<p>My son’s teachers showed him their letters of recommendation (gave them to him to mail), and the GC showed him her counselor page used for the Common Application.</p>
<p>Son’s GC went over his letters of rec before they were sent out. Good thing, too, since one of his teachers put “UMich” on his “UNC” letter!!</p>
<p>What about the fiasco of the letter not being sent by the EA deadline? Just needed to vent. Aargh!</p>
<p>Our private school also keeps the letters confidential.</p>
<p>However, every report card comes with several paragraphs about the kid that are usually fairly personal, so students don’t really need the LORs to given them feedback.</p>
<p>Which is why I continue to think this whole thing is a farce, because the private school kids will receive thoughtful, well-written letters, and the large public school kids will receive ones written by teachers who don’t know how to play the game, and if the colleges are discounting the ones written by teachers who don’t know how to play the game, then I fail to see the purpose in the first place, because they already know whether kid goes to Small Private School with People Who Know What’s What or Large Public School Where You’re Lucky The Letter Got Filed on Time.</p>
<p>All is not lost, Pizzagirl. Most kids in our rural public hs go to state schools or community colleges so few letters of recommendation are even requested from hs teachers. (The hs had never sent a kid to the Ivy League before.) S requested letters from a math teacher and an English teache, and whatever they wrote was good enough to get him accepted at Harvard.</p>
<p>S’07 waived his right to see his LORs and never saw them. </p>
<p>D’10 asked a teacher who doesn’t write many recs to write one for her (the teacher teaches phys ed/health, but she is their class advisor and D has been a class officer for 4 years). The teacher asked to meet with D to go over what she had written and be sure it was ok! D asked me, “Is that even allowed?” I said if the teacher offered it, yes. I didn’t see the letter but D said it was wonderful. Her GC went over her LOR with D as well as D’s other teacher (academic subject) LOR. So D saw all of her LORs.</p>
<p>At our school the official policy is that kids don’t see rec letters, but the GC’s look at them and if they’re not good they won’t send them, they’ll advise the kid to find someone else to write another one. (Clearly D’s GC didn’t follow that policy!) The teachers are told to give the LORs to guidance, they keep them in the kids’ file and make copies as needed for each school.</p>
<p>At my the very large, public high school that my daughters attended the letters are confidential.</p>
<p>The letters are also confidential at our public high school, and ordinarily students don’t get to see them. For one of my kids, however, two teachers gave him copies of their letters. </p>
<p>I actually cried when I read them. Maybe most letters are pretty standard, but these letters meant the world to us. I was not able to be very active in my kids’ high school, and didn’t even have an opportunity to meet most of my kids’ teachers (working full time, caring for an ill spouse). These teachers took a lot of time to write something unique and personal about my kid and even our family. Both teachers also added a little information about themselves to explain their assessment of my kid. One had graduated from a military academy and was a decorated officer, and the other had won state teaching awards. </p>
<p>I think there’s a special place in heaven for teachers who take the time to write good LORs for their students. I will thank the two teachers who shared their letters with my kid forever.</p>
<p>In a sense, I can understand confidentiality rules to allow free expression, and minimize complaints from students/parents. On the other hand, if someone can not give a great rec, why agree to give one? I think almost everyone has someone who can give then a great rec. (other than complete trouble makers). If you don’t want the applicant to know what is written, is that good? I realize that the letter writers need some protection from the disgruntled, but there should be a way to not have to write letters that are not really supportive of the candidate.</p>
<p>I don’t think that public school teachers are going to be worse than private school teachers in writing good/excellent recs. However, I would think that the guidance counselors can not possibly do a great job for hundreds of students if they are responsible for so many. In that case, unless the HS is really an unknown quantity, and no other students are applying to the same school for comparison, the guidance report is read in the context of what that particular school supplies. I do believe that students from the same school are compared to each other, regardless of what anyone admits to.</p>
<p>Our GC sat down with my D and went over the letter with her - D pointed out some errors and made some suggestions, which the GC happily listened to. But we haven’t seen the final letter, nor any of the letters sent by other teachers.</p>
<p>I’m just hoping one of the letters gets submitted soon, since the teacher in question is very, very pregnant, and will probably be too busy to think about this in the near future!</p>
<p>I had to get three recommendations for my college app. Two of the three teachers showed me their letters to make sure everything was okay, and, to be honest, it was two of the most touching things I have read. The third teacher actually drove to my college (about two hours away) and dropped off her letter herself! I attend a small, rural public HS. </p>
<p>Whenever I need a recommendation for a scholarship, I ask another teacher. He always gives me the form on school letterhead and then a copy of that for me to keep.</p>
<p>Neither S1 nor we saw the rec letters from S1’s HS or from the director at the math program he attended. The prof he worked with at the flagship did share his letter. While it was clearly written by a computer scientist (find the shortest path to a functional answer!), it packed a big punch. He cited specific examples of where S stood in relation to other PhD students he taught, discussed the results of S’s research, S’s work ethic and basically put it out there. I still get goosebumps thinking about it. The letter did not need flowery prose to convey the message.</p>
<p>My feeling is that if the student picks the teachers who know him/her best and who he/she respects, it’s hard to go spectacularly wrong. We had enough to worry about around here without worrying about the teachers’ grammar!</p>
<p>Am still wishing that one of S2’s rec writers would send out more than two copies of his letter…but we have Plan B, which should work just as well.</p>
<p>The letter (to my knowledge) that S didn’t see was the one from his GC. However, he’s had her since frosh year, did more “touch base” junior year (plus she needed to assist him getting approval to take college level math classes) and followed up senior year with some diligence in completing the school’s “student resume” form. I think her letter was on the money as well as the LORs from the other teachers, as S told me something last week. </p>
<p>Apparently the GC’s are putting together a senior pinwheel for placement on the bullet board outside School District HQ. Each GC was asked to select two top students for placement on the pinwheel, as he was one of the two she selected (the other is the QB of the football team, who attended language immersion elementary that S did, but was on the Japanese track.) Each pinwheel section will include a picture of the senior, a listing of their favorite classes and what they like best about the HS, a sample of their ECs and a sample of the colleges they are applying to.</p>
<p>I go to a small enough high school (125 in my graduating class, though that is smaller than the rest) that my guidance counselor actually knew me and I’m grateful for that. She had me read the letter and make sure it was okay (grammar-wise and making sure content was correct). Two of the three teachers I asked for recs simply gave them to me in folders and had me deliver them to guidance, with the okay to read them and check for consistencies in my application. The third (the one I don’t have this year, so I didn’t see him) just dropped it off with my counselor.</p>
<p>I really recommend applying to at least one school Early Action because it forces you to get recs in to guidance and get at least one essay done months before Regular Decision apps need to be in. Its really helping my stress levels.</p>
<p>Recs for DDs were sent directly to the colleges through the guidance office (their system really works - everything in on time). I have to believe the colleges will take the variability of teacher’s skills into account. Some teachers, even at the HS level, are not adept at writing letters (I work with engineers and don’t even get me started on their writing skills). Colleges will accept that.</p>
<p>D waived her rights to see her recs but two of her teachers emailed her copies. I agree with abasket that the opportunity to see those recommendations made her feel very good about all the work she’d done, both as a person and a student. Also agree that there must be a special place in heaven for the teachers like that. :)</p>
<p>D only saw one of her LORs and only after she had made her selection. One of her teachers gave her a copy of the letter (most likely version of what he sent to all of her schools) he sent to her first choice. I found it crumpled in her backpack, where she said it would be. It was wonderful, personal and absolutely on the mark. More than that, it told us things about our D that we would never have known otherwise. It actually brings a tear to my eye as I write this.</p>
<p>I agree… there is a special place in heaven for all passionate educators.</p>
<p>I’m in college now, but my counselor recommendation was quite literally a page-long metaphor of me as a “brilliant white yacht.” I don’t have a copy of it on my computer (alas), but in the letter, which was full of bad grammar and spelling errors, I talked to mermaids and made some kind of sun-drenched journey into the sea that was supposed to be a metaphor for my entry into college. I got the letter after it had been sent out, but before I had gotten in anywhere… I thought it was hilarious, but I’m pretty sure it almost gave my mother a heart attack. After I got in (everywhere except UChicago - further proof that it’s where fun goes to die, clearly), though, she scanned it and sent copies to all of our relatives…</p>
<p>At our children’s HS the students are required to go directly to teachers for recommendations. Following is true! </p>
<p>D asked French teacher for recommendation at the end of October, for regular decision time-line. Teacher enthusiastically agrees to write letter; teacher had spoken of D in other classes as example of great French ability. D had been taking French classes at local U for last year as she had exhausted classes at HS. French teacher is a quirky “spinster,” and absentminded. D reminded French teacher repeatedly about deadline. As deadline approached I tell daughter that I hope she has a Plan “B” as French teacher appeared to be dropping the ball. It was the 11th hour for deadline and still no letter. D has class for the first time ever with a world politics teacher who admires/ thinks highly of D. D goes to this teacher, explains the situation, and he has a glowing recommendation letter written within 24 hours. </p>
<p>D admitted to her 1st choice school. The French teacher? Never did finish the letter.</p>