asking for recommendations - Page 38

shaneomac9122 · 03-06-2009, 05:12 PM

Is it weird to go and ask a teacher from the previous school year to write you a recommendation? Like, I'm a junior right now, and I was going to get a rec from a 10th grade teacher.

dchow08 · 03-06-2009, 09:15 PM

No that happens a lot.

blairee · 03-10-2009, 12:16 AM

I'm curious if having an alum write a recommendation really helps (and if so, how much?).
Although I'm still a junior, I've already asked tw
o of my teachers for college recs, including my APUSH teacher/favorite teacher. I'm thinking about going into political science and enjoy history, so I know her recommendation will be relevant to my interests.
She also is an alum of both Columbia College and Columbia Law, and my dream school is Columbia. Will her recommendation truly influence my application to Columbia or does it really not hold much weight in the long run?

python38 · 03-10-2009, 12:37 PM

I'm homeschooled, and I don't understand the whole timeline thing. If I don't intend to send off the Common Application till November at the earliest, but I finish working with a teacher much earlier than that, should I ask them to send the recommendation to the university ASAP? And, when I do send the Common Application, what should I enter in the "Teacher Evaluations" part?

Thanks.

ScaredAsHell · 03-10-2009, 09:24 PM

to Blairee:This has probably been said before, but I'll say it again: DON'T ASK A TEACHER WHO IS AN ALUMNI OF THE SCHOOL YOU ARE APPLYING TO JUST BECAUSE HE/SHE IS AN ALUMNI!!!!!! There was a kid at my school this year who applied to stanford SCEA who asked the AP stats teacher(who is a stanford alum) for a letter of rec. When the student asked the teacher, he chuckled and said "You aren't going to get in" but the kid insisted. He was eventually flat-out rejected from Stanford. Ask the teachers who know you well and like you. Luckily one of the teachers I asked, I have known since 9th grade and the other offered

^^^ one of my posts on the last page./

python38 · 03-11-2009, 10:07 AM

Also, I've never been taught by anyone other than my parents before. However, I'm applying to some of America's top colleges this autumn, and so I badly, badly need a recommendation from a science teacher, and one from a humanities teacher. So who exactly can I ask for recommendations?

Can it be a member of faculty at a university who's helped me with a project I'm working on?

What about someone who's taught me something like creative writing or drawing in an informal setting (say, at a club?)

Also, who can I ask for the equivalent of a secondary school counselor's recommendation? Can it just be any adult who knows me well?

T26E4 · 03-11-2009, 10:36 AM

python: I believe there's a home-schooling sub forum on CC. I'm sure your question has arisen before. Also, don't be shy with the school's admissions offices. Drop them a line too.

amsavaria · 03-17-2009, 12:32 AM

I have a question about who to ask. I am currently looking to transfer and have asked a couple of professors if they would be able to write a recommendation if I needed them to. They all said they would be more than happy to. I am wondering if one professor would be better than another.
My list of choices are:
My Football coach,
Spanish Professor (minoring in Spanish),
Professor which I have known for two years but is not related to my major or minor,
Professor which I have only known for around a semester but is more related to my business major.

any advice in who I should ask would be greatly appreciated.

Pevee · 03-17-2009, 05:52 PM

Somebody can correct me on this.
Unless, football is really a major item on your application (I'm not a big athlete, you see), I would ask one teacher who teaches a subject related to my area of focus and another teacher who knows me well.

mynameisrose · 03-20-2009, 11:04 PM

Does it make a difference on who writes your recommendation? One of my teachers is also a professor at a prestigious university in my city. He really likes me, so I wouldn't just be asking him for the sake of his position. Would his position make any difference? (even marginally?)

luckymeeeee · 03-22-2009, 02:56 PM

Having a good letter of recommendation would increase your chances of getting into a certain college, but they don't look as much towards the position of the person writing the letter as to the substance. A professor is usually more accustomed to what a college looks for in its students and is able to write a really good recommendation, so that would probably make a difference, but the same could be said for other teachers as well, so it's not so much the position that makes the difference as it is the capability of writing a good recommendation.

gmailblows31 · 03-22-2009, 03:18 PM

I was never very "close" with any of my teachers. Id make my presence felt, but I never really became the teacher's fave.

I decided to choose my AP Calc AB/BC teacher from last year. I never really mastered the class, as I lacked any effort at all. I finished the AB course with an 87/88 average. My teacher knew my lack of effort and she presented her thoughts to my mother. She told us (the people that were asking her for a recommnedation) that she is completely truthful in her recs. I decided to go forward with the rec, as the course was the hardest the school has and I got a 5 on the AP.

For the other rec. I decided to go for a teacher who I had for my first 3 years of high school. She knew me the best of all my teachers and I had heard she writes very good recs. The downside to the rec was that she taught design and drawing 1,2,3,4 and Architecture, which had been something I was very interested in in my first 3 years of high school (even went to Carnegie Mellon one summer for an architecture program), but the classes are not challenging at all.

So far I have gotten into NYU (stern with early notification), Northeastern (with scholarship) and SUNY Geneseo. I would imagine that the calc rec wasnt "painfully" honest and that it brought out my true intellect and that the architecture rec wasnt a "gimme" rec. Or maybe my URm status and stats got me into NYU stern?
I only ask this because im still waiting on my 1/2 choice schools in Cornell and UPenn and Im wicked anxious.
Thanks in advance for any thought on the subject.

python38 · 03-27-2009, 05:12 PM

If you're asking tutors who aren't familiar with the American system of requiring recommendations (I live in the UK, and am homeschooled) is it OK to give them some suggestions as to how to write a good rec (e.g. printing out info on how to write one, and all that?) How much help is too much help?

luckymeeeee · 03-27-2009, 07:00 PM

Actually, that's a pretty good idea. Or a better idea is to just give them links to websites with letter of recommendation writing info and letting them visit those links by their own choice. As long as you don't tell them what to write or exactly how they should write it it's fine.

Jzenkow · 04-03-2009, 11:23 AM

Most independent scholarships also want Letters of recomendation, should we just make a copy of the rec to be submitted to the school, or should we seek another one that could be copied?