Why are teacher recs always "amazing"?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>Whenever I'm looking at chance me threads, I always see people address their teacher recommendations as "amazing".</p>

<p>A) How do they know they are "amazing"? Did they read them? Because, I've read a few recs in my day, and they've been solid, but I've never seen one that I would consider "amazing". Maybe CC trolls just have low standards of recommendations, I don't know. This leads me to my next question.</p>

<p>2) What would make a rec stellar or "amazing"? Besides the anecdotes that every good recommendation should have. Or the strong word choice. Or is that it?</p>

<p>III) If a teacher rec were "amazing", could it have a significant influence on an under-qualified applicant?</p>

<p>These are solely for my edification.
Thanks guys! Good luck come December.</p>

2

<p>CC’ers are a pretty smart crowd. Spending a year or two or three with a teacher should give you enough time to judge how well liked and relatively outstanding you were. But this is why I always wonder how much weight colleges really put on these things. I imagine they all start to sound the same, even with anecdotes.</p>

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<p>I’m guessing that the words like “amazing” and “great” are thrown around a bit too freely for recs and essays</p>