<p>Do you think teachers would write me not-so-great recommendations? Do they have the nerve to? I mean, what teacher doesn't want a student to go beyond, are there any who don't? And just how important are recommendations?</p>
<p>Yes, teachers have the nerve to write honest recommendations. Some teachers are content to see less-than-deserving students suffer the consequences of their classroom behavior. </p>
<p>Our school saw a valedictorian get rejected to a number of match schools after using a recommendation from a teacher who knew the details of this student’s not so honest use of an illegal test aid. Student thought they were smarter than teacher, but of course, blabbed to the whole school and the news, as it always does, reached adults’ ears.</p>
<p>If a teacher marks one of those little boxes marked Honesty or Personal Integrity with a low score, that can certainly sway the adcom’s decision.</p>
<p>If the teacher likes you, he or she most likely won’t give you a “bad” rec, even when you might be noisy sometimes or are not always punctual. But if the teacher is kind of indifferent towards you, then there might be some blemishes. If the teacher doesn’t like you due to your inappropriate behaviour, yeah the teacher will have the “nerve” to let the colleges know about you.</p>
<p>Wouldn’t most teachers not write you a letter of rec if they were to write a bad one?</p>
<p>some teachers at my school say “i dont think i have the ability to write you a good letter”
or something to that effect. basically saying, “i hate you so… NO” in a nice way(:</p>
<p>Ha, I mean it is a letter of REC not of warning.</p>
<p>I guess we have a few vengeful (or honest) teachers. They feel if you asked, it is their right to tell the truth in the rec. So be careful who you ask.</p>
<p>It is reasonable, when you approach a teacher, to ask, “Do you think you could write a strong letter of recommendation for me?” or words to that effect. Teachers generally don’t want to waste their time writing letters for students they can’t say good things about, so anyone who doesn’t want to write a letter is likely to bow out.</p>
<p>^That’s what one of my teacher suggested as well. But when I used that technique on another teacher, he said “why are you phrasing it that way? you should assume that I will write you a good rec if you are asking. Now I don’t feel so good.” 
Then again he’s probably just joking. But point is if you know there are reasons why a teacher might say something bad about you, you should use the above suggestion. But when I asked I was 100% sure that they won’t write bad stuff for me.</p>
<p>“And just how important are recommendations?” Depends on the school. For very selective schools, they are extremely important in giving file readers something to differentiate you from the rest of the applicants.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! I was just kind of indecisive because from my physics teacher’s attitude, I could tell that she didn’t exactly like me, but then again she displays that same attitude to everyone. I was required to get my science teacher to write me a rec, so I kind of had to. And plus, I’m the only sophomore in my AP Physics B class, so I’m hoping she likes me and I hope her rec will be a good one =]</p>
<p>You should have at least 2 teachers you’re friends with, who know you well. You’re friends with them because you enjoy their class, and they recognize that you do and enjoy having you as a student because you are always attentive and interested in class.</p>
<p>You should have these 2 teachers write you recommendation letters, because they most likely will recall having you in their class fondly, and will have lots of specific memories about you, and they will write about you in a favorable light. It also helps to have been the top or one of the top students in the class.</p>
<p>Do you think if it would be annoying if I applied to like, say 3 summer programs, and I asked those same two teachers for recs though?</p>
<p>It wouldn’t be annoying as long as you are appreciative and thankful. They won’t write three letters. They’ll just write one letter and send it to all three programs. The informational sheets that are sometimes required with a recommendation don’t take long to fill out.</p>
<p>oh i see. im pretty sure these programs have many different recommendation letters though…?</p>
<p>What does that even mean. A letter of recommendation is a letter of recommendation. How would the programs have “different recommendation letters.”</p>
<p>jesskidding: the programs ask for a generic rec letter. They udnerstand that letter writers often will just sign a Xerox of a letter that the student sends to many recipients.</p>
<p>I mean, the teachers may need to change “Program X” to “Program Y” and fill out some short additional info sheet, but that’s pretty much it.</p>
<p>Oh nevermind. I was talking about the info sheets. Okay this helped, thanks all.</p>
<p>
Of course they would. And in fact I’ve heard that some teachers relish the opportunity to “square accounts” with kids they didn’t like if they are foolish enough to ask for a letter of rec w/o asking if the teacher would be willing to write a positive letter. Asking this is always appropriate, phrased politely of course.</p>
<p>In “The Gatekeepers”,in which a NY Times reporter followed the admissions committee at Wesleyan for a year, is a real-world example of a bad rec. Obviously when the student asked for a rec she assumed it would be positive, but here is what she got:
This could have been avoided if the teacher had been asked if they would write a strong rec. The student did not get in.</p>