<p>Did they not waive the right to see them? Or does the school that you send them to, send them back to you when they are done with the whole admissions process?</p>
<p>Easy.</p>
<p>Ask the teacher to write a recommendation for a summer program that you are pretending to apply to. Make sure you have to attach the recs along with your application (in other words, the program shouldn't have a policy of having the teacher mail the recs directly to the program)</p>
<p>Decide not to apply to the program.</p>
<p>Open up the recommendation envelope the teacher gave you and read those comments</p>
<p>That's not cool though :(</p>
<p>Well, you can select to not waive your right to view the recs (eg on Common App). Or if your teacher doesn't mind, they could just show it to you. Most, of course, don't really want you to see the rec.</p>
<p>As for the summer program thing, don't do that....especially if your teacher writes it believing you won't look at it. Both incourteous and dishonest; betrayal of trust imo.</p>
<p>Besides, if you ask the right people, they will write you a good one anyways...don't worry so much about this. Just make sure all your rec writers have your CV, you're on good terms with them, there's no big misunderstandings between you two, etc.</p>
<p>sphoenixee</p>
<p>Of the four teachers who wrote letters of rec for me, one showed me a copy of her letter and another gave me a slightly altered version of the letter to include in a scholarship application. </p>
<p>I knew the others were good, though, because I knew that my reputation and relationship with the teachers were unblemished, and because the teachers were delighted to write the letters for me. </p>
<p>I, too, think that InquilineKea's summer program idea isn't very good. :( Integrity and that sort of stuff is really important to me, so that sort of thing just doesn't sit right with me.</p>
<p>The teachers who wrote my recomendations personally told me that they wrote nothing but good things in their letters. I checked the "I waive my right to read this recomendation" box on the applications, but my teachers both wanted to tell me that they really wrote excellent recs. I suppose you just have to trust them to write good things about you. Just be sure not to choose a teacher that totally hates you. lol... I would hope you would know if a teacher liked you or not.</p>
<p>the length. but if you're really close with your teachers, they'll usually be very happy and willing to write your recs - and even offer to show you them to make sure things are accurate. if you've got a good relationship with them, the recs are golden.</p>
<p>what if you THINK you have a good relationship with them but they really don't like you...i would be really uncomfortable sending recommendations without knowing what the teachers wrote.</p>
<p>
<p>As for the summer program thing, don't do that....especially if your teacher writes it believing you won't look at it. Both incourteous and dishonest; betrayal of trust imo.</p>
<p>Besides, if you ask the right people, they will write you a good one anyways...don't worry so much about this. Just make sure all your rec writers have your CV, you're on good terms with them, there's no big misunderstandings between you two, etc.</p>
<p>sphoenixee
</p>
<p>Thanks! But what is "CV"?</p>
<p>CV = curriculum vitae = resume :)</p>
<p>
[quote]
what if you THINK you have a good relationship with them but they really don't like you...i would be really uncomfortable sending recommendations without knowing what the teachers wrote.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>A lot of times it matters more how good of a writer the teacher is (and how much they care about teaching in general) than how good of a relationship (s)he has with you. Good recommendation writers (who care about their school + teaching job) will often write good recs for almost anyone, even if the student was average-ish, just because they're devoted to their job and they think part of their job is to get students into good schools. But if you pick a teacher who</p>
<p>(a) never stays after school to tutor people
(b) rarely grades assignments
(c) is generally known as mean,
she'll probably write you a one-paragraph rec even if you're her favorite student.</p>
<p>So basically, what you want to do is ask seniors from last year who writes the best recs. Large portions of them will probably be identical to yours anyway.</p>
<p>Oh, and be warned that not waiving the right to see your recs might cause colleges to disregard the good parts.</p>
<p>I waived my right to see the recs, but my teachers had no problem showing them to me when I requested copies for scholarship applications. </p>
<p>I think you know whether you have a good relationship with a teacher or not. Go with your gut feeling on this. And hopefully, your teachers will be honest when you ask them to write recs for you. When they answer, you should listen for key things like, "I can write a rec for you, but I'm going to be completely honest about everything."</p>
<p>I know most people waive their right to view the recommendation. However, I did not. I feel that you should never waive your rights, speaking from a legal stand point. I never requested to actually look at any of the recommendations, because I trust they were all in good word. One would be foolish to ask someone who they do not trust. Overall, I feel it is important to keep and maintain one's individual rights, no matter how small or insignificant.</p>
<p>just my rant.</p>
<p>depending on where you get in and what scholarships you get offered, you should have a pretty good idea of how they were :)</p>
<p>But really, the only thing you can do is guess. Choose the right teachers and your recommendations will be good, it's as simple as that.</p>
<p>
[quote]
CV = curriculum vitae = resume
[/quote]
resume != r</p>
<p>
[quote]
resume != r</p>
<p>Those are all pronounced differently though, so they need to be spelled differently.</p>
<p>Well, they all mean the same thing....and we are talking about writing here, not speaking....also, AHD does not differentiate the pronunciations based on spellings. Neither does Princeton Wordweb. Could you show me a source which does such? I'm curious as to how the different spellings are pronounced.</p>
<p>"resume" is pronounced REH-ZOOM. "resum</p>
<p>Ray-zew-may</p>