<p>I'm currently a junior and am not exactly sure what teachers I want to ask to write my letters. I don't feel like any of them know me that well. Even though I have the highest grades in my classes, I'm one of the quiet asian kids who don't really talk. :(</p>
<p>What should I do?</p>
<p>Well... I think it depends on the school. For University of Chicago for instance, a big emphasis is placed on building a class of different engaging personalities to enhance their philosophy of seminar-based learning. </p>
<p>So a recommendation stating that you rarely speak in class, but are a genius would likely hurt your chances for that school.</p>
<p>At other institutions, however, like UC Berkley a much higher emphasis is placed upon GPA, SAT Scores, ect. </p>
<p>As long as your recommendations are "neutral" rather than "bad" they won't hurt you. But you might want to form a relationship with at least 2 teachers, as it will help them write better recommendations.</p>
<p>Ugh, I hate teacher recs. They are, imo, the most pointless part of the college application. Especially in the cases such as the OP's.</p>
<p>thank you guys. </p>
<p>I think I have two teachers in mind that can write me recommendations, but I have a feeling that they probably won't be amazing... </p>
<p>Are the recommendations more important than the essays?</p>
<p>I disagree. There is an element of intelligence & personality that cannot be captured in your transcipt. Colleges want to know what kind of student you will be at their institution. What better way to obtain this information than to request a letter from someone who has taught you for a whole year?</p>
<p>(Perhaps observational class-room robots? :D)</p>
<p>I think that your recommendation and your essays are really two parts of the same thing. It is the "personal" part of the application. Your essays and your recommendations should agree with one another and provide a portrait of the applicant. If you are especially "intellectually curious" then a recommendation from a science teacher remarking that you always ask the questions that other students never think to ask, and an essay on your thoughts regarding the essence of human consciousness would provide colleges with a portrait of an attractive intellectually curious student.</p>
<p>Now... if that intellectually curious student gets bad grades, then your essays/recommendations will make little difference as that student wouldn't be able to survive in a rigorous college environment.</p>
<p>But, you see, the essay and the recommendation are really just two aspects of the same "part" of your application, neither is more important than the other.</p>
<p>wow. thank you.
that was very insightful. </p>
<p>I feel like my teachers will write something positive, but nothing that will stand out like asking the questions that other students won't think to ask. -.-</p>
<p>I guess I'll take the last few months of school to build up these relationships.... lol.</p>
<p>Bah I'm in the same boat (minus the asian part, sadly ]:) I hate the idea of recommendations. I don't think my teachers hate me, but I don't think that they will say that I am the best student they have ever taught. So let's both hope that they don't really matter too much :}</p>
<p>yea. hopefully they are not too crucial. and the worst thing is that you don't know what your teacher is writing about you. :K</p>
<p>and i don't feel it in my nature to make conversation with my teachers or talk too much in class...</p>
<p>"I disagree. There is an element of intelligence & personality that cannot be captured in your transcipt. Colleges want to know what kind of student you will be at their institution. What better way to obtain this information than to request a letter from someone who has taught you for a whole year?"</p>
<p>Thats what the essay is also for; it will be a shame if both recs and essays contradict</p>
<p>House of London, as I mentioned before the essay and the recommendations are but two parts of the same thing.</p>
<p>If they disagree, colleges will be skeptical of the "image" of you as an individual portrayed in your essays/recommendations. If they agree, the image is enhanced. </p>
<p>Plus the image provided by college recommendations is far more valuable than the image an applicant fabricates on paper. Plus it captures the person who colleges will be welcoming into their classroom. Professors at the university you are applying to will likely form opinions of you as a student similar to the opinions formed by your high school teachers. So... recommendations are really quite valuable to admission officers.</p>
<p>It might not hurt much, but just don't expect to get into the ivy league schools (or similar caliber schools)</p>
<p>As a former teacher, I believe you should set up an appointment to meet with 2 teachers outside of class during their office hours. Just tell them you would like to get an overall sense of how you are doing in the class, and what you can do to perhaps do even better. If they say you need to speak up more, than do it! Meet with each teacher at least 2-3 times over the next year so they can get to know you better. That will improve the recommendations dramatically, I bet. And if you and another student have similar stats, good essays, etc., the recommendation can be the thing to put you over the top if it is stellar.</p>
<p>sunshadow gives you great advice dorkerrhea. It's up to you to take it or not. Otherwise, as you've already realized, the recs you get won't be as good as the recs they write for others who DO engage the teachers. While there's nothing forcing you to change your ways, you then also need to be realistic that in the very competitive nature of top school admissions, you'll be several steps behind others.</p>
<p>This is not to say that you still can't get to a great school and have a fine collegiate career -- but the "uber" selectives are just that -- extremely difficult to enter and the fact is, your recs will negatively affect you.</p>
<p>Work very hard in the time you have left to get to know them. They matter.</p>
<p>I think that letters of rec are very important, especially if you are applying to the top schools. There are such huge numbers of great applicants that all parts of your application may be exceptional and you still wont get in. So try to make each part as good as possible to improve your chances.</p>
<p>My son was fortunate enough to get accepted to several top schools. His test scores were not the best, but his gpa, ECs, essays and letters of rec were outstanding. His teachers both gave him copies of the letters they wrote for him. They talked about other things besides his classroom work, including his ECs and leadership. So make sure that you are doing the ECs that you enjoy and perhaps excel in. This will give the teacher more nice things to say about you in them. </p>
<p>Dont forget about the counselor recommendation. That is really important, too. For the top schools, a comprehensive counselor rec is usually required, so make sure that your guidance counselor knows you well. Good luck!</p>
<p>Give your GC and your teachers copies of your essay(s) and resume when you ask them to write your letters. It helps. Some schools actually give you something to fill out, often referred to as a "brag sheet" so that the GC and teachers know about you outside of the classroom. </p>
<p>Letters matter when they great, or when they are not so good. Lots and lots of "good" letters go out. They probably don't make a difference. Not too many bad letters go out: you generally wouldn't ask a teacher about sending a letter if you knew it would not be so great, and often teachers decline your request if they can't say nice things about you. So ask first if your teachers feels comfortable writing for you. If you don't know them so well, make an appt as suggested above and get to know them. IT can make a difference between a generic "good" letter and a great letter.</p>
<p>Let's see, Harvard received 27,462 applications. And how many teacher recommendations do they ask for? Maybe 2. So they receive 54,924 such letters. And they review all of this within a period of what, 5 months? That's more than 500 letters a day. Or about 60 letters per hour, which is 1 teacher recommendation each minute that goes by. Folks there's no way these letters are all being read. I suppose there are times when they are making a close-call, they go look at the teacher recommendations. But I don't see how it's possible for a college admissions department to read these things in any sort of a thorough manner. Maybe some college admissions folks can explain how they sift through tens of thousands of teacher recommendations in a few short months.</p>
<p>^ there is more than one person reading them you know.</p>
<p>Well of course, but my point is that it's not reasonably possible to read 50,000+ teacher recommendations in any sort of thorough manner, must less try to compare them against each other (letter # 28,974 is better than letter # 45,987). Most of them portray the student in the best possible manner anyway. It benefits a HS when a student is admitted to a good college, so almost always the teachers give glowing recommendations.</p>
<p>i think recs matter a lot-- they are the one part of your application that is completely out of your control (technically/in theory). they are prob most important for borderline applicants.</p>