<p>I recently witnessed an argument between students of 2 schools, regarding recommendations. </p>
<p>School A had their teacher recommendations written by their teachers and posted confidentially to the colleges. School B, on the other hand, has students write their own recommendations and teachers sign it and then its sent.</p>
<p>I happen to be in School B. In my school, I have begged my teacher to write my reco. but he is simply to lazy to do that and says "You write, I trust you. Just let me see it and I will sign it." He says that to everyone. For many of us, he is the only english teacher that taught us in the last 2 years. We have no choice but to write them ourselves. Similar case with many other lazy teachers.</p>
<p>So, if the college found out that we wrote our own recos. would they rescind their admission offers? I mean is it illegal that we do that? Will it be of any disadvantage in admissions?</p>
<p>In the end it is the teacher who actually signs the recos, seals it and signs it on the envelope. The teacher endorses it completely 100%.....but how will the college adcoms view this?
College A says its not fair and is ILLEGAL?</p>
<p>As long as you do lie or blatantly exaggerate about your qualities or your accomplishments, you shouldn't have lose any sleep over it.</p>
<p>If you are OK w/ writing your own recommendation and having your teacher sign it, no one would ever know unless you or your teacher told them. </p>
<p>However, if you don't feel comfortable writing your own recommendation, don't do it. Have another teacher write a recommendation for you and send the college a letter explaining your situation.</p>
<p>I wonder if there is any way to compare the results of the two types of letters. Does School A get more students into top flight universities? </p>
<p>When I read a lengthy letter, I can usually tell the age and education level of the writer. If I saw evidence that a student wrote his or her own reference, I would tend to disregard whatever it said. That leaves a large hole in the evaluation process, and works against the applicant in two ways: the student will be thought of as dishonest, and he or she will miss out on the boost that a sincere, impartial reference letter would give. </p>
<p>Your teachers' policy is detrimental to your success, and I applaud you in taking the matter to the administration. Don't make your argument too personal; emphasize how this hurts the schools' reputation and all of the affected students.</p>
<p>School A does indeed gets its students into Ivies regularly.
I understand why you say that us writing our own recommendations are bad. But honestly, we do not have a choice.</p>
<p>I know a guy who was very bad in English Writing. So he was like begging the teacher to write his recos. But the teacher wouldnt do it. He said he was too busy. He later compiled his reco. by copy-pasting sections frm. sample recos. on the internet and some of his frens edited it. </p>
<p>In our case, it is the teacher's fault. We do not have a choice. We are forced to write it..even the teacher will admit this!!!</p>
<p>Since you said you have no choice, why not turn this into a unique opportunity ? Write the rec yourself, turn it into a self evaluation and declare on top that this is a honest self-evaluation (be wise to be a little humble, list your weakness and strengths, concurred by your teacher, and mentioned that you had forged a trusting relationship w your teacher and he agrees with your self-evaluation. Adhcom may applaud your integrity and sees you as who you really are. Good luck.</p>
<p>yes...many of us see it is a chance for second essay (in third person..lol)......but honestly....we do not appreciate us writing recos......trust us...some of us really feel guilty that we are forced to do this!!!</p>
<p>midwesterner: What if the student wrote the reco. but the teacher endorses it and signs it......we are helpless against that...so its unfair if you count it against us....</p>
<p>This seems to be a matter of cultural misunderstanding, but, in the US, if an application asks for an independent letter of recommendation, that is supposed to be fulfilled. However, since you went ahead and wrote the letters yourself, I think you should stop worrying and get on with your life. You cannot change the letters, and you don't want to draw a college's attention to the situation. </p>
<p>You could help others in the future by writing to your school's director about the policy and how it interpreted in the USA. As I said before, there is a difference between an evaluative letter written by a student and one written by an adult, but when English is not your first language, it's harder to distinguish.</p>