<p>So, one of my teachers (most of my school's only require one)'s recommendation who he showed me comments primarily on my academic ability (i asked him too) and it's pretty good, though he's a math/science person so it's almost primarily on my academic ability (it was lacking in another part of my app so he didnt focus much on personal qualities) but for the boxes he checked he checked only top 10% for them and a "well above average" (next box) for another two (I forogt which). How much does this hurt? I was a bit dissapointed (applying to ivies and all) </p>
<p>I'll only be sending this rec. to a few schools since many schools like JHU and such only require 1, and the one im sending that way is where the teacher has written a strong personal recommendation (though they wont show me it, but the counseler said the person writes wonderful recs. for all our schools students who go to HYP) with top 5%'s checked everywhere. </p>
<p>In short, this rec. sortof stands apart from the rest of my app in that it lists me as top 10% everywhere with a few 'well above averages', while all my other parts of my app indicate top %'s by the counseler/other teacher and other aspects. Will this matter much? It's still a good rec., just the boxes aren't as nice, but he's a rough rough grader, both in class and in things like this.</p>
<p>I personally would get more from a rec that gives honest feedback than one that says top 5% for absolutely everything because it is highly doubtful that you are that qualified in all categories. I'm sorry if that sounds mean, but everyone can't be top 5% in everything. In short, don't worry about it.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply fhq - the most annoying thing though about the recommendation is that for 'leadership he marked me as the one before top 10%, but not top 10%, though my whole application is based around my leadership. He had told me origianally that he wouldnt mark or rate me on factors that weren't academic, so I thought he wouldnt do that mark so didnt bother explaining the leadership i had demonstrated in the school and everything to him, but apparently he still did which is annoying, esp. since one of my other recommenders is marking me as top 5% or "one of the few i've encountered in my career" for leadership</p>
<p>normally im extremely modest and dont 'brag' about my achievments or positions, but rather do the most I can in them (SG President, Boys State, Leader of a large national organization, president of several clubs, many things - even listing those makes me feel like a ****). Just a little annoyed</p>