I opened up a teacher recommendation letter this morning, and it stated that John was a great student, a wonderful person, and an all around great applicant. Unfortunately, this letter will never make it into John’s file, as his teacher did not tell us John’s last name, his birth date, or even the school that he attends. So for now, the letter goes into our holding file, which contains all the materials that did not match any applicants.
Now that we are close to finishing up matching materials for our applicants, here is a suggestion for future applicants; Make sure your counselor, your school and any teachers you ask to write letters for you know your full name, and then use it in their letters/forms/transcripts! I am amazed at the number of teacher recommendations that come in with names such as “Trey Smith”, and we then have to hunt down all the Smiths from that school to see who it matches. We even get transcripts with nicknames, even though these are official documents from the school!
So make sure that your school officials know to use your correct name, and get the materials into our office in plenty of time to match it up. Oh, and just as important, make sure that when we ask for your first and last name, you put them in the correct order. We have probably had over 400 applicants switch these two fields, and it makes it tough to match things up as well!
Go Dawgs!