<p>I am an international and my teacher never wrote a recommendation letter before and she asked me about the length and I have no idea. Are 300 words enough? The letter will be pretty nice plus she is going to say something along the lines that I'm the best student she's ever had. The only possible problem is that it's going to be kind of short. Is that a deal breaker or not? </p>
<p>It’s content, not length. Aim for this:</p>
<p><a href=“How to write good letters of recommendation | MIT Admissions”>http://mitadmissions.org/apply/prepare/writingrecs</a></p>
<p>You want her to include SOLID evidence such as anecdotes and memorable instances that make you stand out.</p>
<p>See above.</p>
<p>Much like the other parts of an application, admissions officers have to read everything that you send them. They aren’t fond of needless fluff, and that’s understandable.</p>
<p>Therefore, it should be long enough to convey useful information about you, but short enough to not fall back on restatements or generalizations (the MIT link is a good example of what you would want to see avoided).</p>
<p>Have you waived your FERPA rights, though? If you have (which you should), you wouldn’t be involved in the editing process of the letter. Just trust that your teacher is capable of writing a good one.</p>
<p>300 words is a little short, but it may be okay if the letter is based on very specific anecdotes that really reveal something about the person, something that is <em>not</em> already evident in the rest of the app (like, if the student’s GPA is 4.0, the letter shouldn’t bother to say “[student] studies hard and does well in class”).</p>
<p>@tiberium, yes, I have waived them, but my teacher is not familiar with the Common App and she will most likely ask me to assist her through the process. Btw, do you know if a teacher has to be registered on the CA website in order to submit a recommendation letter or it’s fine to just send her a request to her email ? </p>
<p>@T26E4 and @marvin100, thank you for your insight! Also, do you think that recommendation letters for international students play as big a role as they do for domestic ones? I’m saying this because due to the huge difference in the educational systems, teachers here have never even heard about recommendation letters. There’s not a lot of people applying to US colleges from my country and I happen to know most of them. Everyone is writing their own letters and their teacher is just going to sign it. Do admission officers know about this or not? </p>
<p>
As few words as necessary to make their point</p>
<p>
Yes, they know int’l applications are rife w fraud.</p>
<p>@collegedreams11 - yes, they do. One big thing about rec letters that is sometimes overlooked is that they can make other accomplishments look better or worse. For example, if the letter says the student is shy and somewhat passive (spun positively, of course), then it will cast doubt on resume claims to leadership. If the letter says the student is serious, then a personal statement essay full of humor might raise an eyebrow (or, worse, get tossed in the “daddy did it” pile–or “consultant did it” for international students–for rejection). But if rec letters reinforce and add to ideas present in other areas of the app, then they are good corroborating evidence that will lend credibility to everything else.</p>
<p>As for this: “Everyone is writing their own letters and their teacher is just going to sign it,” well that is a terrible, terrible practice and an outright breach of basic ethics. I hope everyone who is doing this gets rejected summarily.</p>