<p>I've finally discovered the best advice comes from this forum. You parents seem to know everything, and are so willing to help. Thanks so much!</p>
<pre><code> My question concerns recommendations. I'm a shy girl, so I've never really gotten to know any of my teachers on a personal, outside-of-class level. I hardly participate in class, either. But at my school, that seems like the norm. Anyone who even thinks about talking to a teacher outside of class is instantly labeled a teacher's pet. Consequently I've never gotten to know my junior year teachers who I should be asking for recommendations from. My recommendations will probably be decent/good at best. What do you recommend? Certainly there have been shy kids who don't know many teachers who have gotten into good schools. What would you advise me to do?
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<p>I'm making an effort to establish more connections with my senior year teachers, but it's hard (I'm really shy in school), and I want to apply EA to a few schools so it really wouldn't be much of an option to ask them now for recommendations after knowing them for less than a month.</p>
<pre><code>So what should I do? Should I suck it up and get mediocre recs from my junior year teachers? Or risk it and see if something develops with senior year teachers that could be better and apply RD? I guess I'm really just asking how much these lackluster recommendations will hurt me (I never knew that recommendations were important until I discovered CC this summer!)
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<p>[By the way, the schools I'm looking to apply to are Boston College, WashU, UNC-CH (OOS), Penn State Honors, Georgetown, and U of Miami.]</p>
<p>Thanks so much! ANY advice or insight would be appreciated!</p>
<p>What about trying to speak with your junior year teachers NOW? You might be surprised to learn that they liked/admired/enjoyed you more than you thought. In any case, it doesn't hurt to make an appointment & go & talk to each of them (no point in worrying about being called a teacher's pet since you no longer have any of these teachers).
When you meet with the teachers, you should go in with a a short printout with your jobs, volunteer & EC activities, as well as your goals (like fields you like to study & why you have chosen each school on your list). Talk to the teachers candidly & ask them whether they would be able to write you a STRONG recommendation.</p>
<p>Actually, I believe recommendations are often over-rated. While a very strong one can help tip an app and a very weak one could tip the app the other way, from all I've read & heard, the other recs don't affect things much one way or another. This us ibe reason some schools have done away with recs entirely.</p>
<p>Hope this is helpful & good luck. Start now, so the teachers can thoughtfully consider whether they would be comfortable writing on your behalf (if they say, "no," thank them for their candor & move on to the next).</p>
<p>Do you have a GC? I like HImom's suggestions very much. You could add to them making an appointment with your GC and asking him/her to help you identify the best teachers for recs. Often the GCs know who writes the better recommendations and can tell you just what info you should provide to some of your junior teachers to help them write a good rec.</p>
<p>You don't really need to know the teachers outside of class (imo), although that can help. Class participation can help, too. But if you performed well in the class, especially ones with essays/written reports, the teachers may feel they "know" you more than you think.</p>
<p>Research your teachers to learn their alma maters -- perhaps some are alums of your target schools. Most alums are very enthusiastic about writing recs for students applying to their undergrad or grad institutions. (If you are really ambitious, research their spouses and kids also.)</p>
<p>Once your teacher has agreed to write one rec, it's little addtional work to send them to all your targets.</p>
<p>Asking the GC which teachers write good recs is a good idea. Choosing teachers for whom you did excellent work is always a good plan.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for your advice. I'm going to put together a resume soon and email my teachers to talk about this with them. You guys are great! I really appreciate it. I feel so much better about everything already.</p>