<p>The school is quite small and by the time you get to senior year, you’re generally taking classes in your specialty which is taught exclusively by the same 2-3 professors. Provided you’ve done some research in your specialty, which would be with the same 2-3 profs, and taken several upper division classes, you should know several profs quite well.</p>
<p>College is different from high school, you don’t need to be “better” than your peers, at least not really the ones from your own college. You simply need to be capable of doing the work at a high level and thriving in a graduate research environment, which is what your professors judge when they write your recommendations. High school has such a large population of students it’s quite easy to stand out, at a place like Harvey Mudd being average is quite an accomplishment and worthy of a good rec. I have to say that after going through the environment at Mudd where everyone is encouraged to work together and help each other, I find the “I have to be better than everyone else to get a good rec” mentality quite disturbing and counterproductive. Basically, they are evaluating your abilities in your recs, not comparing you to other people.</p>