<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I was wondering if any of you know what goes into a typical BS recommendation form. When I was checking out Choate, I saw the "common" recommendation form and I kind of freaked out. I've been in trouble for plagiarizing once in sixth grade (I didn't know that it was wrong) Anyways, I'm kind of scared now because the questions are so specific and what makes it worst is that they are against my favoring. On Choate's recommendation form, there are boxes that ask specific questions and our teachers are suppose to circle a response (eg. Best, excellent, need improvement, etc.) Are all schools like that? Any replies would be helpful (especially the ones regarding Andover and Deerfield)</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Recommendations are that detailed and they are a very important component to the application when it is being read.</p>
<p>The plagiarism issue doesn’t necessarily hurt you. If you learned an important lesson, that’s a good thing to have out of the way before having to learn it and pay high school- or college-level consequences for it. Handled well by the person filling out the form, it could work to your advantage (“GC has been in a demanding program and s/he has been held to expectations typically reserved for students much more advanced in years. GC struggled early on, stumbling once or twice a couple years ago, but has since risen to meet all challenges, blah, blah, blah…”)</p>
<p>If you’re concerned with a particular recommender, you might ask to have one person aggregate and coordinate the recommendations on your behalf. That person, obviously someone you trust very much and who would be willing to go to bat for you, would theoretically be privy to what the others write down – as this person would ensure that, between the school’s various recommendation, everything got covered and addressed in a somewhat consistent way and on a timely basis. That person would then send the materials in together. A counselor or assistant principal or someone in the main office would be best suited for such a request.</p>
<p>Remember, this process is something that’s new to you because you’re in 8th or 9th grade. It’s something that experienced educators in your school are familiar with. Even if they have no experience with boarding school recommendations, per se, they know all about recommendations. They’ve prepared them before; they’ve relied on others who wrote their own recommendations; and they are fully aware of how important they can be to the person who seeks one. Rest assured that most people, when given an opportunity to write a recommendation for someone that doesn’t make them vomit, try to do their very best in honestly portraying the subject in the best possible light. So, as long as you don’t make your teachers vomit, I bet they’ll do you a solid.</p>
<p>Just one note to add to what D’yer Maker has already said so well:</p>
<p>Yes, each school has its own recommendation form - and yes, they’re all similar to what you saw on Choate’s website. But, the schools don’t honestly give a darn which form you use, so do your recommenders a favor and give them ONE form to use for ALL your applications. You are already asking them to find a way to turn your negative past experience into a positive . . . do not ask them to do it six different ways for six different schools!</p>
<p>^** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** exactly</p>
<p>Ok! Thanks guys 
also, I’m applying for only 2 schools… Do you think that that’s too risky?</p>
<p>From your OP, are those two schools Andover and Deerfield? Both schools are highly selective. Are you comfortable with your day school options if you are not admitted to either boarding school?</p>
<p>^ what siliconvelleymom said!</p>
<p>No risk at all . . . as long as you don’t mind staying home!</p>
<p>When a school accepts, for example, only 15% of the kids who apply, it’s not because the other 85% were not qualified . . . it’s because they simply don’t have space for the overwhelming number of highly qualified students who apply! So, even if you were the “perfect” applicant (and there really is no such thing), you could still easily get rejected by the schools you apply to. Look at the stats on this forum for last year’s applicants (and the the year before and the year before . . .) - almost everyone has at least one school they didn’t get into!</p>
<p>If I’m reapplying to a school and I need to turn in the extracurricular recommendation, would it be a bad idea to ask the same person to fill it out as last year? I was debating whether I should or shouldn’t but it doesn’t seem like a good choice.</p>