<p>I currently attend a relatively large public high school (around 4000 students) and have several teachers. Having been rejected from some summer programs, I am guessing that my teacher recommendations letters might not have helped my application too much. </p>
<p>(I might not have had a high chance getting into the programs, but the thought of weak recommendations as the reason for me not getting into the college of my choice is very scary and depressing.)</p>
<p>My question is: What am I to do? My teachers like me and I've done well in their classes, but they simply don't know enough about my interests/hobbies, my entire personality, etc. Has anyone been/is in this situation and know how to overcome this?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>At my large public school (~3000), we have to fill out a form to give to our teachers. You know, you’re supposed to write about your hobbies and leadership positions. Still, all of the teachers I asked probably didn’t know I did any of that stuff. It could be helpful for you to go talk to them about your hobbies (which I only did briefly) but I think the big thing for them to get is how you act in class. The adcoms will get a gist of your personality right there. </p>
<p>You get to write about your passions in your essays. Your teachers aren’t expected to know which awards you won, blah blah blah. Don’t worry about it too much; if your teachers like you, they won’t put you in a bad light. I worried a lot over my recommendations (since I’m usually a pretty shy kid in class) but there’s only so much one can do about it. Maybe you can ask a teacher who’s kind of involved in your extracurricular (eg. a journalism teacher)?</p>
<p>Yeah, at my school there’s a force in the counseling office that has some questions about your future plans, classes you’ve taken, awards/achievements, etc. If your school doesn’t have it, I can just scan you the paper. It’s 1 page front and back, and has 10 questions on it I think.</p>
<p>You might try picking teachers who have known you for a while. Maybe your language teacher? I have had my language teacher for two years, will have her next year two. I have had my math teacher for 2 years in a row and I will have had my chem teacher for two years, but not in a row. I go to a public school with 2000 students, but repeats like this are still common. A teacher like that might know you better.
Personally, I’m only planning to get recs from one teacher like that because I don’t like the way my math teacher writes recs (though she does write a ton and has had her rec’d students go to great colleges and summer programs.) and I am consistently the worst student in my class (bust I still get Bs. It’s a class with 14 people and I’m ranked 14th in the class of 10. All of them are ranked higher). And I hate French so I probably don’t come off very well in there. I am really good at it, so the teacher likes me anyway, and she’s written me good recs and wrote my sister good ones for Northwestern and everything, but I don’t know about her. My chem teacher is amazing though, and I’m sticking with Art History for other possibilities.</p>
<p>We usually have to turn in a sheet with our ECs and any other things we want the teacher to be aware of and our transcript.
You should ask teachers you know pretty well. Choose the classes where you volunteer a lot, ask a lot of questions, and are actively engaged. Ask teachers that you really like, ones where you would actually go and talk to them outside of class or something.</p>
<p>If you have done well and you’re nice/polite, it really shouldn’t be too much of a problem unless you were really rude or seemed like a slacker. I think colleges will understand that in a big public school, you really dont get THAT much interaction with the teachers and some teachers have to write like 20 in 2 months so they can’t really invest too much energy in one particular recommendation. (This is why I might ask ahead, like after AP exams so maybe my teachers can start on them now…not sure yet though. Just what my counselor recommended)</p>