<p>This year my counselor is new to my very small, public school. She has had very few students in the past applying OOS and seemed surprised to learn that she needed to write recs for my apps. Once I explained to her that is was required, she promised to do it over the weekend and send them in. A week after they were sent, she gave me a copy of one. She said very flattering things about me, but the letter was poorly written and even had a few grammatical errors. Will colleges (the most elite of my list being Stanford and Princeton) penalize me for these mistakes? Should I try to do anything about it?</p>
<p>Well, since you didn't write the essay, I'm pretty sure they won't penalize you. I'm surprised she didn't consider the implications of sending a poorly written rec. Stanford won't be impressed, but will it hurt you chances of acceptance? Probably (and hopefully) not.</p>
<p>.-_-.</p>
<p>A couple of my teachers have made grammar mistakes, too. I am not worried, I didn't make those mistakes. I don't think it matters. For rec the content is more important, it should sound genuine. (A lot of flattery is probably useless).</p>