<p>Pretty sure ds’ GC will cut and paste from my brag sheet - last question on it was “if you were to write your child’s recommendation letter, what would you say?”</p>
<p>fogfog - “lunatic-stalker”? Wow! I hope it’s not going to get ugly. </p>
<p>Sometimes I am dumbfounded how rude/mean some of the responses are on other threads. I used to stay away from the “Chance me” threads. But now, sometimes, lurk there. I noticed that the better stats the OP has the nastier responses would follow.</p>
<p>Hi KeyLime…Like you, I am amazed by the mean girl drama-mamas…
According to a CCer–this was one weirdo pm post…didn’t apply to that CCer or me…so the person thought they knew someone IRL, and have it wrong.
We were both amazed that they’d even bother to send a pm to a stranger online about someone and just rant…evidently it was quite snarky.</p>
<p>Fog, that is wild. I have felt slammed pretty hard a time or two on other threads (I’m developing better judgment now about which ones to just stay clear of), but nothing like what you describe. Unreal!</p>
<p>I sometimes wonder if people who flunk out of their anger management classes come to certain cc threads to let their meanness run unchecked.</p>
<p>On a happier note, congrats OWM on the lovely LORs. I wish I’d get a chance to read my D’s, but our school does things totally “by the book,” and their interpretation of the waiver is that it means you don’t get to see the letters. You don’t ask and they don’t tell. Just their policy, which I do understand. But it must be so nice…</p>
<p>OWM
</p>
<p>ShawSon had 3 recs from school (2 teachers plus GC) and because he was a partial homeschooler, one from the superintendent of the school district, one from a university professor, one from a math grad student who was his math instructor in homeschool, and one from the professor who taught expository writing in Harvard summer school. All of them sent a copy of the recs to ShawSon or me. The only one that wasn’t stellar was the GC (who was in her first year).</p>
<p>ShawD’s school is clear that the students and parents will not see recommendations.</p>
<p>One of scoutson’s teachers gave him a copy of her LOR, and it also brought tears to my eyes. It is wonderful to see him so positively reflected in someone else’s eyes.</p>
<p>I’m trying to stay focused on something EmmyBet posted awhile back when I was wistful about never getting to see these letters…that we could probably imagine what these teachers, who are fond of and appreciative of our students, would write.</p>
<p>So I’m taking the liberty, in little mental fantasies, of imagining what my D’s LORs say.</p>
<p>They are quite nice and do bring a tear to my eye – awkward when driving.</p>
<p>S came home with LOR that was very nice-and had a typo! Good thing they sent it home. S didn’t want to get it corrected until I suggested he read the letter again and if he could find it he might think differently-he did, found it, and had it fixed. The teacher was embarrassed-kind of funny really.</p>
<p>The school has been very supportive in this process. He has had to do so much by himself because I have been so involved with my mother’s protracted illness. I am happy though to report that he has finally taken ownership of this-he all of a sudden has everything organized, is focused and has a plan for getting everything submitted, and even has gotten the materials he needs to prepare for the SAT subject tests. I will of course review and supervise him but the whole process has changed-I think he finally “got it” that I could not do any more than I was doing and he had to, for lack of a better term-grow up.</p>
<p>Fog-fog I did check out that thread-unbelievable is the only way to describe it. Have you reported the nasty PM? I can only speculate what drives some of the anger. Whatever it is it is bizarre.</p>
<p>FlMath-thanks for the reminder to send a thank you letter for these interviews!</p>
<p>BlueJr forgot to sign the waiver on his teacher evaluation on the common app. His teachers wanted hard copies. He’d filled out everything electronically before he printed it, including checking the waiver, he just forgot the signature. Well actually he signed a set that never made it out of the house, then needed to add a GC form to the sealed envelope. Instead of opening the original envelope, adding the doc, and giving it to the teachers, he reprinted every last document…forgetting a signature. He caught two teachers. The third had already sent hers out. Super! Luckily there is only one common app school. I’m trying to contact them to find out what to do. I explained this is why apps can not wait until the last minute. You have to allow time for things to go wrong. If this was mid Dec he’d be in a real pickle. Sadly, this is his first choice and he’s so upset at leaving the impression he didn’t follow directions.
Urrgghh!!</p>
<p>I can’t follow that-which is scary since I am supposed to be overseeing this process. I am sure this isn’t the first time the school has had this happen-it must happen all the time. There are so many forms, signatures, details, different requirements for different schools-kind of sounds like the health care system which in frightening to contemplate.</p>
<p>These poor kids-I hope they all survive (which they will!).</p>
<p>Well the Common App essay is completed, checked and rechecked…just reluctant to hit ‘send’!</p>
<p>Once Mom and Dad proof read it she offered to have a ‘ceremonial’ push of the send button! We decided to wait till we were all more awake in the morning.
DH had to write our ‘LOR’ for her Counselor who knows nothing of our D - her 4th in 4 years, a woman who thought the common app applied only to Tx schools : (
His LOR brought tears to my eyes, not overly flowery but surprised DD that the quiet man (her Dad) truly ‘gets’ her!</p>
<p>Let’s hope the essay is good enough, all other requirements are already sent, her schools are probably wondering what happened to the Common App part! She is going with one ED, and 3 or 4 others as back up - a couple EA, one regular. This is child #1 so I hope we have it all done correctly!</p>
<p>The common app is probably going to be a great thing for my 9 yr old when she’s applying - HA! But right now, with my ds’ 7 schools there is such a hodge podge of processes to follow - parts electronic, parts paper-based…it’s no wonder stuff gets lost or signatures get forgotten. So then the GC doesn’t spell out a single process for these kids. Out of his 7 schools, 3 are common apps, all 3 have supplements, our school does the teacher rec and sec school report/transcript by paper. Then we have 4 other schools with their own version of the online form. Rutgers? They don’t even want a transcript (until you decide to go), the kid has a “self reported” grade thing that is another program separate from their online app! What a mess. Teachers requested packets with their resume, brag sheet on first wk of school so then when we (the royal “we” here, technically “me”) start doing these various online apps, a surprise form pops out that is required to go with the recs. It is all a$$-backwards! Unless you do your apps in August which is what my next kid is going to be forced to do.</p>
<p>On a happy note, ds applied to 2 schools yesterday, the rolling and the #1 choice.</p>
<p>On not getting to read the LOR: One outside scholarship for which Son applied wanted all materials in one packet…so the teacher writing the LOR had to give him a copy to send in. So if your kids are doing anything like that later in the year, you may end up seeing the letter.</p>
<p>My son’s teachers/counselor don’t allow him to see their recs. One weird thing: one of his teachers finally submitted her recommendation to his 2 rolling schools last week but not to his EA/ED schools for which her rec is due Nov 1, although she was aware of that date. (his other teacher submitted all the recs on the same day. he can see this b/c both are using naviance edocs to submit.) yesterday she told him that she didn’t submit the others yet b/c she’s writing a “specific” rec for those schools. huh? this has us both worried. were the other recs not specific? and what does she intend to say now? </p>
<p>this whole process has too many opportunities out of the kids’ hands for epic failure.</p>
<p>Pepper - I just didn’t do a very good job of explaining it. The schools he was applying to were very specific in how they wanted the information sent (LOR’s via common app online, LORs sent with transcript from GC only). Despite this his GC had him give all teachers hard copies of LORs forms from all schools with addressed envelopes. Again, he’s hoping that this is not seen as ‘not following directions’. </p>
<p>One school is rolling admissions and he’s already been accepted. The other two are in-state and well known (lots of applicants from his school each year). If it was a huge problem I’m sure his GC would have been contacted by these schools asking for the LORs to be sent as the websites request.</p>
<p>I’m crossing my fingers for good results from the Oct SATs. No matter, I’ll be figuring out score choice and sending in test scores to the final two schools. I’ll update scores at the first if scores go up for merit-aid consideration (oos so it would really help!). He’s engineering so it was really the math he wanted to raise. Final testing for SAT2’s in Nov and then he can kiss those goodbye!! We’ll all be so glad!! He only did two rounds of SATs, two SAT2s, and one ACT, but it feels like soooo much!</p>
<p>R’Mom - lol! Epic Failure is a phrase that is used a lot in our house, usually followed by a facepalm. I agree, there is much that is out of their hands. How odd that the teacher is writing a different letter for that school. If that school doesn’t use the common app (or it does and the others don’t), it possibly needs to be in a different format which MAY explain her comment. My son’s three schools all needed different formats. One school didn’t require LORs (rolling admits very early based on stats only), but we requested one be sent for departmental scholarship consideration. For this school there was no form. Who knows what was sent!</p>
<p>Regarding LORs – Our school doesn’t allow students to see the LORs from teachers or GC. Last spring, S2 was applying for a scholarship to study abroad and requested a LOR from his Spanish teacher. The teacher gave him a copy of what she had written and he gave it to me to read before reading it himself. He and a small group of friends have a reputation for making Spanish videos when the teacher assigns projects. She wrote that the videos that they had done were the best she had ever seen in her 18 years of teaching and that she has kept copies of all of them to show to future classes. Tears poured down my face. My son had a horrified look on his face and asked “Is it that bad?” No, it was that good. Sometimes it is just so validating to hear or to see in writing the positive comments about our teens. We know they’re great kids, but somehow hearing it from someone else is so uplifting.</p>
<p>We won’t see any of the LORs for the college process, but I’m going to imagine that they’re all like the one that we saw from the Spanish teacher.</p>
<p>A couple of thoughts:</p>
<p>I didn’t mean to imply that the LORs said our son was a “once in a generation student.” He’s just the first student from hour school in 32 years to apply to this particular university.</p>
<p>And our son did sign the waiver. He has not read the LORs. The principal and teachers wanted my husband and me to see them. (They know I am an editor and wanted my opinion, but I didn’t change a word!)</p>
<p>What I’ve learned: It doesn’t matter that our school has only a handful of students applying to selective schools, even though I worried about that. We have volunteered and attended parent-teacher conferences and become friends with our sons’ teachers, counselors and the administration. The school has “paid forward” that effort when our sons were seniors. We are so grateful for the support that we really didn’t anticipate from a large public school in the middle of the Midwestern nowhere.</p>
<p>SAT IIs in November–and then we wait!</p>
<p>Good luck to all of your families in the weeks ahead.</p>
<p>As of tonight, two more college apps submitted - yay! Speaking of LORs, two of my D’s teachers showed her their LOR. Both were so unbelievably nice, I almost cried when I read them! They obviously think very highly of my daughter. Makes me so proud. :)</p>
<p>Yesterday my daughter had a light homework night and finished her first two essays. She submitted her first rolling application last night and has two more ready to send. She still needs to write one more essay for the state flagship app due on 11/1. One of her teachers showed her the recommendation she wrote, and I think it was so positive that it gave her confidence to plow throught the apps. I have been impressed with how supportive the teachers and guidance staff at her public school have been. They aren’t much help with building a college list, but they are great at helping with the application process. Fortunately, my daughter and I enjoy reseaching colleges, so we didn’t need help with that step. Of course, I have my secret weapon, CC.</p>
<p>Morning All</p>
<p>Cannot believe its almost the end of October. Where did August and Sept go???</p>
<p>Kiddo is happy happy. She sent the app to the first choice school and we just need to submit Profile. It is interesting to see how they feel so much better when the app is out. I think as that happens, the rest will go smoothly…because she likes that feeling of not having it hanging overhead.</p>
<p>Flu shot season here. Last week kiddo 2 and I went to get our shots at a local pharmacy. Still need to get kiddo 1 in, because I don’t need her sick when Sr fall grades go to the schools plus sports keeps us all hopping!</p>
<p>On LOR, I once wrote one for a young man who was involved in a civic organization. It was for an award. I had to give the young man a copy in a sealed envelope. I also gave him one so he and his parent could read it.
IMHO, it was a stellar rec, and showed the qualities of the teen. Some times I think the kids need an “atta boy”, kwim?
Plus, as a parent, I thought the parents would appreciate reading it. (they were really moved) It wasn’t about me, it was about affirming their teen and then the mom could tuck away the letter as a keepsake.</p>
<p>Our student’s GC had 3 recs for our kiddo, and picked the best 2 to include. Kiddo is a bit on the quiet side, so I suspect that teacher said something about wishing she talked more in class…Kiddo answer is, " why say something or make a comment if it’s already been said…there are too many kids in class who say stuff that’s wrong or dumb…"</p>