Are my recomendations any good?

Applying to College
1

<p>All my teachers and counselors whom I am getting recommendations from let me see their recommendation before they send it in. However, I have no idea how to tell whether recommendation is good or bad because I suspect that most teachers write their students 'good' recommendations with no negative comments. Can anyone give me any pointers in judging whether or not my teacher/counselor recommendations are good for top universities?</p>

<p>Also, how many applicants at most of the 25 universities send in recommendations that have some of the "one of the top I have encountered in my career" boxes checked on the common app by teachers? I know for a fact that my counselor checked all the boxes in the category below that which is titled "outstanding top 5%". Is that bad?</p>

2

<p>There should be a variety of sentence structure, a story or two (but it's okay if there aren't any), details about your personality, and maybe an obstacle that you overcame (if applicable).</p>

<p>The outstanding is good, as long as your counselor backs that up in the recommendation itself.</p>

3

<p>wouldn't it look too unrealistic if every "one of top in career" was checked all the way down, anyway? lol</p>

4

<p>Do most applicants to top schools have atleast one or two "one of the top in my career" checked?</p>