<p>I don’t know the numerical limits, but yes, both teachers D asked (end of last year) had a limit number. They are both filled up and will take no more kids.</p>
<p>This would never happen at the private school I work at. Writing recommendations is indeed a part of every teachers job. And yes, a well crafted , very personalized recommendation letter can indeed take several hours. Then again, our faculty know all of our students very well and this makes it easier.</p>
<p>However, I can see this restriction happening at large public schools. Is it right - no but no doubt it happens all the time</p>
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<p>Our teachers are also willing to go the extra mile to help students get into college. </p>
<p>As part of the Senior Exhibition, seniors are required to ask someone to write a recommendation for them. I have been asked to write a number of these recommendations. I would say that it easily takes a full night to do them. I ask questions of the students, about their plans, likes, extra curriculars, stories I could tel about them, etc. </p>
<p>Then I write and polish. 3-4 hours is a good estimate of the time it take to do a letter right. Our neighbor’s D had a GC who told her that it didn’t take him more than 15 minutes to write a letter of recommendation. I would NOT want to have that guy as my GC!</p>
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I think that since there is no “official” list and count, this way the teachers have an easy way out of writing recommendations for kids that they have problems with. “Sorry, I’ve reached my limit”
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<p>That seems reasonable, although in a ideal world, the teacher would politely decline to write the recommendation and gently but honestly explain why.</p>
<p>Having been through this exercise last year, my D and I both felt this was the one area of applying to colleges that caused problems. Everything else on the application checklist can be handled by the student in a relatively straightforward, timely fashion. It seemed that with recommendations, though, no matter how early she (and her classmates) made their requests for teacher recs, something would fall through the cracks. One big issue was that many colleges have an application cut-off of January 1st. Some teachers put off the rec-writing until Christmas break, so the timing makes it difficult for students to follow up if the rec doesn’t show up online. Add to that the issue of some colleges using the common app, some having their own forms, and each student applying to multiple colleges. It is understandable that teachers get weary. I personally get weary of some of the colleges’ recommendation requirements, though.</p>
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Both D & S graduated from private school. At D’s school, some of the teachers did have a limit, which annoyed the heck out me, considering what we were paying. It all turned out well for D, as I had her ask teachers in the spring of her junior year – but still … At S’s school, I asked his College Guidance Counselor about limits and she looked at me like I had 2 heads. She said absolutely not; teachers will write recs for as many kids as ask.</p>
<p>All I know is that my S had no problems at all getting his AP Calc and AP English teacher to agree to write LORs. All schools he’s applying to except the UCs require LORs, and all except one are Common App schools. He provided, as required in his HS, the resume/brag sheet/list of activites, than included answers to a few opened ended questions.</p>
<p>Within two weeks, the teachers had finished their LORs to the Common App schools and had mailed the other. The GC is still working, but considering she may need to provide something for about 100 seniors, and S’s first due date instead until Nov 1, I’d say it’s looking pretty good.</p>
<p>I’ve never heard any scuttlebutt among parents about LOR limits. It probably helps tremendously that the UC and CSU system do not require LORs, since a lot of student apply pretty much just to these campuses.</p>
<p>Both of my daughters went to a school with over 4000 students. They had no problems getting recs.</p>
<p>There are guidelines which are posted on their website, and gone over numerous times with the students. (When to ask, when to give the teachers the college info, addressed envelopes and that sort of thing.)</p>
<p>My d just told me that one of the more popular history teachers limits himself to 10 students for whom he’ll write letters. That surprises me, but I guess it can get overwhelming if you have 50 kids asking you to write letters to each of their 8 or 10 (or 18 in one case) schools.</p>
<p>While some of the teachers claimed they would limit the number of letters they would write, I also think it is a polite way of declining a student for whom they might not be able to write the best letter</p>
<p>Jym, I’m sure you’re right. I would bet that the history teacher I mentioned earlier would break his rule if one of his best students was the eleventh one to ask. ;)</p>
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Do the teachers where you are actually compose a separate rec letter for each school? I’ve been assuming that the teacher would write one generic letter for the kid and then print it out as many times as there are schools to send it to.</p>
<p>nightchef</p>
<p>I would have assumed this too, but I know of at least one AP teacher at my son’s public hs who personalized each rec he wrote for each college for each student and he was a master teacher who was asked by many of his students for recs. I never heard of one he turned down.</p>
<p>“Do the teachers where you are actually compose a separate rec letter for each school? I’ve been assuming that the teacher would write one generic letter for the kid and then print it out as many times as there are schools to send it to.”</p>
<p>Some don’t and some do, but if you have 50 kids asking you to write for their 10 schools, that’s 500 letters you’re printing out. Talk about time consuming! And the making sure the right letters get in the right envelopes etc…</p>
<p>Wouldn’t adcoms notice that more than one student from that high school received the very same recommendation? And how can it be a recommendation (i.e., a personal endorsement) if it’s the same for every kid? Maybe I don’t understand what you’re saying.</p>
<p>^Not the same rec for each student, but the same letter for one student to go to all 8 colleges he was applying to. My D’s teacher did just that, reprinting the letter just changing the college name in each. My S is now a junior, and he is having a hard time deciding what teacher to ask.</p>
<p>Sorry, I get it now. Duh.</p>
<p>I know, for me at leat, i will be using the same rec for every school
one kid, however, asked 4 teachers to do his recs(he only needs 2 per school) and has 2 do recs for schools X and Y , and the other two do schools A and T</p>
<p>At our school the teachers write one letter per student and give it to Guidance. Guidance makes the copies, not the teachers. </p>
<p>That said, with all that is expected of teachers these days and rising class sizes, I don’t blame teachers for limiting how many recs they will do. Teachers have lives and families outside of school, too.</p>
<p>I think the Common App teacher recommendation form is a great boon for teachers–one recommendation form, multiple copies. Some schools do have their own recommendation forms–besides the actual letter, they might want boxes checked or short answers given. I suppose that a school will not hold it against a student if the teacher merely sent the letter without filling out all the boxes.</p>