Didn't Waive My Right to View Academic Records

Hi dlencz,

Ideally, all applicants should waive their right to review their recommendations because if you do not, as you indicated, the AdComs may worry that you do not trust your recommenders to speak honestly about you (even though you would not get to see the recommendations until after you have been admitted, AdComs believe recommenders may be less forthright if they know you might someday see the recommendations).

At this point, unfortunately, there is not too much you can do to rectify this situation, though I am happy to share some strategies with you that may be helpful. For the one recommender who has already submitted, they will review it with the fact that you did not waive in mind. I would not contact the AdComs to tell them that they can reach out to him as they already know that they can do that if they would like (recommenders have to provide contact information). I would see if you can waive for the second recommender and resend the recommendation link to him.

But, all is definitely not lost. I have seen other applicants who made this mistake be admitted. You just may want to add another school or two in for Round 2 and waive your rights to those recs as an insurance policy.

Best of luck,
Shawn