<p>@ butternut : that must have been flattering :p..anyway good luck</p>
<p>I think the best recs are the ones that are highly specific rather than the ones that contain a bunch of generalities. Specific examples of a student's accomplishments are always more impressive than vague statements of praise. In this case, I think length actually does help, because the teacher can develop several points in detail.</p>
<p>Lol one of my teachers wrote about me breaking up a fight about the election......</p>
<p>Yup, good recs should say specific things about you. Stories from class or from work you turned in, for instance. I know both of my teachers talked about independent projects that I took on and also about conversations I've had personally with them.</p>
<p>One of my teachers wrote that if she had one student to marry her oldest daughter, it would be me. lolollololololol</p>
<p>my school has a policy that the teachers don't check those boxes. they just attach a letter of recommendation. it makes a little more sense, because checking those little boxes when thinking about a tangible human being seems a little silly</p>
<p>you don't need straight 1%s. i had a mixture of mostly top 1% and some top 5% and i got into stanford :)</p>
<p>and one of my recs had AWFUL grammar but good substance. so don't worry if your teacher can't write</p>
<p>Will a crappy rec hurt, even if my others are pretty darn good?
I had like 4 teachers write them, and one of my teachers was a grad from harvard grad school, and so I had him write the one for the common app and I used it for a few schools. </p>
<p>Well, I had him write me another rec in late december for HPME and it sucked. It was like uber generic, saying things like "____ is one of the best writers I have ever seen, and is always ready to provoke great discussion in class." I mean it was full of praise, but it was like a patronizing type because I think there was like 8 lines on the whole page, and it was really really generic. I don't know if it's the same one he submitted for the common app (let's hope not) but if it is, will that hurt me?</p>
<p>I figure since my counselors one and my other teachers one were really good (at least it seemed like it, they looked really long from what I could see through the envelope), so do you think they can overlook one crappy rec?</p>
<p>No sorry. You are going to be rejected.</p>
<p>Well that's a given. Haha.</p>
<p>I just looked at my common app page, and unfortunately the only two schools I used that teachers rec for were Harvard and Princeton.</p>
<p>FML</p>
<p>What if my counselor (also my former English teacher) only ticked good (above average) for my academic achievement, but my two teachers put me as top 1% for the same category…?</p>
<p>No idea, but I got those ‘once-in-a-career’ applicant status.</p>
<p>Google is a great tool:
[Recommendations:</a> Teacher Tips](<a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/guidance/applications/teacher-tips]Recommendations:”>Writing Recommendations: Teachers – Counselors | College Board)
[MIT</a> Admissions | Info For Schools & Counselors: Writing Evaluations](<a href=“http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/schools/writing_evaluations/index.shtml]MIT”>http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/schools/writing_evaluations/index.shtml)
<a href=“http://www.darien.k12.ct.us/dhspa/flyer/ThoughtsonTeacherRecommendations.pdf[/url]”>http://www.darien.k12.ct.us/dhspa/flyer/ThoughtsonTeacherRecommendations.pdf</a></p>
<p>I have no idea what’s on my teacher reccs. My English teacher one might be a bit meh though-- she got a tad annoyed when the Emory Scholars deadline hit her. I prepared like a dozen sheets of info about me as she requested and gave her about a month to do it, but that wasn’t enough apparently. Still, I got Emory Scholars (Semifinalist so far), so it can’t have been too bad.</p>
<p>I have no idea what my Bio teacher wrote. I saw one of her adjectives was “motivated” though. Not a bad adjective IMO.</p>
<p>I got my AP English III teacher and AP Bio teacher to do my reccs. They’re both phD’s, and I did well in their classes (A’s in Bio, 1 B 1 A in English) and on the AP exam. I wasn’t “the best” gradewise in either class, but probably one of the better students and did stuff to stand out in those classes.</p>
<p>Hopefully they checked top 5%-- I’m pretty sure I got at least top 10%. If they felt generous though, maybe they put higher? :D</p>
<p>In the end the score matters little. If the teacher writes a good recc, that will show much more than that little box they checked off.</p>
<p>I wanted to waive my right, but my mom was like “nah, we want to see what they wrote”.</p>