<p>I am lucky enough that my teacher let me see the recommendation he is writing for me before mailing it off. In fact, he is letting me mail it. I have had this same teacher for three years.</p>
<p>However, I am a little worried. Though the recommendation sounded great as far as content is concerend (he basically said I am the best student ever with the highest grade, leader in the lab, bright), it sounded like a second grader had written it: choppy sentences, incorrect vocabulary usage and incorrect syntax. </p>
<p>However, he is a science teacher, so maybe that'll redeem me in front of the admissions committee. What should I do? aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (I'm going crazy)</p>
<p>What if the teacher puts inaccurate information ("active in French club")? Do they check up on this sort of thing if it is just a very small part of the rec?</p>
<p>Having a recommender say that you're the "best student ever" is huge. Ideally they would write it with good grammar as well, but I guess you can't have your cake and eat it too. If you had enough time, I would politely ask if the recommender would mind if you edited it for grammar. Many science folks know that they're not great writers, and they'd be more than happy to revise the letter with your corrections, since they probably have it saved on their computer.</p>
<p>As for checking up on items, I heard a story from some UC admissions folks where someone had it listed on their application that they were the ASB president, and then the very next application they read had someone from the same high school also claiming that they were the ASB president. They called up the school and found out which person was lying, and they had all of that person's applications withdrawn from the process. The chances of this happening are very slim, but you can get caught. I heard that they will often do some background checks on very extreme cases, like if a student claims to be doing 20 hours a week of community service, 20 more hours doing sports, another 20 in clubs, and another 20 working a part-time job. That stuff sticks out, so it might get checked up on.</p>
<p>Yeah, I would think so. But in this case, it was my teacher who wrote it - not me - and it can apply to any number of students. However, I'm afraid it might stick out because it's the wrong language (French) when they'll see on my transcript that I've actually taken 4 years of Spanish. Anyway, the rec is sent, so I don't think there's any use in worrying now.</p>