<p>I have been under a lot of pressure from my parents to give fairly expensive ($50-100) gifts to the teachers who will be writing my reccomendation letters/assigning me AP prediciton marks, but I am really worried that they will be more offended than pleased.</p>
<p>At this stage I think gifts are inappproptriate. A nice thank you note after the recommendations would be nice. A college coffee mug or similar inexpensive gift after acceptances come in is nice, too.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>We gave $50 gift certificates (gift cards from a bank to use anywhere) to the teachers AFTER they wrote and mailed their recs. We never saw the recommendations so it had nothing to do with that. I would not feel comfortable giving a gift in advance as that is inappropriate.</p>
<p>I have a genuine Chinese vase that is probably worth around $50, several $50 starbucks gift cards, a $70-100 bottle of aged whiskey (for my English teacher who loves to drink), and a $70-100 bottle of perfume.</p>
<p>So you guys think that I shouldn’t give my teachers any of these until after they write my letters?</p>
<p>I wouldn’t give gifts of such high value even after they write letters, and certainly not before–highly inappropriate. Any gift after the fact should just be a token. Your school may even have a policy that prohibits teachers from accepting anything of real value from a student. (And if they don’t, they should!) I’m surprised that your parents don’t have ethical issues with this approach, which looks like you’re trying to buy a good recommendation.</p>
<p>It’s just that all of my teachers are extremely busy, and most of them have to write at least thirty to fourty recommendation letters. My parents think that a gift would be a good way to show my appreciation for their extra hardwork.</p>
<p>I GAVE A $100+ LEGO SET!!!</p>
<p>My teacher is a lego fan</p>
<p>Well, if anyone is interested, I ended up giving my Economics teacher a $50 Starbucks card and a box of chocolates, and my English teacher a bottle of 18 years old Chivas Regal, after both of them had finished writing my letters.</p>
<p>I also gave an Italian dish set to my Math teacher before she finished my letter, but it was on the day she was supposed to have finished my letter so I thought she had already wrote it. </p>
<p>All in all though, I’m kind of regretful that I didn’t give the gifts earlier, since all of the gifts were extremely well received.</p>
<p>I didn’t give my teachers anything expensive. It doesn’t seem appropriate.</p>
<p>I made my Chem teacher a <em>giant</em> model of the periodic table in cookies, so I guess it was almost free (groceries don’t count much) but I think he appreciated the 7+ hours of effort. And a note. It was sort of ridiculously huge, so he let my class eat half of it because it was so big it would have been cumbersome to take home.
I gave my French teacher some pastries from this really nice store here.
My Art Hist teacher, I got her some chocolates I found in Amsterdam that have paintings by Dutch masters for wrappers and a book at the British museum of their greatest pieces, since she wrote me recs for the colleges in the UK.</p>
<p>Holy hell.</p>
<p>I gave everyone Chocolate Chip Cookies, homemade, special recipe. </p>
<p>And that went over fabulously. You spent too much money on gifts. xD</p>
<p>I combined my gifts with christmas presents. i gave my english teacher some poery books and a fancy bookmark. i gave my science teacher some photo coasters. with each gift i added a card in which i talked about how i really appreciate them and such. i gave my counselor, who im really close to, a photo album and an apple ornament. each person cost around 20-25 dollars, not expensive at all.</p>
<p>I agreed that giving expensive gift to teachers writing rec letters is not appropriate. she/he should feel the same way. There are other ways to say “thanks”.</p>
<p>Don’t do it.</p>
<p>Your teacher will feel much happier to see you accepted at a university to which they recommended you, than giving them a cheap gift.</p>
<p>Of course, if it’s fine to you to buy them a villa/car, that would be GREAT!</p>
<p>Regards, me.</p>