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ellenrch
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| Joined: | Fri Aug 24th, 2007 |
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| Posts: | 73 |
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Posted: Mon Nov 19th, 2007 02:59 pm |
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I'm sure this has been discussed somewhere before, and I remember Carolyn posting comments from admissions officers about the logistics of managing applications, but: my son sent an online early action application on October 15 (due November 1). His transcript and counselor statement went in at the same time. His teacher says he mailed the recommendation on October 20 (in a carefully addressed, stamped envelope that we provided). The university sent my son a "missing items" e-mail on October 31 about the teacher recommendation. The message said to wait a month before sending a replacement. On Friday we FedExed a copy (I just tracked it, and it was signed for this morning). I wish we hadn't waited so long. I'm tempted to have my S call this school to make sure he's still in the early pool and has not been bounced to the regular decision pool, but I don't want to put ideas into their head. Aargh!
Colleges invest gazillions of dollars in gazillions of marketing pieces designed to stimulate gazillions of applications (not so with this particular school, but still...). Couldn't they allocate just a fraction more to hire sufficient staff during this period? I know there's a tidal wave of applicants, and I cannot imagine managing the process on their end. But why is the tidal wave such a surprise? Every day I hear another "missing items" story from someone. How is everyone else dealing with this?
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jocelynDAD
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Posted: Mon Nov 19th, 2007 03:38 pm |
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Sometimes it is the Teacher whose recommendation is late. What my D's did and do is include a stamped addressed postcard in the envelopes for the Teacher's recommendation. That way, the school can just take that postcard and put it in the mail as it is addressed, the backside has the college name and it is stamped.
Mail sorting is of course a possible/probably cause of the item being lost, that is why, with an early due date send everything a couple of weeks before if possible.
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hummingbird
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Posted: Mon Nov 19th, 2007 03:52 pm |
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Ellen, remember the PILES of paperwork you saw when you visited that school last year? That's what they're dealing with again, and now your son's papers happen to be among them! Hopefully they will get it sorted quickly. We had a similar story with Indiana and Wisconsin. Both schools sent my son a letter saying things were missing, when we knew fully well that they were not missing. Eventually it got cleared up on their end, after my son emailed them, but my guess is it would have gotten cleared up anyway. It just takes a while for the tail to catch up with the head, I think.
In your case, it might be worth a call, since it's an EA app that had a due date.
I agree with assigning more staff, or otherwise figuring out a better system than piles of papers all over the room.
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WestrnMom
Super Moderator
| Joined: | Fri May 26th, 2006 |
| Location: | West Coast, USA |
| Posts: | 1161 |
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Posted: Mon Nov 19th, 2007 04:00 pm |
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If the Fedex doesn't reach them, have the high school counselor fax a copy of the recommendation immediately! Don't wait, even if you duplicate the efforts.
My son's high school counselor sent all schools the same packet, with some of the teacher recs changed depending on the school. They were sent the counselor recommendation, the transcripts and the teacher rec all in one package. One school said the teacher rec was never sent. We waited, thinking they would find it. Two days before the deadline, S called and they said they couldn't process his application without it, so he would be thrown into the regular pool and would no longer be eligible for merit aid. The counselor faxed the letter THAT DAY and they received it in time.
Another school said they never got the transcripts. They were resent. A third school had transcripts sent three times before they finally said they had received them. That was a large public school, so losing transcripts was excusable.
It's very common. The small, private schools are dealing with over 10,000 pieces of paper during the admissions season. The larger privates and the public schools are dealing with more like 100,000. Don't get angry, don't get too worried, just take action, even if they end up with more than one copy in the end.
Another tip, even though the schools say there is an adcom who makes the application decision, the paperwork may be handled by someone else in the office. S made the mistake of emailing the person whose name was on the letter sent out by school #1 saying the teacher rec was missing, and never heard back. When he called, he found out that not only was that person not the person he should have emailed, she wasn't even his adcom. The letters all went out with her name on them. So, make sure if your child emails someone in the office that you have the exact name and email address of the right person. The faxed rec didn't go to the adcom at all, but to the receptionist who also handled and distributed all the incoming paperwork.
Last edited on Mon Nov 19th, 2007 04:02 pm by WestrnMom
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CarolynLawrence
Administrator
| Joined: | Sun Mar 5th, 2006 |
| Location: | USA |
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Posted: Mon Nov 19th, 2007 04:57 pm |
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This is one of the reasons that most colleges strongly prefer and encourage electronic applications these days. There has been a move afoot among admissions people to make it possible to submit all recommendations and transcripts electronically as well - it is gaining a bit of ground, and some high schools have already moved in that direction. I think it would make things a lot easier on all sides.
But for now those postage paid self-addressed post cards JD mentioned are a lifesaver. I've had several instances where a school claimed something hadn't arrived but when the student was able to say "But you returned the postcard I included - it's right here in my hands!" the colleges quickly got on the schtick and found the missing or mis-filed paperwork.
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ellenrch
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| Joined: | Fri Aug 24th, 2007 |
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| Posts: | 73 |
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Posted: Mon Nov 19th, 2007 07:38 pm |
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Well, guess what? The recommendation was received today via FedEx AND logged in today, so everything is okay. Thanks for the helpful feedback in response to my anxiety attack of this morning.
If I had it to do over again (and believe me, I don't want to do any of this over again ), I would send a postcard or use the online teacher recommendation option. I wish they had sounded a little more urgent in their "missing item" e-mail because it sounded like there was no problem, they would log it in eventually.
Hummingbird is right: Last winter I went to the basement in this admissions building to use the restroom. Away from the pristine waiting room, it was a little chaotic. I thought, OMG, next year the paperwork submitted by my Pride and Joy will be IN that mess! I am hoping that the problem was not on the teacher's end, but it could have been.
It would be great to move toward a totally online application process, including transcripts.
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Wendy (wjb)
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| Joined: | Sun Mar 5th, 2006 |
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Posted: Mon Nov 19th, 2007 10:31 pm |
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| Glad the recommendation arrived, Ellen. An observation about those little postcards: We've been sending them religiously this year, with recommendations, with arts supplements, even gave postcards to the GC to include in the school report/ transcript package. I'm not sorry we did them, but they're not a panacea: I'd say only about 50% of them have come back so far. So don't beat yourself up too much for not doing them.
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Canadian
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Posted: Tue Nov 20th, 2007 12:00 am |
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| Not all of our postcards have come back, either. Also, a school says almost none of S's paperwork has been received, including an item for which they have already returned the postcard.
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Joan
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| Joined: | Mon Mar 6th, 2006 |
| Location: | Chicago |
| Posts: | 35 |
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Posted: Wed Nov 21st, 2007 12:32 am |
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2 stories - my D2 thankfully got a call from one school to let her know her teacher rec was missing. She contacted her teacher and it turned out that everything he had mailed with her recs - including netflix and bills - never reached their destination. He was awesome and faxed his rec to all of her schools. If the school had not let us know we would not have known about the missing mail.
Another school said that her file was complete except for the application fee. It was so satisfying to be able to instantly respond with an electronic copy of the front and back of the cancelled check...they updated her file in record time
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