So my English teacher refuses to write me a recommendation...

<p>This must be very rare in the CC community because I understand how everyone here is the top top top top top top top student who are representing their area/school to apply towards these BS.</p>

<p>Yes, my English 9 teacher rejected my request of completing a recommendation for my application. Major reason: I fell asleep in class. Why? Because of this damned application process. Plus, my current English teacher is the one of the teacher who is really be-there just-to-be-there if you know what I mean. She caught me catching z's in the middle of USSR(undisturbed-substained-silent-reading, or rather, in her mind, U Sit-down Shutup N' Read...)</p>

<p>Therefore, I had to let my English 8 teacher write me the recommendations.</p>

<p>I did not inform any school that I am applying to of this rejection and I was wondering if that could cause a total elimination of my application. I think it would definitely be a major setback if I were to inform the schools, but if I do not inform them candidly, it could cause every effort to be wasted.</p>

<p>well it does say on the rec it has to be your current teacher so that could be bad if the school finds out it isn’t. I don’t really know what to tell you because if you went to a higher authority (principle etc.) and had them talk your teacher into writing your rec, then I’m guessing she would not write u a very good one</p>

<p>Jerryeps,</p>

<p>When you say your English 9 teacher, do you mean your Freshman English teacher or is your school set up on a number system, ie, 1/2, 3/4. 5/6, 7/8. 9/10 system?</p>

<p>Better she refuses than to write a bad rec. 8th grade is better than nothing. May want to add that your 8th grade teacher knows you better. I would avoid any neg. comments. May want to be up front w/ the 8th grade teacher and ask her advice as to what she can do for you. In your case, I would also add another rec from a teacher other than Eng/math to show the consistency of you being a good student. Current Eng. teacher is a real grouch unless you are a disruptive student and she just hates you. If thats not the case, plan B would be to have a sit down w/ current grouchy Eng. teacher and see if there is any way she could give you a fair rec w/out the falling asleep part. May want to bring the parental unit in on this one. good luck:)</p>

<p>@SamuraiLandshark
Our courses are set on a number system; not very complex… I’m in the ninth grade, therefore, the English course I take is English 9. No accelerated courses offered :(</p>

<p>@bbc420
So there is no case of rejections in the BS’s mind? Haha…</p>

<p>LOL</p>

<p>i figure it’s better that (s)he told you up-front, rather than writing a scathing ‘recommendation’. i think it’s important to contact the schools, since it’s kind of against the norm/their policy (academic dishonesty). i think they’ll understand, since there’s not much you can do about a reluctant teacher…</p>

<p>best of luck!</p>

<p>Haha they really will not give a flying hoot about your English 9 teacher because they’ll have 99.99% applicants who have awe-inspiring recommendations from all teachers/ advisors… You’re probably the only one in this kind of situation at the moment. Let the 8th grade teacher send one. But they’re going to throw your app in the bin.</p>

<p>One grumpy teacher should not have so much power over this applicant. Get help from the 8th grade teacher. Jerry were you disrespectful to your current Eng. teacher? If everything about you is in good standing, grades,scores, other teacher recs, than you have a chance to get through this. I strongly suggest your parents talk to the school.</p>

<p>@jerryreps,
My friend’s in the same boat you are. He’s applying to Andover and Westminster and my math teacher refused to write him a rec. So he’s getting our math teacher from last year. No worries.</p>

<p>honesty is the best policy</p>

<p>haha. jerryyeps, same boat here. English teacher hates my guts.
This is what I’m planning to do–have my current english teacher write the rec, and have all of my other teachers (who allllll love me) write me EC recs and send them over once I get put on the waitlist. IF I get put on the waitlist.</p>

<p>@ maddog15</p>

<p>Not pointing any fingers or removing the blame off my should, my current English teacher is really not the nice lady you would think she is… </p>

<p>For example, we were studying Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (I know, pretty late for it to be studied in grade 9) and she goes, “If you were to choose someone to play Lysander, you don’t choose someone like a black n*****.” So she might be racist? I’m Asian so yeah. Unless you laugh along at her corny jokes, you won’t get along with her. Plus, she is teaching us grade 12 material from her grade 12 class so it’s really hard to hang on to an A and stand out.</p>

<p>So I think my best option would be to inform the schools… right? Any objections?</p>

<p>Honesty is always the best policy.</p>

<p>uhhhh jerryeps I think that if you informed the schools they might think you to be a whiny little guy who doesn’t want to accept responsibility for his own shortcomings.
So yeah. <em>objection</em></p>

<p>Dont put up that red flag. It draws too much attention. Just go w/ the 8th grade teacher and hope that she writes a glowing review. In most of your apps, there is a place to add anything else you would like the schools to know. You can simply state you had a bad day and fell asleep in the grumpy ladys class and she never forgave you for it. Falling asleep is better than acting up in class. Aos may think youre lazy/sleepy but they wont think your disruptive.
If your grades and everything else is in good standing you will look fine, The AOs can read between the lines. You`ll be fine.</p>

<p>hey guys, just piggybacking on OP, if an English teacher hates my guts, told me that she was going to butcher my app as best she could, AND I’ve accidentally already submitted her scathing ‘recommendation’ to AO, how screwed am I and what can I do now?
The rest of my recs should be great and all of my other teachers, including my 8th grade english teacher, loves me.</p>

<p>wow, whats with these English teachers? You should add to the extra comment section of your app. that this teacher wrote a neg. rec. for this, this and this reasons. BTW, Why does she hate you?</p>

<p>she thinks I was disrespectful towards her and have a bad attitude in class. Which is weird, because I don’t recall doing anything bad in class, and this was the first time I’ve ever had a teacher on my bad side. Which means that the root reason is PMS. XD nah i’m joking. I honestly have no idea why she hates me so though.</p>

<p>Why don`t your parents talk to the head of school? My parents would be all over this like white on rice! This is your future man.</p>

<p>I’m gonna be a man and take the risk. Hope not all of my schools reject me without consideration. Fingers crossed.</p>

<p>@ flash9k</p>

<p>If we ended up going to the same school, we’d rant about bad English teachers and Chinese-Canadian family troubles all day long.</p>