<p>Being “new” to the college application process, I was wondering if someone could answer this question:</p>
<p>Is the college applicant and parents “allowed” to view recommendation letters sent by teachers and/or guidance councelors?</p>
<p>This is at the recommender’s discretion. Some teachers and counselors freely give their students copies of their recommendation letters. Others (most, I think) prefer to keep them confidential. Colleges usually assume that they are confidential and do not make them available to the student, but the recommenders themselves can do whatever they want to.</p>
<p>I do not suggest asking a recommender for a copy of a recommendation letter. If the recommender wants you to see the letter, he or she will give it to you without being asked. To ask to read it would violate the assumption that it’s confidential and would be a bit tacky.</p>
<p>I guess I should ask, if there are any rules against reading one? Background on why I’m asking: my soon to be college bound child was given the envelopes and applications to mail, decision was not to send to all colleges originally planned to send to so she read them, showed me and it now appears to be information in there that is untrue and potentially illegal. Now I need to meet with the school to discuss.</p>
<p>The common application has a waiver that you check off - if she didn’t check off the waiver she might be okay. (I’m no lawyer.) My kids waived their rights to see the letters. Our teachers send the letters directly to the colleges, so there’s no temptation to peek at the letters. One teacher voluntarily showed my son the letter the other didn’t. (But I’m sure both teachers wrote great recommendations.)</p>
<p>In your shoes, I’d probably at least line up another teacher for the rest of the applications and send it in addition to the one you have that you don’t like.</p>
<p>Hmm. That’s an interesting situation.</p>
<p>First, shame on her for reading those letters. Yes, there is a rule against reading anything in a sealed envelope that is not address to you; everyone knows this rule, and everyone knows when they are violating it. Did she suspect that they contained untrue or illegal statements? That is the only justification I can think of for opening them without permission. Regardless of the outcome of this situation, I believe she should be admonished for her unethical behavior.</p>
<p>Second, regarding what to do with the information, here is my suggestion to your daughter: If you think the “bad” letter will keep you from being admitted, then call the admissions office at each school that received the letter. Politely inquire about their policy for handling letters of recommendations that may contain false or misleading information. Tell them you have reason to believe that this particular person’s recommendation is tainted, and ask if, in this situation, they would disregard it and allow you to submit a new recommendation from a more reliable source. That may be the best you can do.</p>
<p>Now, for the parent: If the information may truly be illegal and not just a case of he-said/she-said (that is, heresay), the person to contact would be the high school principal (or whomever is in a supervisory position over the recommender). Consulting a lawyer also seems wise.</p>
<p>But all of this makes me really wonder what sort of information could have been in the letter. Since we’re all anonymous here, how about sharing some more details? It’s hard to give advice with so little context.</p>
<p>Thank you for your replies.</p>
<p>As to the envelope - it was not addressed to anyone, it was sealed and signed on the flap without address on front. Her reasoning for opening was plain curiosity and excitement. She was shocked to read what one of them said and proceeded to tear up the letter.</p>
<p>The information in the letter states untrue family matters and health information regarding siblings of college applicant.</p>
<p>My husband and I are meeting with the principal and director of guidance. I’m absolutely sick over this.</p>
<p>Wow. It’s hard to imagine an applicant’s siblings’ health being in any way appropriate to a reference letter, unless it’s about how the applicant helped care for them. I hope you get a quick and satisfactory resolution. Please post an update when possible.</p>
<p>Call me a curmudgeon, but I think mantori.suzuki gave the right advice to start with. Your D had no ethical business opening those letters. We had a similar situation with a letter that was never used (partly because D decided after requesting it that the person writing it might not give her a stellar recommendation). We threw the letter away unopened. We did discuss it, but both decided it would be unethical AND could taint D’s relationship with this person over the next couple of years (it was for a summer scholarship program in 10th grade) if it said something she didn’t like.</p>
<p>I also agree that contacting the schools she has applied to and asking to replace the letters is a good idea.</p>
<p>Going to the school is just going to paint you in the light of someone unethical enough to open a sealed, signed on the flap recommendation letter. You don’t really have the moral high ground on this one… I would take it as a lesson to be careful who you ask for recommendations from, and ask them if they feel comfortable writing you a positive recommendation. Assure them that if they are not comfortable with that, you would be happy to ask someone else. That gives people an out if they can’t give you a good one.</p>
<p>Actually, the waiver only covers seeing the letters IF YOU ATTEND THE SCHOOL to which you are applying, but it is still considered standard ethical practicing not to view the letters without the recommender’s okay.</p>
<p>Wow…should NOT have read those letters without permission. Curiosity got the best of me is NO excuse. Now you look untrustworthy to the guidance office and to the administration. What if THAT lapse gets mentioned in the new recommendation letters? </p>
<p>Potentially illegal because of FERPA issues?</p>
<p>Will the letters actually hurt the applicant’s chances? If not, can we call it a mulligan and move on? If not, I would try to resolve the issue with the GC or teacher who wrote the recommendation. You’d still have to take the hit on the opening the letter.</p>
<p>CAN an applicant ask that a recommendation from the application be removed once it has gone to the college? Won’t asking that a recommendation be removed bring more bad attention to the application than you might want?</p>
<p>What a pickle…</p>
<p>What do you want to bet that starting next year, all recommendations go directly from the school to the college–which is the way it is handled at our local high school.</p>
<p>At our school, all letters must go thru the GC before going off to the college (small private high school). This type of thing (esp. if deterimental to the applicant) might have been removed before it went out the door (the GC would probably give it back to teacher for revisions if the info seemed extraneous or inappropriate). Might be a good practice for your school to institute (if you go through with talking with them).</p>
<p>Something to think about is whether the college will REALLY view this info as a negative, whatever it is. If it makes your daughter seem like she has carried a heavy burden or succeeded in spite of bad circumstances, it could help her application. College admissions folks seem to thrive on those stories… (as D said once, “I will NEVER win the essay contest about how Harry Potter has helped me because I don’t have abusive parents or a sick sibling to write about!”). Of course it is could be insulting and humiliating if a teacher believes something incorrect about your family. And it is awkward to have your D’s chanced improved by incorrect information! But be sure your perspective on how this affects HER chances is appropriate. (Parents aren’t always tuned in to this - - my mom would think it would hurt an applicant’s chances to get into college if they came from an impoverished family or a kid was first to go to college because that is just the way she thinks, but that is NOT necessarily the case in this day and age!). College admissions folks seem to root for the underdog (esp if they have good stats!).</p>
<p>When I write a letter, I give it to the student unsealed unless the school has requested that it be sent in directly, or in some other way has indicated that students should not be shown the letter of recommendation. If I don’t feel that I am the right person to write a letter of recommendation for a student, I’ll tell him or her so, rather than write a poor letter. So unless I have an ethical responsibility to send it to the college unread by the student, I have no problem with the student’s reading it.</p>
<p>I spend a lot of time and effort on my letters of recommendation, and if I inadvertantly wrote something inaccurate, or potentially negative, I’d want the opportunity to correct it. </p>
<p>For example, one of my students had told me that a school was her first choice. I included this in my letter of recommendation, thinking it would increase her chances of admission, but upon reflection, was concerned that that might affect merit aid offers, so I told her that I had mentioned that, but could rewrite the letter without that info if she wanted. She wanted it left in.</p>
<p>I guess I’d say that rather than simply asking a teacher to write a letter of recommendation, maybe the student, if there is any doubt whatsoever about what kind of letter the teacher might write, should ask the teacher if he or she would feel comfortable or sufficiently familiar with the student’s work and character to write a letter of recommendation. This gives a teacher who might NOT feel comfortable an “out”, and gives the student a chance to find another teacher.</p>
<p>I’ve only had one student ask me to recommend him for something I didn’t feel I could honestly recommend him for, and I gently explained why I couldn’t write the letter he asked for. It was for a position inside the school, and I could not have in good conscious recommended him to the other teacher, and I would not da*m him with faint praise.</p>
<p>Just my 2 cents. YMMV.</p>
<p>PS - once had to write a letter for a student with less than stellar grades and test scores, but through-the-roof character. I was privy to personal information about family issues that had been overcome. In my letter I offered no details whatsoever, but praised the student for persevering in circumstances that other students would have used as an excuse for failure. Her work ethic and determination were the focus of the letter. I would never disclose personal information.</p>
<p>One other thing… please don’t ask for a rec unless you are 100% sure you are applying to the school. We teachers really don’t time or energy to spend on letters that are going to be thrown away.</p>
<p>How about this - if you haven’t finished the essay, don’t ask for the recommendation!</p>
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<p>In a random sampling, 100% of the college applicants in my household would therefore be asking for recommendations at 11:59 p.m. on the day the application is due.</p>
<p>“Is the college applicant and parents “allowed” to view recommendation letters sent by teachers and/or guidance counselors?”</p>
<p>There is a form that will ask you if you want to wave your right or not wave your right!</p>
<p>Some students wave there right, which means they will never be able to see what the teacher wrote about the student.</p>
<p>If you don’t wave your right, you can read the teacher recommendation.</p>
<p>I have been told to just wave your right, because most schools feel that you are comfortable with your teacher recommendations!</p>
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<p>Like I posted before, not true, technically. The FERPA waiver only legally concerns your right to view the recommendation IF YOU ARE ADMITTED TO THAT SCHOOL. However, it is assumed that an applicant will NOT see a letter unless the recommeder explicitly chooses to show it to the applicant. It is also expected that applicants will always check “yes” on the FERPA waiver.</p>
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<p>This bears repeating–READ exactly what that waiver (or non-waiver) portion of the application says. psych_ is correct in that the waiver only applies to the school you will attend in the fall. Why would you care about the recommendations when you got into your school? </p>
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<p>ONLY if you are allowed to look at your application file at the college to which you matriculated.</p>
<p>Our school NO.
It is customary to waive our right to see them. The students give a list of schools/envelopes/stamps to the teachers and guidance and hope for the best. </p>
<p>One of the teachers had the kids fill out a form with interests, major, etc. to help gear her rec for the student.</p>