<p>so my math teacher wrote me a recommendation, and when i read it, it didn't seem like "OMG this girl is absolutely amazing!" because, well, I'm not. However, I don't want it to be kinda cliche. the teacher did write about how I participated in a lot of mathy ECs and how I always had interesting things to say, and how I really liked math and was a hard worker, blahblahblah, the usual stuff. </p>
<p>Does that sound like anyone's teacher would've wrote if they knew nothing/didn't really like the student? P:</p>
<p>uhh if the teacher didn't know anything about the student or didn't like the student then to me that says a lot about the student's judgment; for example WHY?!? would they ask that teacher for a recommendation in the first place if the teacher didn't like that...that doesn't seem very uh "strategic" lol..</p>
<p>^^ well sometimes students have no choice. There is a chemistry teacher at our school who writes terrible recommendations - the comments are general ("he was probably one of the best students in the class") and the letters are full of typos/spelling/grammar mistakes. And yet, some people are forced to have said teachers write letters because most of the science department has retired since my 9th grade year, as has the 11th grade precalculus teacher. luckily, I was not in that situation, but I know several people who were, and it sucked.</p>
<p>o0o ok I see what you mean. Yea that sucks. There's no way you guys could have contacted the other teachers even if they weren't at the school anymore? I know that me and my GC spoke to MIT about this because I transfered high schools so they said that I could ask a teacher from my old school to write a rec. I'm guessing (not sure though) that retired teachers could maybe fall along the same line but I do see what you mean now.</p>
<p>Our counselor asks us to write a personal evaluation for her. When she's asked for a recommendation, she gets the evaluation and proceeds changing any instances of "I" to "he".</p>