<p>If they always seem to be positive. I mean, the teacher will always write the best things possible about the applicant, so what new information does it add to the admissions process?</p>
<p>Not necessarily...</p>
<p>The use of recommendation letters goes back centuries to colleges in England when they were the most important thing you needed to get into a college. Our founders, including founders of US colleges, dragged that system over here and even into the first quarter of the 1900s, letters were still extremely important.</p>
<p>Today, the recommendation letter system exists because it is tradition and colleges that have it don't know what to replace it with or can't get rid of it because getting rid of any tradition requires a process of studies, reports, committee evaluations, negotiations, and voting that takes forever to do and requires enormous cost in a bureaucracy like a college. </p>
<p>Public universities for the most part do not require or use them.</p>
<p>Some teachers actually do use the space to highlight some deficiencies in certain students, though admittedly you have to have screwed up fairly royally to get one of those...</p>
<p>Savvy teachers know that what is NOT said can often speak volumes to the rec reader. Don't think that ALL recs are positive. I recall one selective college adcom saying approx 10% have neutral or outright negative info -- e.g. don't admit this kid.</p>
<p>There seems to be an understanding in rec writing. If the teacher merely says this is a "good, hard-working student who interacts positively with her/his peers" that would be like a nehhh.</p>
<p>So if the teacher wants to write a positive letter they go crazy with the superlatives to whatever degree they want to support the student.</p>
<p>As someone has already said, "Excellent is the new Good."</p>
<p>I read the letter one of ds's teachers wrote for him. You'd think my kid was on the verge of being granted the Nobel Prize. Geesh.</p>
<p>Letters of recommendation (if written with honesty) can tilt admission decisions to a considerable extent. For example:</p>
<p>Kid A</p>
<p>Class rank - 1/200
SAT - 2310
SAT II - 800, 790
Recommendation comment - "...XYZ is an introverted child. He barely interacts with the other students in his class and it seems to me that he works hard with the grading scheme in mind..."</p>
<p>Kid B</p>
<p>Class rank - 4/200
SAT - 2240
SAT II - 740, 780</p>
<p>Recommendation comment - "...ABC is one of the most driven students I have taught in my entire career. He can always be seen helping people around and never before have I seen a student apply himself so brilliantly outside of class as he has..."</p>
<p>Who would you prefer? It's pretty obvious...</p>
<p>I've seen some negative recommendations. After those, we barely consider the applicant.</p>
<p>There are a couple of teachers at school infamous for their honest
blunt remarks. Students know not to go to them unless invited.
These teachers add tremendous value to the application since they
are giving unburnished viewpoints that are not necessarily painting the
student in a stellar light but from the viewpoint of 100% honesty.</p>
<p>I have indeed benefitted from such a type of "critical" recommendation and
believe a number of my early admission and likely letters are a direct
result of the brutal honesty.</p>
<p>Also, you might be surprised how the "most popular" recommendation giving
teachers actually write on some of their recommendations to selective
schools. (They are kind to applicants aiming for schools below the top 10
but can be brutal to the top candidates).</p>
<p>I am grateful to my Public HS teachers who take infinite care and time on our
recommendations. I estimated one of them had spent flat out 15 days
just writing recommendations!</p>
<p>The most popular rec-writer in my school wrote me a bland paragraph; in retrospect, it was a poor choice, given that his is my worst (but, ironically, favorite) class. I thanked him politely, and asked my Bio teacher to write me one instead (which I had to do anyway, since Brown's BS program requires a rec from a science teacher).</p>
<p>I'm not sure exactly what she said, but I know she genuinely wants to help me--she asked someone to contact me about CS hours over the summer because she wanted to help me get into NHS--and that whatever she wrote has the utmost willingness to help me succeed behind it.</p>
<p>The best recommendation letters aren't just lists of pleasant adjectives, they give examples of the student's behavior that give the adcoms some idea of their personality. As someone above noted, adcoms see enough recommendations that they know how to sift out empty from heartfelt praise.</p>
<p>For some students the rec letter can be extremely helpful, especially if the teacher and the student have a relationship that goes beyond the 50 minutes a day spent in class. For my D those letters could be the difference between getting in to a match/reach and not (wishful thinking!?), but in any case, they sure did make her feel good when the teachers gave her copies for her personal files. </p>
<p>That could be a clue also, if the teacher shares the letter with the student...</p>