Updated Recommendation

Colleges & Universities A-Z Dartmouth College
1

<p>I have a little problem and maybe you can help me:</p>

<p>This is the story: in one of my subjects, I got a B on my last report card. On all the report cards before, I had an A. I was somewhat in the middle of A and B because I had a lot of outside school stuff to do, and my teacher decided to give me a B (mainly to motivate me to work more for my final exams etc.)
I could as well have gotten an A and it had been justified. My teacher didn't know that this report card was so important to me (he is not from the US) and so he gave me the lower grade, which is a usual policy at my school because every teacher falsely believes that the ONLY important report card will be the final one, which, of course, actually doesn't matter at all since I will get it 3 /!\ months AFTER the decisions have been made. (Of course, the acceptance could be rescinded etc., but let's forget about that for now.)</p>

<p>My teacher, as I said, didn't know about the importance of the report card and believed it would be only internal and nobody would ever see it. I knew that my teachers do not understand the US system I asked my counselor to talk to them and explain the importance of my report card to avoid such an incident, but obviously he didn't do that. Today, I talked to my teacher about something else and it turned out that he didn't know anything and that, of course, he had given me an A had he been aware of my situation. He seemed to be very embarrassed about his mistake and was very sorry.</p>

<p>Now my question:
I know that one B will not necessarily kill me, but one A more is one A more. However, I do not want to get rejected and have the feeling "had I just done this, I had gotten an acceptance". There are also other very important information that I would like the admission officer to be aware of. Should I ask my teacher, who has already written an amazing recommendation for me, to write a new one and correct his 'mistake' ? There are many other activities etc. on which he could comment and especially some personal circumstances in my family that did not become clear from the rest of my application. He would also be able to mention some college courses that I have taken and that did not appear on my transcript (even though I asked for it). I mentioned it in my application but my school didn't send in an official confirmation. So, if he would write, it would not only be about the grade and he would have plenty of other things to mention.</p>

<p>Summary: I got a B instead of an A, but it was more or less a mistake. My teacher would write an e-mail/ a letter and say that I had deserved an A and it was a mistake. He could also comment on other activities / special circumstances / college courses that I have taken. However, he has already written a recommendation before (that did not include any of the things mentioned above.) Should I ask him to write an e-mail? He has definitely some very important things to say that could significantly strengthen my application. Nevertheless, I'm just wondering whether it might look a little bit strange if my teacher instead of my counselor would write this e-mail. So what do you guys think?</p>

2

<p>i think they would want to see the corrected transcript. i know dartmouth prefers faxing over other methods of delivery. GC should fax the corrected transcrpt and the update of your ec’s or whatever it is that will strengthen your application…just my thoughts…</p>

3

<p>Hmmmm… i think i would first email or call dartmouth yourself - try and find your regional admissions officer if you can - and ask them what you should do. I think this is important info that they need to know and if no one at dartmouth tells you what you need to do then i would ask your teacher to send them an email or fax. A letter would take too long to get there and they’re making their decisions right now.</p>

4

<p>Ok, now wait a minute. if you were btw. and A and a B you were NOT an A.
So you are saying you want yuor teacher to write and lie for you??? And what do you mean “didn’t understand the importance of this report card in the American system”??? The ad coms are not fools; if all they see are A’s from certain schools, the cred of those schools goes down. I think you’re better off with a B—it looks like rigor, even though the smooshiness of the teacher’s willingness to lie about grades makes it sound not-so-much!</p>

5

<p>As I said, it’s not a lie. My school generally gives lower grades than the actual ones. According to the official IB criteria, I had gotten an A. You don’t want to tell me that the IBO ([International</a> Baccalaureate](<a href=“http://www.ibo.org%5DInternational”>http://www.ibo.org)) is “lying”, are you?</p>

6

<p>The OP is right. In many school systems outside the US, most grades except for the final one are considered internal, and it is not expected that anyone outside the school will ask to see them.</p>

7

<p>Thank you johnleemk. Would you recommend sending an update or do you think they might get the same impression that 5757 got, which, of course, I would like to avoid?</p>