Hmm, teacher recs...

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
1

<p>Alright, so I asked three teachers to do recs for me. Yale only requires and only WANTS two, anyway.</p>

<p>So, which do I choose?:</p>

<p>Chemistry teacher</p>

<p>pros - teacher fellow at MIT (app reader), wrote great things ("one of the best students in 36 years of teaching," etc), holds numerous awards including science teacher of the year in MA, checked off all of the "top I've encountered" boxes, A+ in class</p>

<p>cons - she's very lazy, copied and pasted a lot of my rec from past years (which I suppose isn't actually a big deal)</p>

<p>So basically that one is definitely in.</p>

<p>AP English teacher (8 years teaching --had him last year)</p>

<p>pros - checked off all of the "top I've encountered boxes," said something to the effect that if he brought all of his best students together I'd still be at the top, wrote about my sense of humor a bit, said I was "the kind of student that comes along once every few years"</p>

<p>cons - ugh, it's just really brief...and not remarkable at all. I don't know. I expected more, is all.</p>

<p>AP Euro History teacher (19 years teaching --had him freshmen and this year)</p>

<p>pros - awesome letter...it really impressed me. It's long, but the quality is great, wrote that I am the best student he's had in his career, some other stuff, he wouldn't let me look at it for long.</p>

<p>cons - ugh, here comes the dilemma...based on the letter, I would choose this rec doubtlessly. However, on 3 boxes he checked off 'outstanding' and for one (reaction to setbacks) he checked 'no basis.' (haha he explained that in his letter, though)</p>

<p>So basically, do colleges count the letter or the boxes more? It's just irking that he didn't choose the best boxes. He told me that he wanted to make it look like he actually really thought about the boxes. Is this correct reasoning? What do you think? For some reason, I'm leaning toward my English teacher just because of the boxes thing. My guidance counselor told me colleges count letter-boxes about 60-40%.</p>

<p>Sorry if this sounds obnoxious. I'm not trying to sound like a jerk, I just have to figure out what to send/what would fit for Yale.
Thanks!</p>

2

<p>You know, you don't have to have all-"top in career" boxes to get into Yale. They don't count boxes or assign point values for each of them or anything like that. They simply look at the recommendations to help them come up with their decision.</p>

3

<p>u should not even be allowed to apply to yale if u see and then pick and choose ur teacher recs</p>

<p>they are supposed to be CONFIDENTIAL(well u can see them in the future if u dont waive ur right) otherwise they cannot be trusted</p>

<p>u should hope that yale does not somehow find out or ur screwed...why ru cheating in the first place?</p>

4

<p>thank u 4 ur warning........................omg im a cheater i cant go 2 college now</p>

5

<p>Alright, thank you!</p>

6

<p>dude08- is that online sarcasm? i have trouble telling...</p>

<p>if its not, its definitely fine to pick and send rec's... thats what my school policy is, and the colleges REALLY dont give a ****. plus, if anything looks questionable there's contact info so they can call the teacher...</p>

<p>jamesisscene- i'd go with the AP euro instead of eng... he's been teaching longer which is more impressive when they give the whole "best in my career" bit... plus it sounds more passionate about why he loves you yadda yadda</p>

<p>p.s. are you from MA as well or just your chem teacher?</p>

7

<p>Yep! I'm from MA. I'm assuming you are as well?</p>

<p>And yeah, I'm not sure if it was sarcasm, but it doesn't matter. It's not like I stole the recommendations. Literally, my teachers were like "hey make sure I didn't make typos lolz kthanks." Oh well.</p>

8

<p>yeah im from waltham</p>

<p>hahah yeah really, my teachers were just like "oh edit it then i'll sign it for you"</p>

9

<p>if what u say is true then there would be no point to the waiving/not waiving ur right to access the rec because everybody will have already accessed it beforehand</p>

<p>"edit it then ill sign it for you" thats absurd cheat all u want im not going to do anything about it</p>

10

<p>well thats most likely b/c you CANT do anything about it.....</p>

<p>but the waiving/not waiving is basically if the teacher does not want the student reading it, most likely b/c they are saying somethign negative. in that case, the teacher will have you sign it and then they will send it themselves so you can never see it. </p>

<p>MY teachers actually wrote me good recommendations and they trusted me. you shouldnt tell other kids theyre cheating b/c the teachers trust them.</p>

11

<p>My dean recommended that we waive the right to see our recs... she said it definitely looks better and shows that we have confidence in ourselves. I picked two teachers of classes with which I struggled the most (but still did well) instead of the classes that come easily to me so that my effort would be apparent.</p>

12

<p>And that does seem a little cheater-ly... :-/ </p>

<p>Maybe I'm just sheltered but that's certainly not allowed at my school</p>

13

<p>same here, noone gets to see any recommendations.</p>

<p>and i know mine suck too. im screwed.</p>

14

<p>okay w/e helps u sleep at night</p>

<p>i cant do anything about it...thank u mrs. obvious u roasted me :)</p>

<p>and u waive/dont waive ur right before giving the teacher the form thats the whole point it is not the teachers place to tell u to waive or not waive ur right</p>

<p>but why dont u go ahead and fax the admissions committee saying uve already seen ur recs beforehand and ur having an argument with a moron who thinks thats not permissible, tell them ur name and allow them to decide what they want to do with ur file once they know this</p>

15

<p>well i mean its not like we could really change anything, its printed up on the "official" school paper and whatnot and my teacher jsut said if theres typos to let her know so she can sign a new one...</p>

<p>basically the only difference is that the teachers let you submit them to your schools-- no one changes anything</p>

16

<p>no real response? :(
ive gotta say im a little disappointed i expected a fight at least</p>

<p>but maybe thats best i dont like arguing with people anyways</p>

17

<p>hahaha sorry to disappoint you</p>

<p>i just think its kind of useless to fight when about cheating when i know that i was honest and submitted the recs exactly the way my teachers gave them to me...</p>

<p>wow i need to get off of this site and do my hw...</p>

18

<p>Hahaha no fights here... the world wouldn't be nearly as fun without a difference in opinion here and there. Things are just done differently at different schools and I just hope that disparity doesn't work against me since I did waive my rights.</p>

<p>I like the word "waive" I think. Wow I need to do hw too...</p>

19

<p>My teachers and counselor wanted to let me read it but I told them I didn't want to. They simply gave me a tease, which aroused my interest. My counselor said things like, "not things that everyone," "really funny," "little time that I've been here."</p>

<p>:(</p>

20

<p>That's annoying, haha.</p>

<p>Speaking of teacher recs, can someone tell me if I'm doomed or not?</p>

<p>My English teacher failed to send in my rec! And it didn't show up til today!!!!!!! If he faxes it in tomorrow, will I be ok?</p>