One of my recommender mistakenly put “I endorse XXX for Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University” at the end of the letter. My top major choice is public policy, but Woodrow Wilson School is not for prospective student. Should I be concerned?
You read your letters of recommendation?
It’s not an issue … the content of the narrative is what’s important
@AcrobatX It is not that rare, some teachers give their top students the letter to read. I was personally offered the opportunity for all of my letters, but I turned it down since I know when they said that, its good.
@boomboom123 That isn’t necessarily the case. My school is a very small close-knit community, and since it’s designated college prep there’s a big focus on trying to help students in any way possible. I know at least one teacher has approached a classmate of mine because of a piece of (presumably negative) information that they felt they couldn’t leave out, and they wanted to make sure the student had the chance to see the letter and decide if it would be best to send that one or ask a different teacher for a letter that wouldn’t have that tidbit.
Obviously if you know your relationship is positive between you and your teacher then it’s probably a good letter, but I’d say it’s almost unethical to submit a negative recommendation without giving the student a hint that it might not be a glowing one.