Hi. This question would be pretty long, as I tend to overwrite. So thank you for taking the time to read it.
I asked two teachers to write recommendation letters for me. They are my favorite teachers at school.
Teacher #1: Advanced chemistry teacher from junior year. She’s a really lovely lady, and I got along with her very well. I was 1 of the only 3 juniors in my class (my school is not a magnet one, so AP classes are not offered until junior year. Most people take AP/ advanced classes in senior year). This year, I founded Science Bowl at my school. She’s my
sponsor, so she knows my work ethic/ leadership skills, etc. I was expecting a glowing recommendation letter from her.
However, before I applied ED, I asked her to write me a rec letter for a scholarship program. She did, and then she gave me a copy of it afterwards. I was pretty disappointed, because the rec letter basically just summarized all of the activities I listed on my resume, and there were no specific anecdotes or personal stories. So I tried to (really politely) ask her to write a more personal one for ED/ RD round, like mentioning how I performed in HER class, instead of listing my ECs - which are already included in a resume I attached to my application. She did agree to edit it. Of course, I don’t know what it will be like right now, but hopefully it’s more personal, and provide more insight about me.
Teacher #2: My Calculus BC teacher and Math club sponsor. He has a good impression of me, not only because I’m the only junior (and only girl) in his Cal class, but also because I’m definitely the most passionate math geek in the class LOL. There are so many anecdotes I can think of that I wish he would include in his rec letter:
- I absolutely love maths. So once, there was an outside math question from the internet that someone randomly posed. It's totally unrelated to Cal curriculum btw, My teacher and all the Cal students (including me) were trying to work on that problem for the first 15 mins of the class. Then, everyone gave up, and my teacher jokingly said "Everyone goes back to learn derivative, and leave that math problem to [my name]" (because I had the highest percentage in that class, and there are many times when I was the only one who have the answer for a difficult cal question - sorry if this comes off as bragging). I solved it right before the bell rang, rushed to the white board, and explained my solution. Everyone, including my teacher, applauded.
- There was a 14-hour online math modeling contest. I registered for that competition, found a club of 4 people (required), and asked my teacher to be our coach. He was not allowed to help us during the contest though. On that day, when we gathered at our house, he visited our team. At that time, we had been working for 8 hours straight without having breakfast/ lunches or anything. So he went out and bought hamburgers for us (such a sweet teacher!!!). We did not win eventually, but he emailed each of us and told us how proud he was.
Then, my school’s award night, he is the head of the math department so he was responsible for giving math awards. He chose me for the Rensselaer Medal, and as I went up the stage, he told the audience that “[My name] is one of the most passionate and motivated students I have had. During the math modeling contest, I visited her and her team, and they were working on math intensely without having lunches… blablabla… [my name] always brought her determination and passion to class every day, so she really deserves this award.” —> He mentioned determination and passion.
- He knew I'm attending a Cal 3 class this year. --> He knows how I liked challenging myself.
- On Thanksgiving, everyone in my school has to write a short note to his/her favorite teacher. I wrote a ... welll. ... four-page letter to thank him for everything in the class and talk about how fun math is. ... Sorry, I just can't stop myself when talking about math :D Basically, he knows how much I'm passionate about this subject.
Basically, I think if he mentioned these anecdotes, my rec letter would be more lively and positive. However, I don’t know if he usually writes good letters or not. My chemistry teacher actually has a template for her students (everyone loves her so she has to write a lot of rec letter), and basically she just replaces names + ECs/ achievements for each letter. I’m just afraid that my math teacher also has some kind of template, and he would write a generic letter instead of mentioning specific details about me. I heard that it’s fine if one rec letter is stellar and the other one is generic, because then the admission officer can think that it’s the teacher’s part. But if two of them are both generic, then they will question my character … So I’m really worried about this. Would generic letters sabotage my chances?
This is one reason why it is a good idea to get GC feedback when you are considering who to ask for letters. The GCs know who writes strong letters and who doesn’t in a lot of cases.