<p>And if they really hated you (but you didn't know and stupidly asked them for a rec instead) would they tell you something along the lines of "perhaps you should ask someone else?"</p>
<p>most decent people would say something like, "they don't feel comfortable"/"too many people have asked me already"</p>
<p>The REALLY mean/sadistic ones will ASK to write terrible recs.</p>
<p>When you ask, be sure to say something along the lines of: "Would you be able to give me a GOOD recommendation for my college applications?" If they say they are not sure or they wouldn't know what to write or they are very busy or... take that as a hint and ask someone else.</p>
<p>Good advice from tocollege. </p>
<p>But just in case, you really should give a lot of thought to which teachers you will be asking for recommendations. Be sure to pick ones who know you well so that they can actually personalize it and not just write a "generic" letter that will come across as a lukewarm recommendation at best. And it always helps if they taught classes that you did well in!</p>
<p>I sit on a scholarship committee where we read rec letters as part of the applicant's packet. One letter said "I have only known this student a few weeks and I can't think of anything to say." Yikes!</p>
<p>Most people will warn you with some sort of statement similar to Anon<em>Person</em>1 gives. The clue is that if someone waffles on you, don't push it. To answer the question, they will, even if the person is an "A" student but has some sort of personality issue. I have seen people support "B" students over "A" students for such issues.</p>
<p>I knew one guy in college who was a very obnoxious know-it-all; always disrupting class with pointless arguments with the profs designed to show that he knew more than they did (which he didn't). But he was also very clueless and thought everyone liked and admired him, including his professors. So when he asked one of his profs to write a rec for him for his medical school application, the prof wrote a one-line rec:</p>
<p>" ___________ is an insufferable little twit."</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. Teachers are made of the same stuff as the rest of us, and there are plenty who relish the chance to stick it to a kid they've always resented. When you ask for a rec, you're asking the teacher to write their honest opinion.</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.
[quote]
There were times, I must admit,that I thought Tiffany might have taken a stronger interest in mastering the material in our course. When I saw that Tiffany was a National Merit Semi-Finalist I was a bit surprised. While clearly bright and competent, I had seen in Tiffany neither an exceptional skill for testing nor a particular affinity for the subject.
[/quote]
This could have been avoided if the teacher had been asked if they would write a strong rec. The student did not get in.</p>
<p>Hopefully it's been established that teachers can and do write negative rec letters.</p>
<p>Another consideration is teachers who are willing to write strong letters but are not ABLE to do so. Two anecdotes for you:</p>
<p>1) The last few years a large urban magnet school with a pretty good reputation has submitted multiple applications to the HYPs. They've gotten admits in the past. However, recently there's been a drought. Some doubts of the quality of the multiple "AP" classes has arisen (few high AP scores were being garnered) -- then one AP English teacher had poor grammar in the submitted recs -- it didn't help the students at all.<br>
2) Another school (similar reputation and circumstance) had two borderline applicants last year to my HYP alma mater. On paper, they looked solid -- save for the unhelpful recommendations. Frankly, although positive, the teachers' recs were formulaic and unhelpful to the admissions committee come to any solid conclusions. It wasn't until both students interviewed with alumni volunteers -- and the volunteers gave comprehensive writeups -- did the admissions committee feel confident to offer the two students admit decisions.</p>
<p>Conclusion: know the quality of the teacher you're asking as well</p>
<p>I can't only remember two less-than-positive recs. One teacher admitted to not knowing the student well and the other seemed to have something against the student.</p>
<p>I've read many, many recommendations.</p>
<p>You may be surprised how different your teacher's perception of
you might be compared to your understanding of that perception.
One of my recommenders was somebody who invited me to get the
recc from him. Somebody who I would not have asked at all. Turned
out he gave me a glowing recommendation with insights that seemed
negative on the surface but were a cohesive and honest
representation of me.</p>
<p>One particularly popular teacher at the Public HS I graduated
from was famous for his warnings that he would be brutually
honest in his reccs. Though he would not show the reccs before
sending them, he usually shared them after an admissions decision.
A classmate of mine was rejected at her ED choice defintiely due
to his recc which he showed. She then scrambled to get RD reccs
from another teacher. The recc was not so much negative as in the
way it portrayed her as not being outstanding or an asset to the
class.</p>