<p>I have straight As great test scores and everything like that however there is one problem.</p>
<p>I DO NOT KNOW ANY OF MY TEACHERS. I don't need to. I know everything they teach me so i never have to ask questions or stay after school, I never talk to them except when i ask for my grade and i rarely answer questions in class because it's too boring. Now that i need teachers to write recommendations for me, i have no idea what they'll put. They will all wonder why in the world i chose them to write recs and they don't know anything about me but my name. I know i am smarter then everyone in my class ( i will be valedictorian) however my Recs suck. What should i DO?</p>
<p>A teacher who is skilled at recommendations will be able to piece something together to the effect of, "So-and-so's work in the classroom is [blah blah blah], s/he is respectful, wrote a nice paper about such-and-such." It won't be great but it's the best you can do with the situation. </p>
<p>Since you don't really know any of your teachers, pick the ones a) who are the best at writing and b) in whose classes you do the best/most original/most noteworthy work.</p>
<p>Interacting in class and establishing a good repor with teachers is a important aspect of college life. If you think a question is too boring stretch it a little bit to make it more interesting but do learn to participate as it is important.</p>
<p>Most teachers if they don't have the knowledge or believe that they will say something unfavorable will decline to write the recommendation. To me if your marks are as good as you say, they will vouch for your effort in the classroom dedication, study ect. However, you may have a problem when they get to a key part of the recommendation where they want to say Dick or Jane interacted very well in the classroom they were an active particpant in class room discussions, added their personal perspectives and I very much enjoyed having them in the class ect ect. Not much you can do about that one now. Most will ask you for a copy of your senior fact sheet if your school uses one. they can then use that to add some comments to the recommendation they may not have done. Another couple of ideas are to pick a teacher that you had which the kids really relate to at the school or if you have had brothers or sisters with the same teacher you had go in and start a conversation with that as an icebreaker.</p>
<p>I had the same problem. Absolutely none of my teachers knew me for who I was.</p>
<p>But nonetheless, their recs turns out, well, decent. They were all pretty basic though. I'm still waiting on most of my decisions, so I guess I can't really say how they affected my admission prospects at this point.</p>
<p>in life, for jobs, apartments, internships, etc you will need to</p>
<p>1- NOT be such a know it all
2- learn to interact with people
3- find a way to be a team player</p>
<p>I would be surprised if your recs are anything but average</p>
<p>You may be "book smart" but for four years you weren't very intelligent in the many other ways intelligence matters</p>
<p>My Ds both have culitivated relationships with their GCs, teachers, mentors, etc</p>
<p>It matters alot in this life to not sit around, knowing everything, being the smartest, and frankly arrogant...</p>
<p>A truely smart person would have figured out that recs were important</p>
<p>you may get into a fine school with mediiocre recs, but in LIFE, you need to learn how to play the game</p>
<p>That line "I don't need to" is about as snooty as you can get, and I would bet you the teachers sense it as well...a smart kid asks questions and goes beyond the minumum, which is apparently what you did</p>
<p>College is going to be tough if you don't change that attitude</p>
<p>Get together a personal resume to give the teachers writing your recommendations. They need to know what you've done. List committees, clubs, sports, community, etc.</p>
<p>You misinterpreted what i was saying. Well, kind of. First of all, i do know it all and i can say that because it's true my father has a doctorate in astro physics so if i have any questions in physics i usually ask him (but i don't need to). If i need help in Calculus i can also ask him or my mother who has a Masters in Mathematics. My essays are usually perfect so i have no questions about my writing and i am great at Economics and U.S. government and never really have questions about it. (I am very active in Spanish class however i do not think a recommendation from a Spanish teacher is what engineering colleges want).</p>
<p>I do go beyond the minimum and almost always finish studying a chapter before my class and teacher go over it. I also do not just sit around because i always try my best to help all the students around me with everything from their social life to academics (however i do not think my teacher notices). Now i am not trying to brag, however i am just trying to put a perspective on my life, so that you see me for who i am.</p>
<p>I also disagree with what you said about a truly smart person figuring out recs were important. Like i really cared about colleges my first two years of high school.</p>
<p>So, now what should i do? Not my fault for not needing my teacher because i teach myself.</p>
<p>I assume that you are a junior in high school, for if you were a senior and already have applications for college submitted, it would be far too late to be looking for teacher recommendations. So you have almost 2 semesters to build relationships with teachers and your guidance counselor. Pick a few teachers who you think might be able to write you a good recommendation next fall. Participate more in their class discussions. Ask them if there is something extra you can do in their class, not to get a higher grade but because you want to learn more than what is covered in the regular class material. The most selective colleges are looking for students who do more than test well and get good grades, they are looking for students who also have a love of learning. Going the extra mile, even if you already have an A in the class, could demonstrate that to your teachers, who could then write you a good recommendation.</p>
<p>I will echo to some extent the comments of citygirlsmom. Someone who sees no point in asking questions because they understand everything and who thinks every essay they write is "perfect" will not come across well to the people around them. If you know it all already (as you say), why do you even need to go to college?</p>
<p>Sheed-
dadx3's advice is spot on. Assuming you are a jr., go to the admissons websites of colleges you might be interested in, download the teacher recommendation forms and look at the questions they are asked to complete. The best recommendations are those where the teachers can state 'best student in my 20 years as a teacher", etc. I suggest you cange your attitude, and start to develop relationships with your teachers this year, because there will be plenty of brilliant students both from the US and international, that will be applying to colleges next year, and there isn't room for every brilliant student at the top colleges. No one likes a know it all, even if you think you do know it all, which believe me, you don't.</p>
<p>My daughter used to call it "play date with my teacher." She would go in for help even when she didn't need it. She got to know many of her teachers as people and vice versa. She actually learned a lot more from them outside of class rooms. I agree with menlo that it's still not too late to get to know some of them. There is also nothing wrong to ask a Spanish teacher to write a recommendation letter for an engineer major.</p>
<p>Sheed, I read your post from a kid to citygirl. It may come as a shock but I don't think you know everything either. I'm not sure that anyones perspectives including your teachers could make any difference to you since you have convinced yourself that you have a historically high intelect and already know all the answers. If there is any fault I think your parents apparently had the means to put you in some gifted program somewhere and they didn't, so you in your words had to suffer through a boring school life with the huddled masses.</p>
<p>There is a saying that the things we don't know about ourselves are the things that the people around us can tell us, we just have to be able to listen.</p>
<p>You might want to lose this attitude - even if you believe its true, even if your scores/grades back it up. I wouldn't be suprised if teachers don't only not know you, but you come off as an arrogant ass as well.</p>
<p>I made a point junior year to get to know my teachers and counselor VERY well. Throughout junior year I focused on specific teachers to develop solid relationships during class and during 8th period, club periods, and subject related contests. I dropped in to talk to my guidance counselor at least once a week just to say hi if nothing else. You still have plenty of time, but you need to start doing this now so you can ask your teachers BEFORE they get bombarded with requests (end of the 3rd quarter, beginning or mid 4th quarter at the latest). </p>
<p>Developing a good relationship with your counselor will also be extremely helpful during your first semester senior year. My counselor has been a godsend to me. She helped me with my apps. and reviewed my essays continuously, I probably spent atleast 1-3 hours in her office a week working on college stuff with her for all of first semester. And when it was getting down to the deadline and winter break had started she even offered to let me email her my final drafts of the common app and supplements etc and look at them over winter break. Not only is a good relationship with your counselor very, very, helpful for the rec. but as you cans see it's just good for general college help. Your counselor is there to help you, but you're almost in college, they have 300+ other students (at my school) and their not going to come to you begging to help you. But if you ask for their help, at least mine, really went out of her way to help me and I am extremely grateful for this and believe it made a big difference for me. Your parents are smart and so are you, but face it that haven't applied to college in the past 20 years and you've never applied to college, your counselor knows the most about the process - take advantage of it.</p>
<p>If you've been a good student you will get reccomendations that, even if they don't sparkle with personality, won't significantly damage your admissions chances. You definitely should learn from this experience and develop relationships with your college profs. At first I thought citygirlsmom was overreacting by accusing you of being a know-it-all. Then in your response you made it clear she was exactly right. It's great that you're smart, but in the end whether or not people like you matters almost as much your intelligence. If your attitude is "I do know it all," to be frank, nobody will want to work with you. "My essays are usually perfect" comes off as a conceited statement. Your writing can always improve. You should have developed relationships with your teachers not because of the importance of recs, not to get into college, but to enhance the learning experience. The exchange between teacher and student can be even more valuable than the facts and figures you dilligently memorize from your textbooks.</p>
<p>OP--you titled your thread w/ a "HELP", so I hope you are sincerely listening to some of the good advice that others here have given to you. I was curious about you after reading your post, so I looked up some of your previous posts.....You are a junior, and do have time to pay some attention to the world around you. You may be in for a big surprise when you are applying to colleges, if you are going for the top ones. The question that top schools want answered is what things you as a student bring to their school. How you have self-described yourself isn't going to paint a very favorable picture of someone who loves to learn, and who will be a valuable contributor to the "learning community". Hopefully, you're on your way to raising your earlier ACT score of 27 (don't think that your GPA and class rank will be enough to open all doors for you), and your lack of any school-related ECs (along with recs that will certainly not be able to say anything about how you work with other students or relate to others your age) will also be something you will need to address. Good luck to you.</p>
<p>Yea, i am working on my 27 (i think it's a 27). Anyways, thank you all for your help, i really do appreciate it. Sorry if i acted like a snob i just wanted to let you know who i am. I also do not act arrogant, this is the internet and i didn't really know how to describe myself other than say i knew everything "taught at school." Thanks again for the help.</p>
<p>Sheed, good luck to you, you have a wonderful life ahead of you. I'll echo the comment that you did get a wealth of valuable advise here and it's good to hear that you did appreciate it. I hope that person "who you are" can take this to heart and put a good set of actions in place.</p>
<p>Remember most schools combine test scores so on a retest if you raise some sections and not others they will still take the higher of each test and average them together. It makes it a bit easier to get the scores up if you just didn't so well on a specific part.</p>
<p>NO ONE'S essays are always perfect and if they are graded as such, a student is being let slide.</p>
<p>My D is in the top of her AP Gov class right now...she blows the curve...however, her teacher is getting tougher in how he grades my Ds papers, not because he is afraid of senioritis, but that he wants to be sure she is REALLY pushing herself. She also brings in articles relevant to what they are studying, she shares them with the teacher or the class, she finds ways to push the class forward. </p>
<p>For anyone to think their essays are usually perfect needs to think about how they are being graded and to think, hmmm...are my papers really that good, or am I being let slide a little</p>
<p>There was this girl, "perfect" essays with her english teacher at a Prep HS. No red marks, A's all the time. Well, not such a good thing. Her papers were trite, may have been gramatically correct and footnoted, but there was nothing really there.</p>
<p>So don't assume that you are perfectin your essays. And you wonder why I said what I said.</p>
<p>Not even the Valedictorian of my Ds class last year would assume that their essays were perfect.</p>
<p>And if you never ask any questions in history class, not even to ignite a conversation, you are missing out. </p>
<p>A smart student never assumes they know all the information in a lesson.</p>