<p>What kind of weight do they have? Do adcoms usually receive glowing recommendations, or is a particularly fantastic one a bit uncommon, as opposed to a few merely good ones? I'm not sure how many people on this board would know, but I'm kinda curious.</p>
<p>They certainly play their part. If your recs are generic and aren’t particularly enthusiastic, it will hurt your application.</p>
<p>They weight A LOT depending on what your teachers write. A generic one will sink you at a top college; a good one will help you. They look for signs of intellectual curiosity or firepower or some quality of you that distinguishes you from someone else.</p>
<p>Bullcrap recommendations like “Jenny is a good student who does all her work and turns in everything on time, shows up on time, follows directions, etc. I would miss her and she’s a nice person and smiles a lot” will be in the trash…</p>
<p>…while one that says “David is one of the best students I’ve ever had. He would contribute in the class with his insightful questions and is always striving to succeed. Whenver he’s in group work, I can see him explaining things in a way that others can understand in a click. Blah blah blah” will definitely help the student.</p>