<p>I assume my very introverted older son (“I’m not anti-social, I’m just not user friendly”) must have done all right by his LORs (he got into Harvard). He used his AP Latin teacher, who had him for all four years of high school, and his AP Physics C teacher who knew he was smart - and seemed articulate and funny at back to school night. However we knew neither really could speak to just how smart he was at computer programming, so that’s why we got a couple of additional letters from people for whom he had done programming work. I think most kids who are doing work beyond a high school level can usually find people out in the field to write these letters though QuantMech makes a good point that if they come from a different culture they may not appreciate how different these kids are in ours.</p>
<p>NEA, I think a student can always ask a teacher if they feel able to write a good recommendation. Some say you should ask to be able to see the letters, but we always felt that it was better to just hope for the best and have the schools know that the letters were honest. At some schools the GC may actually see all the letters or know who writes good ones. My younger son I think had good instincts about who to use. He got one from his Pre-calc teacher that was wonderful and couldn’t have been better considering he got a B+ in the course. The other teacher gave out an assignment for those who wanted letters from him that made it clear he’d end up writing a good letter. (He asked students to critique the textbooks, say something about their probable major and give him a copy of their best/favorite paper among other things.) I’d guess if the comments are good the letter will also be good. We have only a canned list of comments. My favorite was when my younger son got both “A pleasure to have in class” and “In danger of failing” - it turned out both were true!</p>
<p>Thanks for the ideas. I will definitely ask the GC. Our report card’s comments section is not that rich–the teachers don’t get a lot of space, they can leave it blank, and I think they do have auto fill options (“pleasure to have in class”) that don’t tell me about the teacher’s real ability to write or whether he or she wrote that for every kid. Interesting to get people who know my son outside school as well…leaving this so much in someone else’s hands is really irksome to the control-freak side of me.</p>
<p>Our school is very good about discussing this issue with the kids. They tell them that, first off, they should be thinking about this early on in their high school career and they should be talking to teachers well in advance of the late-fall deadlines. They tell them that they should form relationships with teachers, that if they will want LORs, they need to make sure the teacher knows who they are, whether it’s during class time, or occasionally stopping by to talk, etc. One way I helped my kids consider who to ask was by listening to how the teachers talked about my kids at Open House. The ones whose eyes lit up, who seemed like they really knew and liked my kid – those are the ones who will be able to write something. Barring that, teachers talk with counselors. A counselor may have a good sense as to who will advocate best for a student.</p>
<p>My D was lucky in that she had applied for a program both sophomore and junior years that required LOR’s from two teachers. Since those weren’t top secret like college LOR’s, she got to see them (she had to submit them as part of her application package). That gave us a great opportunity to see how the teachers wrote and what they wrote about D. She actually did see one of her teacher’s LOR for college as he had her proof it to make sure it was accurate in terms of what he covered (it was an amazing letter - but we already suspected it would be since he had written a glowing one for the program requiring a LOR the year before). She also asked the other teacher who had provided a LOR for the program to write a college LOR too since we figured the letter would be similar to what she provided for the program. At the time she applied for the program requiring LOR’s, I hadn’t even thought about it being a great way to preview LOR’s, but that is how it worked out - so I would strongly recommend using that strategy if your kid is considering applying for anything that needs LOR’s as part of the application prior to senior year </p>
<p>“a recommendation that is intended to be highly positive, or a carefully crafted essay, may have some phrase in it that rings alarm bells for admissions committees.”</p>
<p>How successful were they in the past? Do they keep files that identified student A to be future mover & shaker that turned out to be just like that?</p>
<p>Yes, it is called the alumni association, which, through the Harvard Magazine, lures alumni into sharing all their successes in the newsletter, as well as keeping track of how much money they donate, or what contributions they make to society.</p>
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