I assigned my teacher to do my recommendation letter last Thursday on the Common App and she literally submitted it the next day. She gave me a copy of the letter today and it was incredibly disappointing and generic. Although shes saying good stuff in the letter, the style is not persuasive whatsoever…How can I ask her to revise it without coming off as a b----?
talk to your guidance counselor and ask for suggestions.
DOesnt one typically “ask” for a LOR, not “assign” it? ANd unfortunately one can’t change the writing style of a teacher. Ive often suggested to my students to ask a teacher if the thought they could write a strong/good LOR before asking them to do it. Some teachers , even if they were great teachers, may bot be the best choice for the LOR. Most students are not given a copy of the LOR to review.
The letters of recommendation are meant to be hidden from the student (that’s why you sign FERPA). It’s designed to be an honest portrayal of how that student is, and what the teacher thinks about that student. I would caution against asking her to redo it, because it will certainly come off as rude.
@yonceonhismouth Not all the time. Often, the writer is perfectly happy to share the letter with the student. FERPA prevents the college from sharing the rec letter. Nothing prevents the rec letter writer from sharing the letter w/the student.
@T26E4 Yes, I’m sorry that is true- my rec writers did let me see mine- but the reason I did mention FERPA to the OP is because while the rec writer did show the letter, they probably won’t appreciate criticism (idk the relationship between this OP and his/her teacher, but mine probably wouldn’t have appreciated me telling them it wasn’t strong enough). I guess my post was less about the logistics of FERPA, and more about the politeness factor of telling a teacher the rec isn’t a good rec.
The rec has been submitted. I suggest that OP discuss this with the counselor, and ask the counselor to perhaps mention a couple of points she specifically would like to be addressed in the letter. She can’t undo what has been done, unfortunately. Choose your other recommender with great care, too.
You really can’t ask the teacher to revise it once it has been submitted.
In the case of both of my kids, they wrote letters to the teachers who agreed to write their recommendations…in that email, they both wrote about what they had accomplished in high school and academic moments they remembered…trying to cite specific examples…in essence, prompting the teacher to not go down the generic route…and giving them a “oh yeah, i forgot about how they did that” reminder…
How is a rec letter supposed to be “persuasive”? OP, you should move on. Find another teacher to write another recommendation and give him or her a “resume” if you’d like to help.
FWIW, my D ended up seeing one of her teacher’s recommendation and it was really pretty vanilla. She still had good results.
I suspect that many students would be disappointed by their teacher’s LOR. Writing a thoughtful, personalized letter for 20 or 30 or more students is extremely difficult and often not possible, no matter how special the student thinks he/she is.
My son put great consideration into which teachers he would ask, but frankly I’m glad we don’t have access to the letters.
@jym626 On the Common App the student has to “assign” recommenders to a particular college and role (teacher, counselor, friend, mentor, etc). The CA then sends a link to the particular recommender to complete the recommendation online. I think that is why the OP used the term as he did.
At least that was my son’s experience last year. He had more recommendations than required, and assigned them somewhat strategically for each of his colleges based on which parts of his qualifications/resume he desired to highlight.
My advice to the OP is to seek other recommenders if he has that option and not use the generic one if he/she is disappointed in it.
ah, @dscottvb - that makes sense. I’ve remembered the recommender being “invited” on the CA but forgot they were then “assigned” to a school on the CA