I.e. it is possible that an applicant’s set of recommendations and recommendation quality can select for competitiveness (possibly to the level of cutthroatism) as a standalone attribute independent of actual academic merit, whether or not that is desired by the college reading the recommendations as part of the application, due to the way some teachers and high schools ration recommendations.
A. Is this type of situation desirable?
B. If not, how should teachers and high schools ration recommendations?
That would be very annoying to me. The local school did one sensible thing, in allowing the AP Lit teacher to have time off to write recommendations. The students had a substitute for a few days.
It is frustrating. But why does he need a math teacher? Don’t think he needs a teacher in his planned major, for example. Some schools might want a STEM teacher, but he could use a science teacher.
IN my school, kids hand in a list of 3 teachers for letters in early spring. By the end of March, guidance as doled them out, trying to prevent particular teachers from being overloaded.
One of my friends is writing 52 this year. Since I tend not to teach Juniors, the most I’ve been hit with has been the years when I’ve been close to 40.
You have no idea how hard it is to write 40 letters that don’t sound remarkably similar. It typically takes me weeks, since if I do more than 2 a day they sound too much alike. There’s no way that “a few days” of having a sub would do it. And that, of course raises another question: do those AP kids deserve to be missing their teacher for those few days, presumably doing busy work (since you have to qualify to teach AP) while the teacher writes letters for other kids?
I’m not sure what the answers are. But a well rounded kid should be able to come up with a 3rd option.
I agree with ^ that students should easily be able to have a back up plan for recommendations. One of my daughter’s favorite teachers retired unexpectedly but she was quickly able to switch gears and ask someone else. Our school told rising seniors to ask for recommendations in April/May of junior year so teachers would have the summer to work on them. I do know some students who waited were told “no” in the Fall by some teachers but IMO, that is a student planning issue.
OK - want to add some info since this is originally my posting about my kid and some questions about our particular case seem to be popping up.
He is currently a Junior, and his AP Calc teacher was filled to capacity by the end of this past January - it happened in a matter of days or maybe even hours. I suggested perhaps he give her some time to breathe and then ask again. He prefers not to put too much pressure on her. She was his first choice probably because 1) he enjoy calculus more than his previous math classes, and 2) he has a solid A in her class and he feels she could write him a good recommendation. Yes, he may seek a more STEM-oriented program. He’s not really sure at the moment.
The math teacher he has asked to write for him instead was his pre-calc teacher, a class he took as sophomore, so he was 2 years advanced in math. He had a B- on his final, and a B+ fourth quarter (he used to have issues with rushing through work and making silly mistakes), but an A- overall in the class. His report card shows his final exam and quarterly grades. I don’t know if his transcript will or not. He feels this teacher has a better sense than some others of who he is as a person. I can’t remember why he didn’t choose his AP Chemistry teacher. He doesn’t feel his AP Physics class is terribly challenging, so he has doubts about that teacher’s ability to write a good recommendation. (Don’t ask - I don’t know, I thought the teacher was pretty cool, but I’ve only spent 15 minutes with him at back to school night) Since he has one tippy-top school on his list, I was concerned about a recommendation that praises his work ethic as opposed to his abilities. But I think I’ve since worked out that this particular school isn’t going to be as sensitive to a few lower grades than other tippy-tops, to which he will not be applying.
He also has strong recommendation commitments from his AP Lang teacher from this year, and his engineering teacher, who he has had for all 3 years.
Tough situation. It’s understandable that a teacher who has to write a huge number of recommendations could be overloaded, which means even with the best will in the world the quality would likely suffer. On the other hand, is the best system really first asked first done or should teachers be able to triage, writing recommendations for the students they know the best and have most insight on freeing the others to potentially get better recommendations from other teachers who might have better things to say about the student.
I also think it’s OK to give teachers a gentle way to dissuade students who ask them for a recommendation. It can be tough for a teacher to tell a student that s/he will be writing a less than glowing recommendation so it would be better for the student to get a LOR from another teacher, so allowing the teacher to dissuade the student with an excuse like too many other students have already asked might be a way to get students better overall LORs.
Has anyone had experienced with a teacher writing a boilerplate letter for many students. I am now in a capacity where I read a lot of recommendation letters. I have seen the exact same letter used for many students written by one of our more popular teachers. I think he figures the letters generally go to such a range of schools that they won’t see the similarities.
But the letters do sound a little generic. After reading some others, that describe specific, unique things about the student, I can see how the “boilerplate” one may not be serving the student well.
Of course some LOR writers create boilerplate or even just plain weak LORs. Human nature. Some people are better writers, some are more aware of how the LORs will be used or perceived, some are just overwhelmed.
Someone suggested in another thread talking to your GC to give feedback on who to ask to write LORs - that’s a good strategy. GCs see LORs from all the different teachers and would know which ones tend to write more effective LORs.
And again, humans are involved. If it were my kid and the person asked to write the LOR expressed any kind of hesitancy - no matter what the reason - I’d strongly advise my kid to get a LOR from another teacher since I suspect in many cases the hesitancy is an indication the person won’t write the best LOR. There’s no good way to force someone to write a high quality LOR for you, so if the person you ask doesn’t immediately and at least somewhat enthusiastically (considering their personality, some people are never outwardly enthusiastic) agree - move on and ask another teacher. Would it be nice to get a LOR from that teacher because it’s the calc teacher from junior year? Yes. But if the teacher is hesitant the risk of getting a tepid LOR is high and it would be a lot better to get a strong LOR from a non-calc teacher or a math teacher from another grade than to risk getting a tepid LOR.
Our school has a policy that no student may ask for a recommendation prior to April 1 of Jr. Year. There is usually a mad scramble on that day to secure them from popular teachers. Its a problem, but I don’t know of any solution.
Son’s school has a policy where teachers do not write recommendations unless students fill out a survey/request in May of junior year. If the request is granted, the LoR is locked in and secured.
The policy also indicates that the preference is for 1 letter to be from an Humanities teacher and the other letter be from a STEM teacher, although students are not penalized if their recommendations come from Humanities or STEM only.
The policy does have the advantage of streamlining the process, although the popular teachers do tend to have more requests. It cuts down on the last minute requests.
Yeah, it was a bit of a surprise, though not a surprise considering the kid who started the stampede. When my son asked his AP Lang teacher for a recommendation in April, she said, absolutely, yes, but let’s talk about it closer to the end of the year. Lol. Anyway, I’m sure it will all work out to the best.
@surfcity My niece had a boilerplate recommendation this year that repeatedly referred to her with he and him pronouns. She will be attending her number one choice, an Ivy, next year. It’s just one piece of the application.
I write somewhere between 10-20 recommendations every year. For Kids who ask before the end of the year, I get them done over the summer - they are ready to go 8/1 when the common app opens. (got a request from Naviance at 8:02 am one year!) Some teachers don’t like to write them over the summer, I get that, personal choice. The kids who ask as senior year opens get them as I am able. It is VERY rare for me to turn a kid down completely… but I did have a kid with a recommender that fell through at the very end of November, and he had a 12/1 application deadline. That one was rushed.
My district has never offered any release time etc for teachers to do recs - it’s just another one of those “things” that we do for the kids. And this might seem super obvious - but parents - I would strongly encourage your student to write thank you notes to their recommending teachers, it really is a “favor” they are doing you. Constantly amazed by the number who don’t think of that
And I’ll repeat here what I said on that o5er thread: if any kid presumed to give me tips now on how to write a letter of recommendation, I would decline to write his. No question.
It is interesting that you note that, bjkmom. Our district supplies an outline for the student to suggest to the recommending teacher what they did well in that class.
What was suggested on the other thread was an article, or series of articles, on how to write a good letter of recommendation, not specifics on what the kid had accomplished.