<p>I don’t have the most amazing marks.
I currently only hold one leadership position.
I don’t play on sports teams.
I don’t have any significant awards.
I don’t volunteer at hospitals. I work for youth groups.
I don’t even live in the US. I live in Canada.
So now you see I don’t appear to be the strongest applicant, or even a decent one at that.
So I think it’s kind of embarrassing to ask my teachers for recommendations to ivy league. They might think “You? Applying to HARVARD?! Who do you think you are?” or things like that.
Any comments and advises are welcome. or answers to the following question:
how do you avoid that embarrassment and ask a teacher for recommendation to an Ivy league school? and most importantly, how to get a GOOD one? Thankz…</p>
<p>There’s no need to be embarrassed about it. I know it can seem like a daunting task (I felt a little nervous about asking my teachers for rec letters for HYPM). They’ll write you good letters; they’ll want you to get into Harvard or wherever. Whether they think you will get in or not is a different issue, but trust me, they’ll want you to get in (my teachers did, even though they knew the odds were very against me, as with nearly all applicants).</p>
<p>As far as getting a good rec letter written, ask teachers you know well and who think highly of you (academically and personally). Don’t ask one of your 9th grade teachers who you barely talked to when you can ask one of your 10th or 11th grade teachers who thinks very highly of you.</p>
<p>I can understand where you are coming from. My suggestion is to not ask for a recommendation specifically for Harvard. Harvard, like many other colleges and universities, uses the Common Application so you can submit the same recommendation to more than one college. If you feel that you will be embarrased to ask a teacher for a recommendation to Harvard, just ask if the teacher can write a generic recommendation for your Common Application. Make sure you meet with the teacher to inform him of anything important or useful you may want included in the recommendation—personal aspects about your life that may be relevant to your application. Good luck!</p>
<p>First of all, don’t be embarrassed to apply to Harvard. Everyone who thinks they have any semblance of a shot at getting in should certainly apply. </p>
<p>Second, any teacher who would ridicule you for wanting to apply to Harvard shouldn’t be writing your recommendation. In fact, I doubt any teacher would be that much of a jerk, unless you like go out of your way to pick the biggest jerk. It’s more likely that they will be supportive and want to see you achieve your goal.</p>
<p>Also…I didn’t play a sport, volunteer for any hospitals, or receive a single major award, and Harvard accepted me. There are a ton of others in my shoes who get accepted every year. Don’t sweat it.</p>
<p>There’s absolutely no need to be embarrassed about asking your teachers for letters, especially if you choose teachers with whom you have a close and cordial relationship. Obviously, Harvard is not the only school to which you will be applying, and your teachers will most likely write the same letter for all your schools (probably with Common App). I highly doubt any of your teachers would give you trouble if you asked them to send a copy of that letter to your dream school.</p>
<p>Now, how to get a good recommendation? It depends on the teacher. Some teachers have their own questionnaire form that will ask you personal questions about your experiences in their classes; make sure you provide insightful and detailed responses to these questions that are asked. If your teachers do not ask questions on their own, I would provide them a resume and perhaps have a conversation with them to refresh their memory about your favorite moments, assignments, and learning experiences in their classes – this is all potentially good material that could be included in a recommendation letter.</p>
<p>DwightEisenhower,
so why did the admission officers choose you ( seriously no offense)?</p>
<p>thanks guys for your advise! Anyone thinks it’s a good idea to first decide which subject’s teachers you want for your recommendations so you can do a great job with that teacher? BTW Does Harvard only uses the Common app? I heard Harvard has its own app to fill out along with the Common app, which includes teacher’s recommendation forms.</p>
<p>Harvard has it own optional counselor recommendation part in addition to the Common App one that you can have filled out. Other than that, I don’t know of anything else that Harvard uses.</p>
<p>no way! defn don’t choose the subjects/teachers first before you take their class for at least one month. some teachers just absolutely suck. my friend sucked up to her science teacher the whole entire year, and at the end of junior year when she asked him to write her a rec he was like “no, i’m moving, sorry, not interested, think i’ll be too busy.”</p>
<p>but make sure that the two teachers you end up picking at from different subjects.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I challenged my regional admission officer to a game of Super Smash Bros. I won.</p>
<p>I have no idea; they didn’t send me an explanation outlining the strengths and weaknesses of my application. While it’s true that I didn’t play a sport or receive any major national or international awards, other parts of my application were strong. My numbers (valedictorian, 2380, 5’s on APs etc) probably helped. I had 2 or 3 activities that I’ve spent years doing that resulted in leadership positions that I could talk about without being superficial. I was comfortable in my interviews; I spent time on my essays, etc etc…</p>
<p>I don’t really know what you’re asking but my point was that there’s no one thing that gets people into Harvard. The OP was operating under the false assumption that all Harvard students have this amazing EC in common that got them in.</p>
<p>This is not related…but is there a way to explain your situation to admission officers? other than in your essay? like a specific situation??
cuz there are some things i dunt want the officers to think about without knowing the whole story.</p>
<p>yes. it’s called your essay. or, in harvard’s case, your supplemental essay.</p>
<p>The question you want to ask your teachers is, “Are you willing to write me a GOOD recommendation?” When you have secured those who agree to write good recommendations then it does not matter where you are applying. Those will be the teachers who will support you whatever you do. Even if you are asking for recommendations to common app schools they will still want to know where you are applying so it cannot be a secret in any case.</p>
<p>Hey I’m back again~ This time I’m really close to applying…and oh my goodness! How come so many kids on here with teacher recs saying “so and so is the BEST STUDENT I’VE HAD IN 30 YEARS OF TEACHING, or HAS THE GREATEST PERSONALITY!”…Is that…a usual thing for Harvard ppl? Cuz that sounds pretty big…
Btw, is it a good idea to ask many teachers and read them and choose the best one? (or is it not even allowed?)</p>
<p>here’s what i have to say to this:</p>
<p>I almost had the same feeling last March of 2009 when I first asked for L of Recs…until I thought of it this way while I was thinking about which teachers I should court recs from:</p>
<p>If you are asking the RIGHT TEACHERS for Recs, then they should know you well enough, like you enough, and want you to succeed so much that they won’t give a damn what school they write a rec for - whether its your State college/univ, Duke, Harvard, or Yale</p>
<p>if your asking the right teachers who would write the best recs, they won’t even think of anything like “why is this kid applying to harvard”</p>
<p>Fatum, the whole “best I’ve ever seen” thing is certainly not uncommon among Harvard applicants. Yes, it’s a big thing to say, but then again a lot of these applicants really are special. And sometimes people exaggerate. Similar to how a lot of counselors seem to mark down the “Top 1% in class” column on the student evaluation forms. But don’t get discouraged; even if they don’t say that, you can still have an excellent recommendation.</p>
<p>To answer your other question… you declare whether or not you waive your right to view these recommendations or not before you hand the form to your teachers. Some teachers submit their recommendations online right away, so you won’t get to see them. There are others who actually let the kids see it first before they send it in.</p>
<p>Thanks!
yodastreet,
Is it up to the teacher if they want you to see it or not? Or do you tell them “I get to read it :)” or something? Cuz I think if you say that the teacher won’t be too happy? And for those who send it right away, you have to tell them every school you are applying for?</p>
<p>@DwightEisenhower</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I was going to ask you the same thing. He or she was asking because something got you into Harvard and I also wondered what it was, now I know.</p>
<p>If you declare on the form that you are NOT waiving your rights (in other words, you get to read the recommendation), then you should tell the teacher that when you give it to them. They might not be too happy, and it might affect the way they write your recommendation, but in the end it’s your choice.</p>
<p>Otherwise, if you waive your rights, some teachers might just let you see it anyway – it’s just that you don’t have the “right” to see it.</p>
<p>As for the last question, depends what school the recommendation is being written for. If it’s a Common App school, just tell the teacher to fill it out online. Then you’ll be able to send it to whatever colleges on Common App that you want. If it’s a school that uses a paper application, then yes, you might want to tell them every school that it’s going to and also give them stamped envelopes to those schools.</p>