<p>So today one of my teachers had me read his rec letter, and it was incredibly dry and generic. The thing is, he really is a great teacher and knows me very well, and his rec letter said some very positive things about me, but in the end is devoid of personality and sounds very generic. </p>
<p>As most of you probably know, a rec letter like that could kill my chances at top tier schools. So how should I go about telling my teacher to change up his rec letter a bit?</p>
<p>I don’t know if that’s something you want to do. I, personally, would ask another teacher to write recc.s in place of this teacher, rather than trying to get him to rewrite it. But that’s just me - not neccessarily the right thing to do.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t do it either. I think it is beyond your boundaries. I don’t know why he gave it to you to read and I think it probably isn’t as bad as you think. Anyway, it’s not a bad recommendation, you just didn’t care for the presentation. A bad recommendation would count against you, I’m not sure this one will. A teacher recommendation is someone else’s subjective assessment of you and I think schools view it as such, the same way they view alumni interviews. Their more concrete assessments would be SAT scores or ECs. I’m not saying the recommendations aren’t important but the school isn’t going to hold it against you if your teacher doesn’t write that well.</p>
<p>He specifically asked me to edit and change anything I felt needed changing… does that change anything?</p>
<p>eh… I don’t know. I bet the teacher didn’t really expect you to ask him to change things, he probably just wanted to show you how highly he thought of you or something. However, if this letter wasn’t completely awesome, then you are going to be at a disadvantage in the admissions process. You NEED amazing recommendations. You really do.</p>
<p>Goodness… you guys are too shy in approaching your teachers. </p>
<p>Just go up to them and talk about it. If you’re close enough to a teacher to get a recommendation from them, then you should be close enough to talk about your concerns.</p>
<p>Gryffon5147: Maybe so. :-)</p>
<p>Hm… I think I’ll give it a shot. I’m pretty comfortable with this teacher. I don’t think I’ll have trouble sitting down and talking with him.</p>
<p>Yes talk, but be specific. Write up a list of your accomplishments, strong points, whatever you think is important, and ask him to include some of it. In other words, make it easy for him.</p>
<p>I had already given him a complete list of awards and acomplishments, and I think because of that, the rec sounded all over the place. So I think this time, I’m going to try to ask him to focus in on a few specific qualities.</p>
<p>I don’t understand. If he said “edit and change”, what’s to sit and talk about? If I’d said that, that’s what I’d want. Seems like less work than sitting, talking, then ME halving to edit and change. Not to say I wouldn’t change it again. And I wouldn’t give it back to you a second time, either…</p>
<p>Good job BigB14. My initial response was probably because I’m not very good with this kind of situation. Also, if your gut tells you that you won’t get into some of the schools that you’re looking at without a better recommendation then you’re probably right.</p>
<p>This takes skills. You should not just go up and ask him to edit it, because to him, his writing is the best. Think about what happen after someone asks you to write a rec, then comes back and tells you to write it again. You will feel like being boss around. </p>
<p>I am not going to tell you how, but do it indirectly. Like talk over a cup of tea, and start the conversation by asking how your personality is going to help you get into colleges, move on from there.</p>
<p>Also I recommend putting the blame on yourself. You said that you gave the teacher a list of stuff and you wanted something more focused, so say that it was your fault for giving him/her that list, even if it wasn’t.</p>
<p>“I had already given him a complete list of awards and acomplishments”</p>
<p>What colleges want in recommendation letters is specifics about what the teacher has experienced with the student. The colleges don’t want a regurgitation of things that are elsewhere on the student’s app. The colleges would want info about specific actions that a student did in class or in organizations that the teacher advised that demonstrate the student’s character and intellectual promise. Consequently, you can help teachers by providing them with copies of good papers and tests you’ve done in their class, and by reminding them of impressive and/or helpful actions you’ve taken in activities that they advise.</p>
<p>^I agree [again 
] with Northstarmom. Your teacher letters should shed some light into how you are in class: your work ethic, your eagerness and motivation, how you energize a class discussion, and that sort of stuff. </p>
<p>I don’t know what to suggest about that letter. It can’t hurt to ask another teacher, though, just to be on the safe side.</p>
<p>GOOD LUCK!!!</p>
<p>I second what Northstarmom has said.</p>
<p>You can’t tell him to change it. honestly you should have found someone you are more confident in. are you good friends with an english teacher?</p>
<p>Thanks all for the advice. I’ll update you on what happened today. </p>
<p>So I went and talked to him (started off with some small talk, w/e) and then we started talking about my app. We eventually edited my rec letter together, and I think it’s looking pretty good now. He gave me a copy to keep. </p>
<p>Would anyone here be able to read over it for me and tell me how it is? (PM me if you can… I don’t want to post it here and have it viewable by all over the internet).</p>