<p>Since we live overseas in a provincial small city, my D's teachers will be writing college recs for the first time and some are not fluent in English, so we will have to get them translated. Is there a disadvantage for my D if they write a free form letter evaluating her academic and personal qualities but do not fill out the form provided checking all the little boxes?--These forms would be culturally almost incomprehensible to them, even if translated. They have no experience of minutely ranking character qualities of their students and tend to shy away from superlatives.</p>
<p>Depends on where she applies and what the rec letters say....</p>
<p>But how many rec letters do you need? Most schools only want one teacher recommendation and the other from the nearest equivalent of GC. In our case, that turned out to be the Housemistress.</p>
<p>My advice would be to:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Have the GC equivalent or the Deputy Head (?) fill out the form--after a sit-down meeting to explain the quirks of the US system; ie American adcoms expect a 'sales' job.</p></li>
<li><p>Have the teacher write the recommendation--after a sit-down meeting to explain the quirks of the US system; ie American adcoms expect a 'sales' job.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Warning: We applied the above to no avail, LOL. Still got a terse, one line speculation instead of a recommendation. Good news: S got in 2 out of 4 places.</p>
<p>Truthfully, we feel we made mistakes as S's GC. Plus, it was WAY stressful. Luckily, the mistakes didn't hurt his career. However, we have decided to hire a US based consultant to review S2's apps.</p>
<p>The teachers at my S's private college prep school in CA do not typically fill out the forms with the little check-boxes either. They told me this year that they cover all the factors those boxes are meant to evaluate when writing their narrative. Based on our experience, I'd say a strong letter would likely be sufficient.</p>
<p>That said, it is important for the teachers to give thoughtful and in-depth comments in those letters if they are willing and able. If the teachers neither fill in the check-boxes nor give a strong sense of the abilities they've seen in the student, the colleges may not have enough meaningful data to go on.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice, cheers, but we don't have a GC or Housemistress. We do have "Senior year" coordinator but he has never taught my D except as a sub once in a while. Does the US based consultant read the teacher's recs? How does that work?</p>
<p>Yes, I know I will have to have the "salesjob" talk with the recommenders!</p>
<p>Agree with Mootmom, teachers don't fill out the forms, they have written so many letters they put all those points in the letters.</p>
<p>Would it help for the student to e-mail international adcoms at schools of interest, asking how to overcome this problem - you may find that they are well aware the recs from a "non-American" school may not look like a typical US rec.</p>
<p>A French friend of mine went through this last year with her daughter, who was attending a Lycee. She had the recommendation forms translated for the teachers, and then she explained them to the teachers, and then had the teachers, completed forms translated. </p>
<p>The issues she confronted were: a tendency of the teachers to use language to describe her child which was more 'ambivalent' than an American might use and the overinterpretation of some of the content.</p>
<p>I have read that recommendation letters are a 'cross between a legal document and a love letter.' The French teachers, who loved her daughter, did not express themselves as effusively as an American teacher might, and they got caught up in the minute definitions or distinctions between words.</p>
<p>For all these reasons, I think a free flowing report detailing anecdotes, specific class events, etc are more useful for non-American teachers. But, it is important that they discuss the items noted in the boxes-- how does the student compare with others they have taught, how well do they work with their peers, etc...</p>
<p>My son had his recommendations written by non-American teachers, and we confronted somewhat similar issues, but we had an American GC intervening so that made a difference, I think...</p>
<p>
[quote]
teachers don't fill out the forms, they have written so many letters they put all those points in the letters.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Whaaat? Overseas teachers do not have those tasks because overseas students are admitted to their home country's unis on final exam grades and interviews. Period. The whole IDEA of checked boxes and letters is particular to US schools--and not that easy to explain to the rest of the world.</p>
<p>Pye. No, she won't review the rec letter, but I think she may write a letter of her own explaining S's strengths in "American"; ie Madison Avenue--terms. "Best Ever!" "Wow!" </p>
<p>If it is any consolation, most US adcoms have processed hundreds of int'l apps. They seem to take the dry recommendations in stride.</p>