<p>Getting recs: S asked teachers at the end of junior year. Gave them info the week before school started, which was MUCH appreciated. He gave them a resume (was not crazy about this, but they asked), but also talked to them and sent written instructions. S told them that he was going to address his activities, etc. in his essays, and what he wanted the recommenders to focus on was his participation in class, personal recollections of him, etc. (He also mentioned WHY it was he had asked them for a rec.) </p>
<p>It made no sense for a history teacher to talk about S's math/science accomplishments. It made lots of sense for the history teacher to talk about how S was energized by the class and loved debating politics and educational philosophy, both in class and hanging out after school with the teachers.</p>
<p>Agree with CalAlum's post. There are ways you, as a student, can help to "guide the conversation."</p>
<p>Oh no ... by saying "I", I actually meant the details that I will have to give to the prof who would be writing the rec, as he had asked me on providing him with the details of sending the rec.
I would request him to fax the rec or mail it, as he would prefer. Or perhaps give me the rec in a sealed/signed envelope as CountingDown mentioned, and I would mail it.
Thanks!</p>
<p>Do I put volunteer work under jobs? And there isn't much space to put the dates... so should I just put the years even if it wasn't contiguous?</p>
<p>Also, for hours and weeks/year for activities, my clubs sometimes have weird schedules, like half an hour one week, then sometimes 3 hours in a week, so should I just make it so that the total hours x weeks is fairly accurate? Does this not matter too much, as long as its not exaggerating it?</p>
<p>^^I'm not an adcomm, but I would just average it out. If you spend 10 hours one week and 0 hours the next, just say you spend 5 hours a week for 2 weeks.</p>
<p>For one of the Evaluations that has to come from a Humanities/Language/Social Science, would it be alright if I got my debate coach and or debate program director to write it?</p>
<p>I figured that it would, given how often debate draws from the sociological, philosophical, syntax, and history. Figuring though, doesn't make me feel so confident.</p>
<p>Is this a person who's known you in a classroom context as well as in an extracurricular context? If not, I'd get a letter of recommendation from another humanities teacher and have the debate coach/program director write a supplemental recommendation.</p>
<p>Question: for listing things you did over the summer, would it be inappropriate to include a job, even though there is a different section for jobs? I say this because my job took up nearly my entire summer.</p>
<p>P.S. - If you want to describe your job in depth, or even just give a small description, is there no place to do that except in the essay or the "extra info" essay?</p>
<p>
[quote]
"For one of the Evaluations that has to come from a Humanities/Language/Social Science, would it be alright if I got my debate coach and or debate program director to write it?"
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I would ask someone you've had a class with, and then perhaps ask your debate coaches to let your recommender know how much you contributed to the team.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Should we only report AP scores of 3 or higher or the scores of all the APs taken?
[/quote]
I would report all AP scores taken, personally, even if they're not all 4s and 5s. Others may have differing opinions.</p>
<p>
[quote]
If I were to apply to MIT and my teachers/counselors were to send common app recs/forms would MIT get mad?
[/quote]
MIT asks that teachers respond to the questions on its own form. So your teachers could send the same letter they sent for common app schools, but MIT does want to have them answer the questions on the MIT form. The two could be sent together.</p>
<p>^
MIT is a bit understanding on that though. They didn't receive one of my recommendations. I waited until after Matt McGann's blog post about having processed all materials before panicking. By that time, my teacher had already disposed of the recommendation form with all the responses, but he still had a copy of the CommonApp one he did, so he attached that one to a blank MIT form with my name on it and a note explaining my situation. It was accepted. Note, though, that using a CommonApp form instead of MIT form is a last resort.</p>
<p>Yes, to clarify -- it's not that MIT will "get mad" if you use the Common App form. It's that the Common App form is not as useful to MIT as MIT's own form, so it could work against you because the questions to which MIT is interested in hearing the answer are not as clearly answered on another form.</p>
<p>The professor who's writing the supplementary letter on my research work, wants to attach the abstracts of two of my projects along with his letter. His letter, as he says, he somewhat at 1.25 pages and adding those abstracts will make the whole bunch at 4 pages. Is that OK? And instead of mailing, he wants to fax those documents. So will that be OK too?</p>
<p>Help! Sorry if this isn't really application related, but it's admissions related. I got one of those letters in the mail telling me about the regional information sessions close to me, and I really want to attend, but I think I threw the letter out! How do I RSVP? Do I even need to?? The one I wanted to attend is this Sunday, will it be too late?</p>