So basically I asked my Honors English 11 teacher to write me a LoR for a few schools. I had a good relationship with him last year and I think he liked me. I got an A in his class both semesters (not an easy achievement). I just wanted him to submit his LoR for a few schools, but he submitted his LoR to all of my Common App schools that would accept another teacher LoR, which is fine, I guess.
The things that worry me are :
I feel like he might try to sabotage my chances of getting in by not writing a good letter. He’s known for being a good guy and he’s an English teacher so he’s a good writer, but I feel like he’ll be brutally honest (even though I honestly put in a ton of effort for his class). I also didn’t agree with him on some political issues and didn’t take his other class that he wanted me to take (a dual-enrollment class that I didn’t have the time for), so will that influence the letter?
Why did he submit his letter to ALL of my Common App schools instead of the ones I asked him to? Is that fishy?
Before the letter, I asked him if he needed my resume, and he said something along the lines of "No, I have a litmus test for students and if they don't pass, I won't write a letter for them" and I asked if I passed the test and he said "Yeah." Is this a good or bad sign?
I feel like I’m being paranoid and that he probably wrote me a good letter, but on the other hand, I feel like he might have either lied or been BRUTALLY honest about me (including political views). How do I deal with this feeling? I can’t ask him at this point if it was good, it’s too late for that.
Sounds like you’re being paranoid. Teachers don’t try to dabs together students. If he agreed to write a LOR for you, its a positive letter. If you had any misgivings, however, why did you ask him?
@itsgettingreal17 I didn’t have any second thoughts until he submitted it to all of the colleges on my Common App, it just freaked me out. I knew he’d write a really well put together LOR, so that’s why I asked him.
Why don’t you ask your college counselor to read it and tell you if it is a strong letter? Tell the counselor that depending on whether she thinks it is strong recommendation or not you will apply to more schools. Good luck!
Other students have reported teachers submitting LORs to all schools unintentionally. Naviance snd Common App haven’t provided the most user-friendly experience this year.
Yes, if you’re using Naviance, it happened to us… even though you only ask for some in Naviance, they get an email from each school from common app and are likely trying to help by submitting ALL the requests they get. You have to tell them NOT to submit on CA if you don’t want it. It’s a glitch. In speaking with CA, they said if you have not yet submitted your app, you can contact CA to remove certain recs.
And, like others mentioned, he wouldn’t write a rec for you if it wasn’t positive!