<p>If you are applying to a 2-recommendation school, and you have a strong GPA, test scores, ECs, and essays, and 1 strong letter of recommendation, how much will one slightly mediocre recommendation hurt you? Seriously?</p>
<p>I'd imagine ANY teacher with a sense of decency would decline to write recs for someone they knew theyd say bad or slightly negative things about, so if they agree to write a letter, then I guess it's a good sign. Then again, people are unpredictable.</p>
<p>does anyone know?</p>
<p>I'm wondering this as well, as I have one teacher who absolutely loves me and another who... well, I'm not the biggest talker during class.</p>
<p>Here's how I see it, though: Teachers aren't out to get you, and like you said, if they really had something really bad to say about you, they'd decline to write you a rec if they had any decency. Besides, teachers know what they're doing. If you tended to talk a lot during class discussions but didn't have anything particularly insightful to say (hypothetical situation, here), I'm pretty sure that the worst a teacher could write was "Blah participated a lot in class, and showed effort through the obvious passion he displayed for class discussions."</p>
<p>Of course, a teacher would probably put it more eloquently. Maybe I'm completely wrong about what they would say, too, because I obviously have no experience with writing recs. But my logic is, no person becomes a high school teacher to PREVENT his/her students from getting into college.</p>
<p>wanna know... I have one teacher who I spent the last month of school w/ (cuz all the seniors in my class had left before end of school), so I'm sure she likes me.. The other one, I only chose her because I actually participated in her class (though not a tremendous amount, but much more than the other classes when I rarely participated).</p>
<p>What a teacher doesn't say in a recommendation is very telling. The recommendation may have a positive tone, but lacking any true enthusiasm, it can be a killer.</p>
<p>When asking a teacher for a recommendation, don't simply ask for a recommendation. Instead, ask your teacher if he can write a strong, positive letter of recommendation. This gives him the opportunity to decline if he doesn't know you well enough or if your work did not stand out above the rest.</p>
<p>^So your recommending has to be extremely enthusiastic? dear god...</p>
<p>I read that at certain colleges, they weight teacher recommendations differently. For example, at Harvard (I think they have three recs? I'm not sure, I don't think I want to apply there, haha) they weight each rec individually, while at a college like Duke, they clump both recs into a "recommendation quality" category. So if you have a subpar rec at Harvard, it might kill your chances, but at Duke, there's slightly more wiggle room. .....
read admissions confidential. (that's where I got the info from, at least.)</p>
<p>I went to a speech by a Yale admissions officer who said he had once gotten a letter something like this: "Over the years, I have taught many students who have gone on to the Ivy League. In my opinion, [name of student] is not Ivy League material."</p>
<p>I suppose that demonstrates that not all teachers are above board on this stuff, but I think you can count on most of them not hurting you in that way.</p>
<p>Look, the VAST, VAST majority of recs are "standard strong." They simply reiterate your accomplishments. They neither hurt nor help you. Only a very, very few letters stand out, and that is invariably because (1) you actually DO stand out and (2) your teacher knows how to write an effective letter.</p>
<p>I wouldn't generally count on too much of a boost from a rec, at least for most people.</p>
<p>^but if you have "standard strong" recs that don't stand out, can't you stand out from other people through other parts of your app, like essay/activities/awards.. etc?</p>
<p>Well one has to be honest, even without that rec it would have been blatantly obvious to any seasoned adcom that the kid wasn't Ivy material. I'd be more afraid of personality issues in a rec, not academic potential. The latter is seen quite easily on the application (it's GPA+Test scores basically). The former can't always be seen that easily.</p>
<p>^Boo! I'm only going to apply to my local community college then..</p>
<p>I think they do admissions holistically... It's not like one mediocore rec will immediately get you rejected...</p>
<p>If your teacher's like you you have little to fear. They won't go out of their way to say something bad about you unless you did not get along with that teacher or that teacher is brutally honest. You may want to speak to NSM about this, I think I remember her posting once that her teacher wrote that "she wasn't Harvard material" yet she still got in. However, that was years ago and competition has become stiffer. Ultimately one part of your app probably won't break you...but it's great to have security.</p>
<p>bobmallet:</p>
<p>Of course there are other ways to stand out. All I'm trying to say is that most recs won't do much for you.</p>
<p>That same rep from Yale went on to say that, when he looks at a transcript, he checks the grades right off. If they don't impress him, he looks at the recs. Unless something in the recs impress him, he pretty much rejects the app. He DID say that, if one or more of the recs grabs him, he gives that app further consideration, which he may not have done otherwise.</p>
<p>^Whew, what a relief when you said "most recs won't do much for you"</p>
<p>What I find weird is that I think I participated in the US history class but she tells me I should talk more... strange...</p>