<p>in the recommendation forms for teachers, there a bunch of checkboxes. Looking at the number of choice there are (7 in all), “very good” is right in the middle while “good” is in the worse half. I’d imagine Brown expects at least “top 10%” since there are still 2 choices above that. So, how much would a few checks in the “very good” and “good” columns hurt?</p>
<p>Probably depends on what’s being checked down. But along with the teacher recommendation comes a written recommendation: if they check everything off as “excellent” (or whatever is the top-half) but their letter is extremely bland about you, I’d imagine there’d be less weight than a teacher that gave a few “very goods” and wrote a gushing rec, explaining why you were a wonder student.</p>
<p>what would you say counts as bland?</p>
<p>What if the teacher doesn’t believe in numbers/rankings, and writes a good recommendation without filling in a single checkbox?</p>
<p>Sententia, one of my teachers did that too and I don’t think its that much of a problem. I think admissions officers mostly assume that it’s the teachers responsibility how they fill out the form, and not the students, and thus will not penalize you for it (methinks).</p>
<p>Phil’s likely right. Bland, in my opinion, would be “This student was good in my class, they turned in all their work on time” or something along those lines. But yeah, I think the majority of recommendations end up neither helping nor hurting an applicant, and so long as your teacher isn’t unenthusiastic about you (i.e. This student sometimes engages in my class/This student was usually good about homework/stuff that shows the teacher doesn’t have anything good to say about you).</p>
<p>^ That’s TOTALLY wrong. Recommendations play a huge role. It gives a third-person perspective on the person. If the person is engaging, there will be a good rec. If the person is not, a bad one. It shows the strengths of the student and even your favorite teacher will knocked u down a couple spots and be perfectly honest in the recommendation. It’s one of the most unbiased ways to get to know the applicant.</p>
<p>swim2daend is correct. Recommendations are crucial. More important than essays.</p>
<p>On Brown’s old application, those check boxes were important, and Brown was looking for students with boxes checked in the top categories. I’m not as familiar with the Common App to know what its teacher recommendation form looks like.</p>
<p>If your teacher hands in a written essay without filling out the form, it is not held against the student.</p>
<p>Exactly. Of course recommendations matter (greatly in fact), but you’re not held responsible for how they choose to go about filling out the form: twas the point I was trying to make.</p>