<p>Hey yall fellers!
I just read on the Princeton Review website that recs. are a "Very important" factor for admission into Harvard. Test scores were are only "important" while grades and extra cir. are "very important." Does this mean that recs. and high test scores can make up for lower grades?
Thanks buds!</p>
<p>scores are least important. school rank/GPA more important. who you are is most important. your essays and recs and interview are your chances to show them who you are.</p>
<p>Considering most Harvard applicants are in the range for both GPA and SAT's, I would think most decisions come down to ECs and so-called "Personal Qualities (essays, recs, interview, intangibles)."</p>
<p>if you get a teacher who is a great writer and can shed some light onto your intellectual capabilities then recs can really make a difference
but if you rec is just a generic "he/she is a very hard worker blah blah blah" then it wont help you at all</p>
<p>Hey!
I am in 11 th grade, but i plan to take a few college courses at my local university next year. My dad told me that often times professors let their students write the rec for themselves (That's what my dad does). If this happens, and I write a REALLY good letter for myself, will that compensate for lower (Mostly B's) in school?
Thanks buds.</p>
<p>If you are only in Gr.11, you have a whole year to improve your grades...why don't you focus on that and keep working on ur ECs?</p>
<p>I am, but I was just wondering!</p>
<p>Stop trying to figure out ways to "game the system." Just work hard and do your best. Whatever happens after that is out of your control. Plus, it's likely that an admission committee would know you wrote it for yourself.</p>
<p>Harvard doesn't officially release any of the information of how it ranks different parts of the application in importance. The only thing they really say is that the transcript is most important part of the application. If you go to the collegeboard website, you'll see that they don't break down different parts of the application according to importance because even they don't know. The princeton review site has based what you saw on speculation and personally I dislike that website.</p>
<p>But woulden't a really goog rec automatically get me in?</p>
<p>2 things-</p>
<ol>
<li><p>TellETubE, the info on the princeton review site is not speculation (well, as far as this is concerned). most colleges report this useful information to the Common Data Set, which has things like statistics and admissions criteria. it's really useful...a lot of times, you can find it by going to their website and searching "common data set." I think this is what the U.S. News and World Weekly sees (not sure about that, but it had a lot of the information that they reported)</p></li>
<li><p>nuthead, that'd be awesome if you could write your own rec! i wish i could do that because i know that my teachers--especially my calculus teacher, who let me read his rec--are not very good writers. bleh. but nothing will automatically get you into harvard. but hopefully you have the opportunity to write it. best of luckk!</p></li>
</ol>
<p>just my 2 cents.</p>
<p>Thanks birk44. To be sure, I don't know for certin if I can, but i sure hope to! Also, I can reveal some unique insight about myself.</p>
<p>I'm not sure if it's just me, but the idea of writing your own rec letter seems oh so wrong. I've heard about it though, and I'm sure the admissions commitee has also--not sure a "great rec" will, as you said, "automatically get you in."</p>
<p>Harvard is first and foremost a school. Grades are very important.</p>
<p>Come to think about it, I don't think I would write my own recs. even if i get the chance, lest the admission find out. Also, i don't think i could be proud of myself if i did write my own rec and get in. </p>
<p>Thanks anyways jokers!</p>
<p>if "....is a hard working student blah blah blah..." does not help me at all, what should be on the rec letter?
would a rec letter from a principle be better than a letter from some teacher? </p>
<p>also, I heard that Harvard don't accept community college or local university credits. so, how can I let Harvard know that I took several courses in local colleges? is there actually a place in the app form? or do you make the person writing a rec letter to mension it?</p>
<p>"....is a hard working student blah blah blah..." is the generic kind of thing that you'll commonly see in a letter of recommendation. It's not the kind of thing that would hurt you, but it probably wouldn't stand out as anything special.</p>
<p>Think. Who do you know that can offer some real concrete evidence in support of your character, desire to learn, performance in a classroom environment, or any other characteristic important for getting through college? That's the kind of person you want to ask for a recommendation. It doesn't even have to be your best class, if you and the teacher really get along well and that teacher sees that you really strive to improve and learn. That teacher will write you a far better recommendation than one in a huge class that you're acing, just because of your grades.</p>
<p>I doubt that your principal knows you that well; however, if for some reason the two of you have a close bond, that could be a fine letter. Still, I'd hesitate to have a letter from a principal unless it was supplementary - focus on people who have seen you in the classroom at first.</p>
<p>thanks, so along with ".....is a hard working student blah blah blah," the letter should include something I did that made me a hard working student, and other good qualities, right?</p>
<p>does it have to be from a teacher at my high school, or can it be someone from, say a professor I met at a university during a summer program, etc. if they know me well.</p>
<p>Would it be a good idea to have teachers write about how you had a flaw in the beginning of the year, yet worked to improve it and fixed it at the end. For example, if in the beginning of the year, your assignments were constantly late etc. Yet, you worked hard to get that fixed and during the second half of the year your assignments were never late anymore.</p>
<p>Celita - I'm going to have to qualify my answer to that. At first, I would say that's a BIG N-O. I remember reading a quote by an admissions officer (i think it was an excerpt from A is for Admissions) in which the AO recalled a letter in which the teacher said ''this student doesn't try to dominate or constantly talk during discussions, but when she does her input changes the course of the discussion and is invaluable.'' The AO said that most of the other officers did not appreciate the compliment and just saw it as a negative that she wasn't CONSTANTLY talking. She got rejected. The AO concluded it's always best for reccomendations to be blatantly flattering and to never present the student in a bad light in ANY way.</p>
<p>With that said, If you got a terrible grade in the class, say like an F or D, but brought it up to an A or B..then i guess you should have your teacher say something like what you suggested. However, I wouldn't advise getting a recc. from a teacher in whose class you got an F or D in the first place.</p>
<p>did everbody hear what he what downtown said in the third post? i mean really? what he says is very critical.</p>
<p>-sparks</p>