<p>Hey, so I would love to attend the University of North Carolina or even a more prestigious university (I've had interest in Columbia and UPenn after visiting their amazing campuses and hearing about their academics and opportunities) but I think my teacher recommendations will be my biggest obstacle in my applications. Throughout most of my high school career, I idiotically did not get along with quite a few of my teachers. Now I'm looking for teacher recommendations and I don't feel like any of my teacher recommendations will be that strong so I was wondering if anyone could offer advice or comments about this situation? Perhaps you have been in similar circumstances before and in that case I would like to hear your story.</p>
<p>The rest of my application is pretty good. I'm in the top 1% of my class, 2300 SAT, and am involved in a lot of extracurriculars including sports that I love and hold leadership positions in. I just want to know how big of a hindrance the recommendations will be.</p>
<p>What choice do you have but to approach the best candidates and be frank about your situation. Tell them how you’d change things if you can but sincerely would appreciate an endorsement from them in a rec letter. Also ask if they honestly can or cannot write this for you – they’ll tell you up front.</p>
<p>In what way did you “not get along?” It seems hard to believe that you could be in the top 1% of your class and involved in the school and not have two teachers who like and respect you.</p>
<p>Certainly a glowing recommendation can help and a bad one can hurt, but 98% of recommendations are neither. At that point, it’s unlikely that the recommendation will make much of a difference in the end result.</p>
<p>^ It depends on the school. Even among schools with holistic admissions, they aren’t always that important. But some (say that they) value them immensely as really the only way to get a perspective of what you’re like in class from someone that probably knows you better than your guidance counselor.</p>
<p>Damage control. If you don’t have a teacher that can write a glowing rec, then pick the ones that wouldn’t say anything bad, at least. You can also give them a list of examples that you want them to mention, which can make their writing the letter easier.</p>
<p>Columbia and UPenn might take a bit more time to look at the subjective aspects of an application, but teacher recs are probably fairly important at all of those schools.</p>