<p>I was lucky enough that one of my teachers is also my track coach, so there was some neat stuff about leadership in my recommendation, from what i've been told.</p>
<p>I had 2 of my necessary 3 recs for PSU last year, and I approached my Calculus teacher for my 3rd. I am a journalism major, but I always did very well in his class, straight As (had him as a teacher 2 years in a row). Also this teacher is very brilliant, in odd ways, although he is a calc teacher, he has about 3/4 of the book Walden memorized (he recited it in class once), and he reads the dictionary for fun. Since we had had a decent rapport, and because of his seemingly fantastic grasp of the english language, I figured the rec was a no-brainer.<br>
He gave me the rec a few days later, not in any envelope, and told me not to read it, while winking. So of course I read it later.
It started off like this,
"While Ryan's not the brightest student I've ever had..." started off like that! I couldn't believe it. And the rest of the letter was not any more flattering. He said that my learning approach was unorthodox but seemed to kinda work...he said 'kinda'...
needless to say, I ditched that rec and obtained one from another teacher.</p>
<p>maybe it was a joke? maybe?
if not, that sucks. good luck finding someone better!</p>
<p>Well one of my teachers told me "oh, its real good" and the other teacher actually read it out loud to me. I got an A in both of their classes (and they seemed to like me) so I am hoping the recommendations are good.</p>
<p>I also agree that if a teacher cannot write you a good rec, they should tell you to ask someone else. I mean this could potentially impact the rest of your life (a bit extreme, but still....). Just because you did not do well in a class or there were personal problems (i.e. you accidentally made a remark that offended the teacher) does not mean you should be barred from attending the college of your dreams. They have the SAT for that :P</p>
<p>Do you think that admission officers would look down on your app if you had 3 teacher recs instead of 2?</p>
<p>Uhm... yes that IS unethical.</p>
<p>The teacher shouldn't LIE about the student either. The teacher should DECLINE to write it.</p>
<p>another question, lets say you apply to several universities and get the same teacher to write a set of recs, one for each. Is it better for the teacher to say "i support him for application for you school" or is better to specify on each letter which school is meant. In other words, is it OK if it is a general letter?</p>
<p>what do the admissions committee think if they read a really negative recommendation? I mean they must know that the student chose that teacher because they like him/her and then that teacher ended up writing a really horrible letter. Would they look at it as a negative thing for the candidate? (I dont know if this was answered in the previous pages of the thread and i dont feel like looking lol)</p>
<p>
[quote]
Do you think that admission officers would look down on your app if you had 3 teacher recs instead of 2?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I don't know if they'd look down on it, but you would probably be better off not asking them to read more, unsolicited materials. If there's a line in the application saying that you're welcome to include extra materials, including a third recommendation, then you're fine. If not ... I wouldn't do it. If the admissions committee asks for two, submit two.</p>
<p>I'm really scared about counselor recs. I mean, I go to a public school that has a counselor-student ratio of 1:650. Do adcoms really put that much weight on counselor recs??</p>
<p>Counselor recs are to explain things in your curriculum that may be unusual, explain your HS a bit, explain how rigorous your couseload was, any disciplinary action the school took against you & things of that nature. Us don't really expect counselor to have that great a knowledge of each student, especially in larger schools.</p>
<p>In my opinion, students should KNOW what teachers to approach to ask a recommendation for. If you got caught for cheating in a class and then asked the teacher from that class to write you a recommendation, that teacher should accept to write the recommendation and then note the cheating incident. It's the student's fault for not going to the correct teacher.</p>
<p>If you cheat & the school faculty is at all close, knowledge about the cheating may spread to the entire faculty. The most & best a student can do is ask the teacher whether s/he can write a "strong, positive recommendation." The rest is faith, unless the student doesn't waive his/her right to see the rec.</p>
<p>^A teacher would never answer "yes" to that question then go and write a horrible rec about cheating and other bad stuff. Atleast that is what I would assume. Who knows how strange some people in this world may be.</p>
<p>i know of a student who called a school asking why she didn't get in, and the school said it was because of a highly negative rec from an english teacher. the student got really mad at the teacher and threatened to sue, plus, the parent complained to the head of school who spoke to the teacher. so, it obviously does happen, (though i dont get why the teacher woudnt first suggest she ask someone else!) but teachers can get in trouble for it. if you're really worried, though, just dont check the confidential box, and read it first.</p>
<p>This except from the U Penn ED Admissions Process (HIGH DRAMA) article a number of years back, in this case with a (1480 SAT) female candidate where a single "recommendation" with its noted flaw in the candidate (late hand-in of assignment) - was the final straw to knock her out</p>
<p>ADCOM MEMBER 2: "One of the letters or recommendation says she has a really strong interest in bioethics and he thinks it's a nice match for her. But he goes on to say that she handed in late work. He thought that was OK because it was honest and it was her own work. But nevertheless, I don't think it's an excuse for handing in late work in high school."</p>
<p>AD COM MEMBER 2 "OK, let's let her go then."</p>
<p>This teacher should have had the decency to politely suggest to this student that she might be better served by looking to another person to recommend her</p>
<p>see: <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1998/12/15/fp11s1-csm.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1998/12/15/fp11s1-csm.shtml</a> (in case someone didn't see previous references)</p>
<p>nice article, citation x. but it was published in 1998. i doubt if the information is really consistent to the ways admissions work (esp. UPENN's) nowadays?</p>
<p>^^^ Why do you think that admissions officers will evaluate applicants differently now compared to 1998? They still ask for the same credentials. They are still the same old people in worn out suits...</p>
<p>LOL thanks for the response. Well i thought *maybe things might change and tweak a bit, but bleh, maybe it's the same ole' way eveything still works out.
I'm surprised by the way some of the adcoms of the article accepted people. Took them less than 2 minutes! I guess they at least read the student's essay??</p>