<p>My friend tells me his school allows him to write his own recs. After much asking around I've found out this is true. Basically the teachers ask the students to write the recommendation, read through it to make sure it's not over the top, and then sign it. How common is this?</p>
<p>My language arts teacher asked me to write my own letter and she’ll then edit it. She’s the only one though.</p>
<p>This is very, very odd.</p>
<p>Yes, blue_box…this is SO odd and I don’t believe it is that common. If a teacher can’t/won’t take the time to write a short letter recommending you, then I would ask someone who can and will. It’s a passive way of saying “I’m too busy or uninterested in you as an individual to do this.” Seniors have enough stress with the application process without asking them to take on the LOR too. This should be the teacher’s responsibility and, to me, borders on unethical. Ask a teacher who knows you, and if they ask you to write it, I would tell them you’d rather have their honest opinion of your performance. If they refuse, move on to the next. In our experience most teachers are honored to write the LOR…I’m sure you will find some that are. Good luck to you!</p>
<p>It’s common enough for me to have seen it in a few colleges admissions books. Take it for what it is-- an advantage.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s that odd, especially for a large public high school. At my very large (aprox. 4000) high school, teachers simply do not have the time to write tons of recs for students. Most teachers limit their number of recs to 20 or less (out of a class of 900), and especially for AP courses where probably all of their students will want recs, I think that’s ridiculous. Obviously, at a small high school, teachers have the time to write the few letters of rec they have to do, but if you ask me, I think having students write their own recs and have teachers approve them is better than forcing teachers at large schools to refuse to write recs for students because they can’t possibly write recs for the 100+ students who ask them.</p>