My, my PG.
Quite a cynical response to my suggestion.
T25E4 and JOD understood when that kind of letter WOULD be taken seriously. When it was written by an experienced , knowledgeable teacher.
I really doubt a newbie teacher would write a letter using the exact same phrase you quoted from my post…
"Maybe the teacher had a well-written and incisive letter. Maybe the teacher is an Ivy PhD with numerous accomplishments and awards. Maybe the teacher had recommended other successful students in the past. "
How would an adcom know whether Mrs. Schmoe was an Ivy PhD with numerous accomplishments and awards, or whether she’d been just going through the motions of teaching high school English for the past few years? All they know about her is that she’s Mrs. Schmoe, 11th grade English teacher at Anywhere High School.
As for whether the teacher recommended other successful students in the past, this is where people have got to stop being so school-centric. There are 30,000 high schools in the US; let’s say each high school has 50 teachers, just for the sake of round numbers, so that’s 1,500,000 teachers in the country – no college with 30,000 applications is going to sort through “Well, Mrs. Schmoe at West Cedar Rapids High School says Susie is the bomb, and 5 years ago she also recommended Janey who we accepted, and wow, she was also the bomb.” Get real. These are anonymous names to adcoms; there is no way they couldn’t be, unless perhaps the school is in the immediate catchment area or it’s an elite private feeder school.
"How would an adcom know whether Mrs. Schmoe was an Ivy PhD with numerous accomplishments and awards, or whether she’d been just going through the motions of teaching high school English for the past few years? "
"All they know about her is that she’s Mrs. Schmoe, 11th grade English teacher at Anywhere High School.
How do you know? Are you an adcom? Or are you just making assumptions built on assumptions in order to argue?
Adcoms are very familiar with the HS’s they represent. If a teacher has been there a long time, it is very probable that the AC will have read past LOR’s from the same teacher for other students. And If there is a question about a LOR or anything else in an application, then adcoms can and do pick up the phone and call the HS counselor to check the veracity of what was submitted.
Take your own advise and “get real” when you actually have gathered facts, not assumptions, to base an argument on .
Not every student applies to schools that have had multiple applicants from that high school.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
I will assume that any further off-topic back and forth will be handled through PM, if at all. Carry on.