Several years ago, when nearly every student waived their rights to review their recommendations later, I assumed that those who checked "no" had something to hide.* Now it's common enough (maybe 5-10% of the pool?) that this can't be the case. I can speculate on reasons -- from concern as to whether recommenders are doing their job to simple curiosity (after all, it's always nice to hear yourself praised!) -- but I obviously don't know for sure.
So here are my questions for you:
1) Did you spend any time thinking about this decision, or just default to what you thought was the obvious checkbox?
2) If you didn't waive your rights to your recommendations, why?
As a general rule you are not disadvantaged in Mudd's applicant pool if you declined to waive your rights. In fact, just in the past twenty-four hours I've voted Admit on several students who checked the second box, and that's part of why I'm so curious: these are awesome students. They are clearly beloved by their respective high schools. Their teachers could not possibly fit more positive adjectives onto a single 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper. So why not waive?
Chalk this up to nosiness. I'm interested in knowing what, if anything, influenced your decision.
Thanks for your help!
*While this is my personal opinion, I confirmed via the magic of Google that it is not an uncommon one. See discussion here, here, and here.
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ReplyDeleteI think our school required us to waive our FERPA rights so our Common App accounts could be connected to our Naviance acccounts. But I had really nice teachers and they would probably let me see my recs if I asked.
ReplyDeleteThanks Karthika! I didn't realize that Naviance required recs to be waived -- that's really helpful information for me. And if your teachers want to show you the recs after they've been submitted, that's a-ok. Probably means they wrote nice things. :-)
ReplyDeleteMy son's teachers and counselor gave him copies of their letters. I'm an adjunct prof and have written letters for several students and always emailed them copies. I don't know why a student wouldn't check the 'waive' box -- my son certainly did.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mom of Mudd Hopeful! I'm sure your students appreciate getting copies of your rec letters - it must relieve some of the unknowns in the admission process. Are there ever situations in which you wouldn't give a student a copy of the letter? Or would you simply encourage the student to seek another recommender?
ReplyDeleteNone of the students have asked for a copy; I've just sent the letters to them (and they do appreciate it). If a student asked for a letter and I didn't feel that a) I knew him or her well enough, or b) I couldn't write a positive letter, I would tactfully decline the request. I wouldn't write a lukewarm letter because I think that would hurt the student. On the other hand, I would not write a false letter either. :)
ReplyDeleteBack when I was applying to colleges, I checked the "waive" option because I thought I would be at a disadvantage if I had not. I also thought colleges would judge me!
ReplyDeleteHappily my son was accepted Early Decision and is thrilled to be attending Mudd next year. We discussed the options and felt applicants really were expected to waive access so as to provide teachers with a comfortable atmosphere in which to be forthcoming. Needless to say, we can't help but be curious about what was written.
ReplyDeleteWas wondering about something. . . so thought I would ask here and hopefully you will post a response. :-)
ReplyDeleteMy son was admitted ED (yeah!). We did not apply for need based financial aid but were wondering if he would still be considered for a merit scholarship. There have been conversations on the blogs that suggest students admitted ED are not likely to get merit scholarships since they already have committed to the school and therefore do not need an incentive to commit. I'd appreciate your addressing this issue on the blog.
I'll note that mine was admitted ED last year and got merit aid.
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