<p>I decided to ask this question to the parents as they should know more about this than my peers.</p>
<p>I was on the MIT website and they had a TERRIFIC article on how teacher recommendations should be written.</p>
<p>Would it be considered "rude" if I linked my recommenders to this article when I asked them to write a LOR? I just want to make sure they know what kind of information to include in the letter.</p>
<p>That’s a tough one. It depends on the teacher, I suppose. I’m sure some would find it helpful while it might insult others. Sorry I cannot be more helpful!</p>
<p>I don’t think that it’s a good idea to link the article. For one thing, you should be asking the teachers in person rather than by email- that’s the polite and respectful way to make the request. For another, it could come off as insulting and implying that they do not know how to write a letter - how do you know that the teachers you are asking do not already send decent LORs?</p>
<p>Yes, it would. Presumptuous, I believe.</p>
<p>What would not be rude is to include a copy of your activities list along with the list of colleges, just so they have a little better understanding of you outside of the classroom.
But any sort of ‘coaching’ of your teachers seems like you are questioning their competence.
I would be sure to ask teachers who you know will give you an excellent recommendation and who would be happy to do it. Then, it’s out of your hands.</p>
<p>I would be insulted, personally.</p>
<p>If I were the teacher, I would find it a rude and insulting thing to do although I could understand your intentions.</p>
<p>Thanks for the quick responses!</p>
<p>I can’t ask the teacher in person (I’ve had them for the past two years in French) because they’re switching schools this coming year, so it has to be through email.</p>
<p>The second problem is that I don’t know if they can write good LORs–is it better to be safe than sorry in this situation? I’m going to be applying to HYP-tier schools, and I essentially need every advantage I can get. </p>
<p>BTW, here is the article in case anyone is wondering.</p>
<p>[Writing</a> Recommendations | MIT Admissions](<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/apply/prepare/writingrecs]Writing”>How to write good letters of recommendation | MIT Admissions)</p>
<p>If you are THAT concerned about the type of letter a teacher is going to write, perhaps you should ask a different teacher.</p>
<p>Shouldn’t you ask someone who teaches something you want to major in and someone who is still at your high school?</p>
<p>Send it to your counselor as an hey thought u might find this interesting…then let it go</p>
<p>Just my 2 cents on this… I know some will disagree with me, but we have learned to be wary of asking foreign language teachers who are not American born to write LORs. They tend to give both the positives AND the negatives. And you are competing for spots in college with kids whose teachers pretty much all write positive letters of recommendation. An American born teacher might “damn with faint praise”, and a college might be able to read something between the lines, but rarely will they say something negative. It is part of the culture of LORs in the US, and teachers from other countries often don’t get that nuance. I know this is not what you asked, but something to consider. FWIW, I have noticed math teachers also sometimes have this tendancy…</p>
<p>That aside, if you are not sure this teacher knows how to write an appropriate LOR, ask someone else. Don’t send them the link.</p>
<p>DD1 received a glowing rec letter from one of her teachers. We found out how glowing it was when we somehow got a copy. The first third of it was related to DD1’s physical appearance :). No kidding. The (female) teacher basically wrote how DD1 has this incredible ability to walk into a crowd and pretty much silence it because of her presence, be it due to looks (guess the Elbonian-Asian combination has its good side), self confidence, and attitude. The opening phrase became a family joke at the end…</p>
<p>Maybe we should have given her the article after all…</p>
<p>If you are actually applying to MIT, then I would attach the link, since the instructions are specifically “Writing Evaluations for MIT”. Of course, the suggestions are probably good for any school, but as someone who has written a letter or two, I would find it helpful to have such specific instructions and examples. Just my 0.02.</p>
<p>Some teachers ask for a brag sheet from the student so they can include that information into the letter. If that is the case, YOU should use that article to make sure she has that information available so she can include that in her letter. If she asks “what do you want me to say” then give her some tips and forward that article to her, but only if she asks.</p>
<p>I would still find a way to ask her in person if you can, even if she is switching schools.</p>
<p>I agree that the link is great and it would really be great if there was some way to alert teachers to it. I mentioned it to one of my older son’s teachers (he was applying to MIT) and she was a bit snippy about it. I’m sure I got labeled helicopter Mom that day! Anyway, I like the idea of sharing it with the GC.</p>
<p>Giving it to your guidance counselor and “suggesting” that he or she share it with all of the upperclass teachers is pretty much the optimal approach, although it clearly doesn’t work if the teacher you are asking no longer teaches at your school. Second-best would be giving it to the teacher and saying – if you can do so credibly – that you plan to apply to MIT, so the teacher might be interested in what MIT is looking for. I don’t think that would be too insulting, especially if you did it face-to-face, and were sweet, and said things like “I know no one needs to tell YOU how to write a recommendation!”</p>
<p>Separately, a lot of colleges explicitly discourage students from having language teachers provide recommendations. Not because the language teachers can’t write well in English, but because first to third year language instruction in this country generally involves no significant intellectual content. In many cases (not all), all your language teacher really knows about you is that you are hardworking, pleasant, and memorize well. That’s fine, but it won’t help you get into a super-competitive college. So you should think hard about asking a language teacher to recommend you.</p>
<p>Thank you all for the responses!</p>
<p>I’m still not sure what to decide on, so I think I’m going to ponder over it for a bit…</p>
<p>@JHS,
I agree with you about the language teacher part. However, this teacher taught me for AP French and is American-born, so that should overcome the language barrier (as someone else mentioned).</p>
<p>Do teachers at your school have experience writing recommendations for college applications? If not, then I would encourage this, and honestly I wish I did the same thing when I was applying. Most students at my high school don’t apply to colleges that ask for recommendations, so I think my recommendations weren’t so great just because my teachers didn’t have that experience. For instance, I’m pretty sure that one of my teachers just used a form recommendation he used for everyone (I’m not sure because you can’t see letters…). I can’t imagine my application looked as good as someone who received recommendations from teachers whose students routinely get into HYP.</p>
<p>Hmmm, I never knew about the advice against getting a LOR from a foreign lang teacher. D got her LORs from Spanish teacher and English teacher and got accepted to Yale. The Spanish teacher was not born in US and spoke with an accent and ESL. Personally, I think that the best LOR writers LOVE the student on a personal level (not the teacher of the class with the highest grade earned) and has FEW LORs to write. This way, their true enthusiasm of the kid shines thru and they can spend the time writing a great LOR.</p>
<p>My older son used his Latin AP teacher for one of his recommendations. MIT had specifically asked for a humanities teacher. He’d had her for four years straight, but in retrospect I think it may have hurt him at some schools. We thought his English teachers would have said things like “He clearly loves to read, but he hates talking and his papers aren’t as good as they should be.” And his history teacher would have said, “He wrote a nice paper about the Cuban Missile Crisis but only used 4 references.” At any rate it can’t have deep sixed his applications all together since he got into Harvard and Carnegie Mellon. I know other students who have used the Latin teacher and gotten into respectable schools, but while they read poetry and the Aeneid, I don’t know to what extent they discussed it as literature. They certainly didn’t write papers.</p>