<p>Hey everyone...</p>
<p>I come to ask today whether there is anything I can do in regards to an incident regarding one of my academic recommendation "letters." Unfortunately, I handed off the responsibility for writing one to a teacher whom I believed at the time would be capable of writing fluently and effectively... However, he showed me his letter a couple of weeks ago right before submitting it and I noticed a major problem: he copy/pasted directly from my "resum</p>
<p>Since you’re applying to Stanford, you must have pretty good test scores. Admissions officers see the whole gamut of stuff from teacher recs. If I was looking at your credentials and then reading that letter, I’d think “this guy must have a lot of initiative to be able to score at that level while coming from a HS where he’s taught by turkeys like the recommendation writer.”</p>
<p>Thanks. Well, let’s just say my test scores aren’t what will get me in, if I can and do.</p>
<p>But I see. However, at any highly selective university, will officers really trust that the teachers there weren’t necessarily “capable” per se of writing a decent letter and take that into account in their overall vision of the applicant? Especially when they ask for applicants to decide on a teacher based on if they believe a sufficient letter can be written?</p>
<p>If you come from a school sending few to colleges requiring recs, they’ll very much understand. Meanwhile why not add an extra rec from someone who is involved wirh you in an EC who knows you well?</p>
<p>I would recommend that you get an additional teacher to write a letter. This current teacher, whether intentionally or not, is demonstrating that he has little to say about you. The current letter implies that he doesn’t know you well enough to add anything other than what was on your resume.
It would have been better if he had just said that he would rather not write it. Colleges use these letters to look for something beyond the test scores and GPAs. At selective schools , I don’t think a bad letter will automatically exclude you, but in group deliberations you don’t want to be up against a kid with the same stats that also has a letter from a teacher that says, "X is teh most intellectually curious person that I have ever taught. In addition, X tutors othes in the class selflessly, etc…</p>
<p>Confide in another teacher to get another rec letter before the deadline. but remember, the AdComm will look at your application holisitcally, they will not place a lot of weight on grammatical errors by the teacher - the teacher is not applying to the school. They are more interested in what the teachers and GC have to say about you substantively. Do not lose any sleep over this.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the feedback.</p>
<p>@2college2college: I actually already had a letter submitted from a friend from the EC that I’m involved with. That should help.</p>
<p>As far as the first school goes, there’s no turning back unfortunately. Although there’s bad news on that end, I just called the second university’s admissions office and the person whom I spoke to on the phone said it would be fine to send an additional academic recommendation even though technically they say only one academic and one personal.</p>
<p>I believe that the teacher did this unintentionally however. What’s done is done, though. I may try speaking with another teacher tomorrow about writing me a letter, though now that the deadline is so soon (the 15th), it may just be too late.</p>