For my STEM letter of rec, the teacher’s process is you provide your own draft recommendation and then he will edit it as he chooses. What are some key things to include to make a glowing letter? I talked about academic strengths, personal qualities, extracurricular achievements, and specific anecdotes, and all of my editors said it was very glowing. Did I miss anything?
Also, do you guys think its likely that if my draft rec is glowing that the teacher’s gonna make it worse? I was a strong student in class, but I’m not sure if my performance justifies such a glowing letter (I said that I was one of the strongest candidates from my school, which has more of a chance of being true if you factor in ECs).
Me - i’d find a new teacher. If he’s going to write it, he should write it and it should be in his words.
He said he’ll edit so your glowingness may be changed and I’m not sure saying you are strong is what they are looking for.
They want to know about you the person - your strengths, your opportunities- not that you’re in the top 5 or 10 %.
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He didnt say that he would edit the glowingness, he just told everyone that these arent final drafts that will be sent to the college and that he can/will make changes. I just hope he doesn’t tone down my adjectives and descriptions.
I have read that almost all rec letters don’t do much because theyre standard positive, so I’m trying to make one that stands out by not just showing detail on my qualities, but also that I’m one of the top (ao’s have said this can move the needle)
This is odd. You should always give your teacher a resume or something that will help them in writing the LoR. But writing a first draft yourself is not something I view as ethical.
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Yeah, maybe not ethical, but it is what it is for my teacher and I need to take full advantage of it. I tried to make it really glowing and said “one of the best this year”. Of course the teacher makes edits before sending though
Are you really “one of the best,” “one of the top,” “strongest candidates” or did you just write that hoping the teacher leaves it?
I’d suggest using the opportunity to get a bit more specific in terms of activities & achievements and go less with generic glowing verbiage.
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yes, i emphasized things like love of learning, what I do in class to be a really good student, good personal qualities, and mentioned my top ECs. I just made sure to sprinkle throughout words like “exceptional” “outstanding” and stuff like that, and in the final paragraph added the “one of the best” lines because I know that’s what AO’s look for
that is really hard to answer. i’m definitely not one of those people who scores one of the highest on every test consistently. but with the “exceptional” qualities and traits i mentioned in the letter, along with ECs, the statement “one of the best from this school this year” can be true. its also subjective how many is considered one of the best
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