see the letter.</p>
<p>Conventional wisdom is that if you don’t sign the statement, a college will treat the recommendation is worthless because the evaluator is not able to be completely candid. I presume that most people sign the statement. If you’re afraid the teacher will screw you over, have someone else write for you.</p>
<p>I didn’t think it was a big deal one way or another and didn’t sign them, but two teachers noticed and told me it was non-standard. Then I did some homework, and asked them for the forms back to sign.</p>
<p>I really didn’t know what was going on, and I wanted to see what my teachers wrote, or what a good rec looks like. I figured, I would have to write one in the future for someone or another. When asked to write one for someone else (from Dartmouth app I think), I realized that I had no idea of what to base one on.</p>