<p>Do you know which college requires this peer recommendation, or which college mention it on the website ? Can you give a list ? I only know Darthmouth and Connecticut College. The former is out of reach :(</p>
<p>I'm not from America, and in my country, teachers aren't familiar with recommendation. I think peer recommedation will help them understand me better.</p>
<p>1) If in the peer rec, my friend say that the one from teacher can't be so convincing, do the admission officers believe ? Do they consider peer recommedation ? How much does it weigh in application, compared with the one from teacher ?</p>
<p>2) If a college doesn't require peer recommendation (They just don't mention in the website), does it hurt much if I submit one ? Then I will explain that in order for the school to look at as a person, a peer recommendation is needed ?</p>
<p>3) Do you have any advice for this ? I appreciate all of your advice ?</p>
<p>In addition, I also wonder how the colleges can be sure that this peer rec is from applicant's friend ? How do they know that it isn't written by applicant ?</p>
<p>As for teacher rec, an experienced reader can distinguish which letter is genuine, because of the fact that the writing style of a seasoned middle-aged man (teacher) is different from that of a high school student.</p>
<p>But in the case of peer rec, all writing style is the same :D</p>
<p>well, there are signatures and stuff that go along with it. and i think your counselor has to sign off on it. also, if you lied about it, it would look very very bad. much worse than a bad peer rec. so colleges assume/trust that you will simply tell the truth.</p>
<p>I think the purpose the peer rec is mostly just to get a glimpse of the applicant as a person, not so much to determine their admissability. More like just a way to get to know a bit more about you and personalize the process.</p>
<p>However, I don't think it would hurt to include a short statement of your own about how teacher recs are not something teachers in your culture are accustomed to, and that yours may not look like the recs other students are sending in. Because honestly, the way it works here is trying to find the teacher who will write you the most enthusiastic booster letter. Some kids have teachers who are more emotional, better writers, feel their own stake in getting one of their students admitted, etc. They are hardly a thorough objective presentation. To get that you'd need to have letters from every teacher, and you'd have to insist those teachers write in equal measure their good impressions of the student and their less-good impressions.</p>
<p>So explain that teachers where you are don't have experience with this aspect of the application system in the US. Don't write it like you're trying to dsicount what they have to say, just to put what they have to say in a cultural context.</p>
<p>The only school I know of that asks for optional peer rec is Williams College, in Massachusetts. I'm sure there are others, but that's my experience.</p>