<p>I'm thinking of asking my history teacher for a rec, because she likes me a lot right now. Plus she went to Princeton and supposedly writes the best recs in the school. Unfortunately, I slacked off a lot in the beginning of the year and sometimes slept in class. However, I improved drastically the second half of the year, and the teacher really appreciates my change. She says that while she'll try her best to write a great rec, she has to mention my slacking off at the beginning of the year. Should I ask her for the rec even though she'll mention my sleeping in class? Any thoughts? I have several other teachers to ask, but I think my history teacher might be able to make me stand out even though I didn't try my best for the beginning of the year.</p>
<p>Anyone???</p>
<p>You improved and started doing better. I think that’s the important thing, and her mentioning your slacking off at the beginning probably highlights that. You might have been a slacker at one point, but you no longer are. That might be what she’ll be trying to say in the letter.</p>
<p>Go for it, I suppose.</p>
<p>Yeah. Like, she’s gonna mention your slacking, but also show how you grew, and GROWTH is a very important thing in college admissions. Not to mention she went to PRINCETON. Having a Princeton grad recommend you for ANYTHING is always good. So, go for it! And Good Luck!</p>
<p>Thanks for all the insight. Anyone else?</p>
<p>No, I would avoid this recommendation. If a potential recommender tells you, “yes, but…” then that is probably a recommendation to avoid. If she had known you for years, and your sleeping was, say, when you were a freshman but you’ve since grown out of it, then that would be one thing. But, the “growth” argument within the context of a single year is not really a compelling one.</p>
<p>Find someone who knows you, talk with them about what you’d like your recommendation to do and be, and use that person. You shouldn’t mind an honest and frank assessment of you in a letter of recommendation, but coming across as a lazy slacker when applying to an ultra-competitive place like Princeton is a terrible idea.</p>
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Your teacher has had the decency and honesty to tell you she’s not going to be writing you a strong rec. </p>
<p>Put yourself in an adcoms shoes; you have more applicants than spaces, in fact you can only take 15% or so. Do you take a chance on the one who’s rec says he was a slacker but has been better? Or do you take one of the other 6 kids trying for the same spot, one with a rec that raves about how he always has tried his best?</p>
<p>But hey, its your app, do what you think is best.</p>
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<p>Listen to this sage advice.</p>
<p>I applaud your teacher’s honesty. She obviously puts much weight into her rec letter writing process. But since you clearly have a black mark in any rec letter she would write (regardless of your improvement), I would not have her write one for you.</p>
<p>But frankly, only you are to blame for your slacking in her class and you can’t avoid that.</p>
<p>I transferred from a community college and asked for recommendation from the Dean of Students. I told her to be fully honest with everything as I had my problems both medical and with school. The main thing I over came both and she said this in her letter so it probably helped. Schools want students who can pull themselves up from the negative circumstances in their lives and still succeed. You will always have bumps in the road and if schools see you can succeed even in the worse conditions they see someone who they will want. I was accepted to an Ivy school and two of the best tech schools in the world. So you still have a lot of hope.</p>
<p>P.S. I’m going to Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York which is the first stop for tech companies to recruit for employees like MS and Google so you can’t go wrong with that :)</p>
<p>"Schools want students who can pull themselves up from the negative circumstances in their lives and still succeed. " </p>
<p>Shopgrlz: you’re absolutely correct. But the OP says he “slept in class” and the teacher would clearly note that negative action along with his eventual maturation. </p>
<p>Your dean’s rec letter and the OP’s teacher’s potential rec letter would read very differently, I believe…</p>
<p>Your right about the sleeping issue but there could have been circumstances which caused you to fall asleep in class like medications or illness. I don’t know the student and the student may have explained the problem too. All three universities I applied to also knew of a felony possession of drugs too. It was explained to them and also in the courts record too that it was not just simple possession but a suicide attempt due to severe depression. I didn’t think any of the five schools I applied to would accept me but all of them did. I was quite surprised. Anyhow upon arrival at RIT I had a meeting with Student Conduct and they told me “no second chances”. They have been fantastic in helping me in every way possible to succeed. RIT and other colleges are willing to give students who pull themselves out of even the worse situations a chance, but once you are there you better get counseling instead of drugs to hurt yourself. All colleges have counseling on campus for students and I see one weekly while at school. It has helped not just with my depression but with my grades too.</p>
<p>Error above in my message:
I applied to only 3 schools not 5</p>