<p>ALL?
Many of mine were in the "top few encountered" but there were plenty in the level below that as well.....
Aack.</p>
<p>Yeah, but it's a bit easier to stand out when only 25% of my school goes on to a 4 year college, most of them to the state school.</p>
<p>Plus, you have to wonder how objective teachers really are, right? I'm sure the adcom will take your situation into consideration. I was just curious, because the whole way of ranking seems iffy to me. </p>
<p>Meh.</p>
<p>Same at my school! I go to a big public, too! WAAAAAA!!!</p>
<p>Yeah. My school is public and middleish. Ditto the "WAAAAAA!!!" though. </p>
<p>Cons of big schools: guidance counselors with like 3478910923 students each, crowded parking lots
Pros of big schools: more cute guys</p>
<p>My teachers/counselor didn't rank me exclusively in the "Top few in my career" boxes. Whatever, though - at least they were honest.</p>
<p>I wonder if the rankings mean more or the written part of the recommendation...</p>
<p>What do you think?</p>
<p>I would bet that it's the subjective part. They have mountains of statistics and enough quantitative data to choke on...they need something human to let them know who you are.</p>
<p>I know that's the point of the essays, but I would argue a secondary point of view is, if written well, is the best depiction of an applicant.</p>
<p>I would agree with you, to an extent. I'll have to say that for teachers who are not good at expressing themselves, however, the rankings are a good way to make their point. My French teacher wasn't the most eloquent writer, and at first, that worried me a bit. Her recommendation, however, sounds exactly like how she speaks, and I hope that the admissions committee can appreciate that.</p>
<p>(crosses fingers)</p>
<p>I have faith that you'll get in.</p>
<p>I keep forgetting that there's nothing we can do about the decisions.</p>
<p>:-)</p>
<p>I hope you see the "Congratulations!..." also! It'd be crazy to actually meet people from CC; we're much nicer than those Harvard forum kids.</p>
<p>I'd say:
essays > recs</p>
<p>... Yale lost my letters of recommendation three times and I still got in. ('09)
(so they never saw an actual letter of recommendation).</p>
<p>Oh good. I thought my essays were pretty stellar. At least, I hope they were.</p>