<p>So how does everyone feel about his or her letter of recommendation? </p>
<p>what does the typical Harvard applicant get? Outstanding (top 5%), excellent (next 10%) or " few best in my career"? Is it a commonplace to get the best in my career?</p>
<p>I think my letter of rec is glowing and most of the checks were at the "few best in my career" for my counselor because I have worked with her for 3.5 years in the Beta club. She said some things that were stunning!</p>
<p>How much weight is given to letter of recs? Byerly?</p>
<p>I don't think the counselor rec gets as much rank, especially at large high schools, since counselors don't have as much contact with their students; it's more of a summary of everything to make sure you aren't some cheater who sells test answers or things of that nature... just a reinforcer for your good recs, scores, etc. Now, the teacher recs do hold a good bit of weight since they observe you and how you think, act, interact with others, quality of work, etc.</p>
<p>From my experience most teachers/guidance counselors don't check boxes, and in most cases its not that important. The letter itself is what will tell the admissions officers something useful. And I would agree that teacher recommendations hold quite a bit of weight, more than counselor recs usually.</p>
<p>Yeah true. still my counselor letter IS AWESOME!!!!</p>
<p>the boxes don't count because they vary greatly. imagine comparable students; one at a highly competitive school, and one at a struggling inner city school. Where is this student more likely to have counselors and teachers rave that hes the best student they've ever seen.</p>
<p>I talked to the harvard admission officer last week, she mentioned about counselor rec. She says that she'll be impressed by counselor rec if the student is from a large public school. But she won't hold it against anyone.</p>
<p>YES!! Thanks for giving me confidence honeybunnY! Who was the officer..Ms. Fehn?</p>
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<p>the boxes don't count because they vary greatly. </p>
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<p>They would not include the boxes if they didn't count. Teachers who say you are one of the best few they've seen in their career -- either by checking the boxes or by saying so in the text of the letter -- can have a significant impact on a student's application. This is so no matter what kind of high school you go to.</p>
<p>Yea, but does anyone know if most applicants to Harvard get the last category of boxes? If so, does it hurt you if they're all checked...is the adcom less likely to believe teachers if they are? </p>
<p>Oh, and how many recs is too much?</p>
<p>Smilinlocks</p>
<p>yeah, I wanna know if the typical applicant gets all the checks at the "few best in my career"?!</p>
<p>I've got horrible letters. My counseler one doesn't even mention my personal qualities. Worse yet, we just got a new counseler last month and she's writing my school report. She is very very critical and it doesn't look very favorable.
I requested 5 letters of recommendations from teachers. at our school , the teachers give you the letters and you mail them out yourself, so I can read them and pick the two best. My science one is at best average. My literature teacher wrote one that I really don't like. My government teacher wrote a great one on my personal qualities, but her writing is very poor (it looks like she didn't put much time into it). I'm hoping one of the recs I'm waiting on is good; he was a former harvard professor.</p>
<p>Since this is the OFFICIAL site for letters of recommendations, I was wondering how many recs most people are sending in and from who?</p>
<p>math teacher = very very very nice guy.
physics teacher = nice guy too, taught me 2 years.</p>
<p>How many recommendations is the norm for Harvard now? I heard someone mention anywhere from 5 to 11.</p>
<p>2 to 3 is the norm. I don't know where you heard 5 through 11. Sounds like someone is trying to sabotage you..</p>
<p>It was a thread in CC where I saw someone post that many recommendations is the norm. For that reason I have gathered 5 recommendations now. Would that actually be detrimental? Only 2 will use the common app format though. The other three I plan to be supplements.</p>
<p>if you think they can paint you in a possitive light then send them in... if they only reinforce each other take 1 off</p>
<p>5 is too much.</p>
<p>2 teachers max, maybe one from an activity outside of the classroom if they can provide insight now given by the others. 5 is excessive and probably detrimental.</p>