Hey guys. I’m not here on college confidential to whine about not getting into top schools. In fact, quite the opposite, I’ve had success. Top schools I was accepted to include MIT Stanford Yale Duke Cornell Penn and Vanderbilt. My one rejection was columbia. No waitlists. I’m just here to tell everyone something that I find interesting about the whole college process, and this might help 2022 of course. Far too often, I hear people on this site screaming about how they did XYZ and had perfect scores and how good they were and they still got rejected. I’ve pondered on this fact, too. However, I learned something. Im actually at Duke right now. I got to meet my admissions officers the man who let me in. He knew who I was and could tell me things about my application, and it was really cool. Something that stood out to me was what he told me abd my Peers was the primary way we got in. He said past a certain point, everyone is qualified. What he said is usually the difference between admission and rejection is recommendation letters. And no nkt the generic “this student is good Rec letters”, more like “this is one of the best students I’ve had in my career.” I’m not a valedictorian. My sat is only 1540/1600. But I was still able to see great success because my recs were good. I did not, seek out good recs intentionally, and i had no idea I was taking the steps to get them, I just got lucky.
My school got a new counselor this year, so I was able to make fast friends with her and have her write more than just my ECs on my rec, often hard at a large public school.
Another one of my teachers I knew personally well, he had been teaching me for 7 years.
Another one of my teachers, I took active interest in her class by taking the AP exam and asking her to help me self study even though I was only in the honors class.
High schoolers seem to often focus on prostituting themselves to ECs and having the highest test score to get in to these top schools. But from the conversation I had with my admissions officer at Duke, EVERYONE HAS THAT. HAVING THAT DOES NOT MAKE YOU SPECIAL OR MORE QUALIFIED. GET THAT THROUGH YOUR HEAD. RECS MAKE THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE. Abd as I research this idea, i find more evidence that backs it up. There’s a video of the yale dean of admissions saying something similar. Applicants to these schools would be better served perfecting their recs then making a 2400 instead of a 2100 on the sat, because past a certain benchmark, “yeah you’re qualified, just like everyone else”. You want your teachers to say things like “this is one of the best students I’ve had in my career.”
So without further ado, let me give you steps to get good recs, things that I did unintentionally.
Get to know your teachers personally. Even if you’re faking it, take interest in their subject outside the classroom. They’ll love you for it.
Get to know your guidance counselor, be friendly with him or her. Having a non generic letter from a counselor is really impressive, especially at a large public school.
Don’t ask collrge professors. They’re busier, so their recs won’t be as good naturally. Trust me on that one.
Don’t ask the same teachers all your friends are asking. Even if it’s from freshman or sophomore year. In most schools, seniors all rush to get recs from the same group of teachers. This makes them less quality. Try to find a teacher that everyone else won’t be asking.
Ask teachers who you’re friend with: most of my teacher recommenders, I feel comfortable talking to them outside the classroom, about non academic things. Also, it says something if a teacher has taught you for so many years abd can write good things about you. It helps a lot when a teacher can write about your personality quality.
Most students have generic letters of reccomendation, the vast majority from what my AO said. Not having one will likely make you standout. The rec letter is the most ignored part of the application, but students should spend more time trying to deliberately affect this. I didn’t do this on purpose, but I see how it happened. I hope my recent discovery helps the class of 2022. Senior year of high school is not at all late to start getting good recs. This is what you should be focusing on MOST. The other stuff, everyone has. This is what I learned from the application process. I hope it helps future applicants