<p>just wondering</p>
<p>i mean like:</p>
<p>"Don't accept this student!"</p>
<p>probably not…since students should be smart enough to ask teachers who at least someone like them</p>
<p>somewhat*<br>
10char</p>
<p>I was at a UC Berkeley info session today and the rep told us that he had read four bad recommendations in the past. They were bad enough that the affected students were not admitted. Request LOR’s only from teachers with whom your child has had good rapport.</p>
<p>It’s definitely possible!</p>
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<p>I think you’re getting your colleges mixed up. UC Berkeley doesn’t have letters of recommendation. None of the UCs do.</p>
<p>At my school, the guidance office will come to you and <em>suggest</em> you to get another rec if one of your isn’t complimentary–but I’m sure some larger schools cannot do this.</p>
<p>Rather than an outright bad recommendation, I think it is more common for teachers to damn applicants with faint praise. I have no first hand evidence, but my wife has told me that she does have colleagues who have said they have communicated uneasiness about certain applicants indirectly by their choice of certain words or phrases. Nothing direct, but the admissions office would get the message. Yes, students need to be very careful in who they ask to write their recs. (I have heard the same thing said about guidance counselors, but of course students don’t usually have a choice as to who writes the letter/fills out the form in that case).</p>
<p>I used to write the letters or recommendation for the chairman of the graduate department I worked for. I was a junior faculty member in charge of student placement, among many other things. These letters were mainly for students looking to get internships/residencies at various medical centers/hospitals following grad school.</p>
<p>I became quite good at writing a lot of nice words without mentioning anything positive about a student. I would just state facts…I would state them very nicely - but they were just facts. Nothing that could not be gotten from a transcript or resume. The letters were sent. The students were happy. And anyone reading the letters got the point.</p>
<p>On 2 occasions we had students that the chairman and faculty really had a hard time recommending to anyone. For those students, I wrote the very nice but generic and neutral letters (which satisfied the students)…and the chairman followed it up with a personal phone call to colleagues in the right places.</p>
<p>Asking for letters of recommendation is tricky. In the end, you want to make sure that (paraphrasing the ancient knight in Indiana Jones)…“You have chosen wisely!”</p>
<p>hopefully not. thats why you always ask a potential recommender if he/she would be comfortable writing one for you. if you sense uneasiness then you should ask someone else</p>
<p>Most teachers I know will gently suggest that you might want to find a different recommender - I’d use the phrase “someone who knows you better.” If you hear this phrase, or anything like it, it’s a sure sign to ask another teacher.</p>
<p>Although I do not want to be the bearer of scary LOC stories, I will share that a few of our school (AP) teachers are known for brutally honest comments. Since they have the students for at least two years of hs, they remember a large array of behavior, good and bad. A recent valedictorian, NMF, was turned down at all their EA schools. After changing their choice of recommender for RD, acceptances to the same reach level schools followed. Coincidence? Probably not.</p>
<p>One of my high school teachers once told us “we can say a lot by saying little.” Basically he meant that they won’t say bad things about you, but if they don’t say many good things either, the letter can still be just as bad</p>
<p>I know my guidance counselor sent in a bad rec. GC recs are required, and you can’t pick your counselor of course.</p>
<p>I balanced it out with fantastic teacher recs, GPA, SAT, etc, so I got into my first choice anyway. But only get recs from teachers that will write glowing recs.</p>
<p>My grandfather did. He suggested admittance into Brown would give the student in question an ulcer-- but, I mean, that was in the 70’s, and people are crazier now.</p>
<p>There’s a stats teacher at my school who’s a complete ***** and told colleges that this kid copied homework.
Deny him a letter instead you *<strong><em>ing </em></strong>.</p>
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<p>Sorry I wasn’t clear in my post. The UC rep said he read these bad LOR’s when he was working for a different school.</p>
<p>In 10 years, I’ve read two not-so-positive recs. Neither were read at my present school. I tell students this routinely in hopes that it will ease some of their worries and stop them from asking for extra recs.</p>
<p>I know someone who was on the alumni scholarship committee for a well-known U and they regularly received letters of “rec” for the full-tuition scholarship that raked the kid over the coals. </p>
<p>In the book “The Gatekeepers” in which a reporter for the NY Times followed the admissions committee at Wesleyan (a top LAC) for a year is a real-world example of a bad rec.
This could have been avoided if the teacher had been asked if they would write a strong rec. Tiffany did not get in.</p>