<p>OK. So my junior, rising senior dau waited until the day before school is out for summer to ask her history teacher if she would be willing to write a college reco letter. Dau does well in this history class (her strength and intended college major) but teacher said she couldn't do it because she had so many other requests. Regardless of how that is interpreted, dau has to ask another teacher. She is shy and the other teacher she is considering asking tomorrow is her current math teacher who she is comfortable with. Math is dau's weakest subject although she puts her heart into it and the teacher is aware of her efforts--they like each other. Dau will be supplying one of those brag sheets etc to help the teacher better know her and understand her college plans and goals. Is this a bad idea? Any thoughts?</p>
<p>You may be pleasantly surprised by the strength of the letter from this teacher. I say this because you mention that this teacher is someone your DD is comfortable with, and the teacher may be someone who will put HIS?HER heart and soul into the letter to help your DD. These letters aren’t just about “this student is the tippy top student I have ever taught in my life…”—they can also be about the efforts and willingness to take on challenges for the sake of seeing what her efforts can accomplish…which has value to any college campus.
Best of luck to your DD.
APOL</p>
<p>Always good to supply a brag sheet (try to get hooks in there, as explained below - things like this REALLY help)</p>
<p>When I asked my teacher, I told her about my dad’s ALS and stuff, and the way she worded it - I mean, the admissions officers must have thought I was some sort of supercreature made up of Mother Theresa and Martin Luther King.</p>
<p>JRNMom,
My son who just graduated from high school was a TERRIBLE math student who really struggled. Nonetheless, his college counselor strongly suggested that he ask the math teacher for a recommendation because she knew him best and his work habits. She had worked with him one-on-one, giving extra help as he requested it. (This is an independent school with superb college counseling.)</p>
<p>My daughter’s best letter came from her math teacher. It is not her strongests subject but he acknowledged how hard she had worked and his words really brought her through as a student and a person. It made me cry.</p>
<p>This is a self absorbed way of saying that you may get a great letter even though it isn’t coming from the first choice letter writer.</p>
<p>Since she’s waiting until the last second to ask for a rec letter is she prepared to go to yet another teacher if the math teacher responds the same way as the other teacher? What about a rec letter from the GC?</p>
<p>Thank you all for your advice and encouragement. Binks09, hugs to you. My sister and I are donating to one of the ALS research foundations this year…we have a dear friend whose family member is affected.
In thinking this over, I believe you all may be right…perhaps the math teacher might provide a valuable portrayal of a hard working student who won’t give up. Perseverance counts!
Thanks again!</p>
<p>Hi Jrn mom- why is the history teacher being so hard? She/He essentially has all summer and much of the first semester of next year to write the letter. Your D intends to major in history. Can she go back to the teacher and say I understand I asked you late, but it would be great if you could do this for me, since history is my intended major? Also get one from the math teacher. It is ridiculous that the history teacher wont do it. My goodness!</p>
<p>If a teacher or prof tells you they are too busy to write a LOR, do not push the situation. Often this is the polite way of indicating that they cannot write a completely supportive or laudatory LOR.</p>
<p>My first reaction was this is a blessing to your daughter. Of course it isn’t clear why the history teacher won’t write the letter and it truly may be an arbitrary cut-off on number of letters to write, but the last thing your daughter needs is a lukewarm letter!</p>
<p>Agree with the “move on” crowd. Asking for a req 4-6 months ahead of time is very accomodating. There is simply no “last minute” request here. The teacher saying “no” is a signal that this teacher may not have given the best recommendation either because the teacher’s heart is not into writing req letters in general or that for some reason the teacher is being selective about which letters will be written. Take the “no” and move on to a different teacher.</p>
<p>In our hs, juniors are told to request LORs before summer break. It wouldn’t be unusual for a teacher to have so many requests that their limit is reached before the last possible day on which to ask. This is an important and time-consuming chore, and a teacher who writes thoughtful, highly personalized letters has every right to limit that number. I know an English teacher in our school whose limit is 20, which I consider generous and certainly justified. If each of her efforts takes a couple of hours, she’ll put in a full week of her summer vacation writing LORs.</p>
<p>Of course, some teachers may use the excuse of having too many to write so that they don’t have to write a less enthusiastic rec. But it’s entirely possible that too many other kids made their requests first. I’d feel good about d asking the math teacher. Math was my d3’s worst subject, but she had a great relationship with the teacher, who taught her for 3 years. After graduation, the teacher sent us a copy of the LOR, and I was amazed at the strengths she saw in a math student who had to fight for every point. It was a wonderful letter, and I’m sure gave context to my d’s math grades, which weren’t as good as the rest of her transcript.</p>
<p>DS also had a great letter from his math teacher. She had taught him 2 classes over 3 years and had enlisted him as an after school tutor. She was pleased to help him as she said not many people ask the Calculus teacher for a LOR. She also sent us a copy afterward.</p>
<p>Amazed that your school has juniors ask for letters before the end of the school year. That is NOT the norm at our local high school. </p>
<p>There are some teachers who are inundated with letter requests–the junior AP English, biology and US history teachers–the ones who had the top end kids in their classes. I appreciate the teachers’ efforts. If they do a good job at it, these letters are not cookie cutter and they do take time. Plus the actual recommendation forms take time to fill out.</p>
<p>Getting a GC to write the letter won’t work since the applications often ask for teachers (and sometimes specific teachers) and the GC has to write a letter anyway to send with the School Report.</p>
<p>I agree that it could be that the teacher is trying to politely decline writing a LOR because she feels that the letter would have some flies on it. But it could be that she really does have a limit–in which case this is a lesson learned that it may not be wise to wait until the last minute to do things.</p>
<p>Either way, I’d definitely get together with the math teacher and give him/her a brag sheet and talk about aspirations.</p>
<p>There is an AP USH teacher at our HS that tells students at the beginning of Jr year he will only write a handful of letters for the kids. The guy is really full of himself and has posted on our town chatboard that he will only write letters for students he really feels he knows and understands their passion. Please…he has these kids every day for 2 years and feels that way. I am so happy my daughter had the other APUSH teacher (they alternate years, as there are 3-4 sections/grade) who is an amazing human being.</p>
<p>To the OP: There are definite benefits to having the math teacher write the rec – esp since you say the teacher knows your D well. Effort, enthusiasm and being conscientious count for a lot. My D asked her physics teacher for a rec - and that was nowhere near her best class in terms of grades. But she loved the subject and the teacher (he even wrote in her yearbook that she should take a physics class in college bc he expects her to do well!).</p>
<p>I definitely would NOT push the history teacher who said ‘no.’</p>
<p>The GC here recommends that juniors ask for the recs before the end of jr year because teachers have so many to write (class is 470!). Even though D had done this, she had to bug her US History teacher for the rec in October…</p>
<p>(P.S. She has no plans to focus on either physics or history in college, but these two teachers could vouch for her determination, work habits, enthusiasm etc.)</p>
<p>My husband is a teacher, and I know those letters are incredibly hard work! Not only does he write long, detailed letters (many of them two pages), but then he has to print out up to 16 or so copies (it’s one of those very competitive schools where kids apply everywhere), fill out a form, stuff envelopes, etc. I sometimes help him stuff 300 or 500 envelopes–and this is all above and beyond the crazily hard work he does for his job. It’s a lot of detailed work. Because so many of the kids apply to the same school, each letter has to be completely unique. He really loves his kids, so he agonizes over each one. I’ll hear him sighing, “This boy is such a great kid.” Or “I just love this girl–she doesn’t have the best grades, but she’s so enthusiastic, she has so much heart.” So I know they’re great letters (also, I’ve taken a peek). Believe me, if a teacher can’t summon some enthusiasm for the kid, it’s going to show in some subtle way. That history teacher is doing your child a favor.</p>
<p>Update. Dau asked math teacher for reco since history teacher declined. Math teacher’s response was also less than enthusiastic & she said it’s first come, first served. I guess the lesson is, ask earlier in the year, not on the last day of school when teachers, wonderful as they are, are exhausted. And Endicott, what you explained is right, and I’d thought it was as you described–reco writing is a heartfelt yet grueling, time consuming task. In this day when many teachers are trying to hang onto their jobs, this extra stuff, done on their own time, is a lot to ask. If you are the parent of a kid who works her heart out, doesn’t have the top grades or test scores, these letters can make a difference. For any teacher out there reading, I’ll thank you for your dedication and for what you do for our children. But, I wish Dau had heard, “oh sure, I’d be more than happy to write a letter for you!”. I hope it works out–we probably won’t see the letter.</p>
<p>Are there any other possibilities? Can your d contact another teacher via email now that school is out? Of course you want to hear “I’d love to!” when you ask a teacher for a LOR. But perhaps the teacher was responding to being asked once she thought she already knew how many she’d have to write. The less than enthused response doesn’t mean she’ll write a less than enthused letter. Might the GC have any suggestions?</p>
<p>The good thing about our kids’ school was that many of their teachers in the junior year specifically laid out the rules - tell me before summer break or tough, or give me a month, whatever. </p>
<p>D can try thanking the history teacher for a great course that she taught and mention that for the benefit for the not-well-informed kids of the following years, it would help if the teacher set out the ground rules early on.</p>
<p>On another note - the GC can be contacted to see what the school’s benchmark is for the amount of time/students a teacher is expected to allot for writing letters, and if there are none, to try to formalize it. If teacher A things writing a half dozen letters a year is sufficient while B writes a hundred, it may help if the school budgets x hours of time for each teacher so that they are able to adequately cover the reqs for all the students. It’s better if the writing-rec task is not viewed as a favor, but a responsibility, the scope of which is built into the teacher’s job description.</p>