How should teachers and high schools ration recommendations?

[ucbalumnus]

@bjkmom

To be honest, if 30 or 40 kids asked for letters in the fall, there’s no way I would be able to do a quality job on them.

Have you ever had a situation of having more students ask for recommendations than you could reasonably handle doing a good job on? If so, how did you decide whom to write recommendations for (or how would you if too many students ask next year)?