<p>Question posed in NYT Sunday Magazine (March 12, 2005), “The Ethicist” Column</p>
<p>“My AP-English teacher received an overwhelming number of requests for college recs in past years. He said that some students abused his time by never actually submitting the letters to colleges but by reference-letter shopping instead and using more flattering letters written by other teachers. To deter this, he now charges $20 per recommendation. Ethical?”</p>
<p>No. The teacher can control the situation by only giving recs to kids who agree to his sending the letter directly to the college. Most colleges request this, anyway. Charging for a rec is sleazy.</p>
<p>No way. What next, if you offer him more money he will write you a better rec. than the kid that pays the standard fee? I cannot imagine that the H.S. would let him do that.
How do students "not submit’ the letter of rec. anyway. I thought you handed your rec. writer a stamped addressed envelope, and he/she mailed out the letter directly, or through the school office, if they keep track.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s unethical to charge for recommendations as long as one is clear that the charge is for simply writing a recommendation, not writing a flattering recommendation. I do think, however, that there are far better ways of addressing the problem that the teacher is trying to fix by charging a fee. What he’s doing simply isn’t the way to address the problem. There are plenty of wealthy students who will not be deterred by the fee, and will still recommendation shop. Meanwhile, there are students who are far more considerate, but lack the money to pay the fee, so would not ask the teacher for a recommendation.</p>
<p>absolutely not. That is part of the job, unless the teach wants to reject all letters of rec.</p>
<p>In addition to what asap notes, the teach can also respectfully demur, as in “Susie/Johnny, I will be happy to write one for you, but I will be honest” (hint-hint).</p>
<p>Once we go down this slippery slope, what is to stop a parent from offering $100+ for special treatment, i.e., an overnight letter, etc. Plus, how do kids know what the recommenders write so they can pick and choose.</p>
<p>In our H.S., teachers made various announcements in May of Junior year like:</p>
<p>(1) I take great pains to personalize each letter, and can therefore only do 30. I will have 30 request sheets in my office for the first 30 kids. </p>
<p>(2) If you did not have an ‘A’ in my class, I suggest you do not ask me for a rec. letter.</p>
<p>(3) I will not do rec. letters after Nov.30</p>
<p>And then some teachers had no restrictions at all.</p>
<p>I agree with Bluebayou, that the charge of money will tend to lead one down a slippery slope and into a situation where there would be distention amongst the ranks (teachers, students, haves and have nots). What is to stop the school to have an entire pay for recommendation system? I could never see that type of thing happening at My daughter’s h.s. or at a NYC public high school period because of the huge fall out it would cause.</p>
<p>Teacher’s at my daughter’s h.s they had a process similiar to the one Chocoholic described. Teacher was writing a limited number of rec’s, had a deadline for request and you had to write a letter as to why you wanted her to write you a rec in addition what outstanding thing you did in her class.</p>
<p>That seems totally unethical to me- I’m shocked that a teacher would choose to do something like that. I’m surprised that the kids at that school get to read all of their recommendation letters anyway- all of mine were mailed directly to the school.</p>
<p>I had also heard about a well liked and respected teacher at my D’s high school charging for a letter of rec. Even though my D has had him for several classes(and will probably have him for at least 1 more semester class next year), did make A’s in the classes and she also knows him outside of school because of her job/volunteer work, she has said she will not ask for a letter of rec. from him because it is wrong to charge. I agree with her. I think there are other ways to limit the number of letters of rec. When I first heard about this I thought he was just kidding. Guess not. Also I didn’t know that students got to see their letters of rec. What did the NY Times say about the ethics of this?</p>
<p>Although we never asked to see the letters of recommendation that teachers wrote for our son, a couple of the teachers made extra copies and gave them to us for use later–for other colleges or for scholarships–just because they chose to do so. (And these weren’t in envelopes or anything…)</p>
<p>This is the first time I have heard of this practice and I can honestly say I am shocked… shocked that anyone would suggest it is ethical - it is totally unethical, in fact it should be illegal. I have heard of plenty of stories of “reference abuse” by kids, for example the teacher who wrote a very nice personalized rec for a kid who then decided not to even apply to the school, but charging for the rec is not the solution to this problem, and CANNOT be the solution. Why isn’t this obvious to everyone on this board? Why must one invent silly examples, like the “sliding” scale, $10 for checking boxes on a form, $25 for my standard good rec with student’s name filled in at the top, $5 extra for including the (correct) college’s name in the body of the letter (sorry, no refunds for wrong college name) and my super ED ivy league special, only $99.99 if you get your request in before November 1, wherein I describe you as the most wonderful student I have had the pleasure of teaching in my entire professional career. </p>
<p>Nice work if you can get it… $20 times 100 students… pays more than teaching! I can just see the Adcom, very confused, reading the 100th rec from same teacher describing the best student of his career. </p>
<p>And what about the low income student who can’t afford to pay for his rec? Oh, I am sure there are scholarships available for needy students. </p>
<p>I am truly disgusted. Going to take a shower.</p>
<p>I will say, that if teachers were complaining about time spent on recs, and the school board felt that the teachers should be compensated, I could see charging students a flat fee (say $10) for each and every rec payable to the school board that could be funneled back to the teachers. Maybe… I will have to ponder that one. But a teacher charging on his own - absoluteley not.</p>
<p>The NYT ethicist says it’s not ethical and: </p>
<p>“A simple way for your teacher to thwart any unseemly reference-shopping is for him to send his letters directly to the college without letting his students read them.”</p>
<p>“No doubt, writing such letters is time consuming… But while it may be a nuisance, it’s part of the job.”</p>
<p>I agree that it’s horrendous to charge for recommendations. I’m a high school teacher, and I would never consider it, just as I would never write letters for students who had not submitted envelopes to be mailed directly to the colleges to which they are applying. </p>
<p>But what about this one: Is it unethical for a doctor to charge a patient who is applying for federal disability and requires a physician’s report to be submitted with his application. Like letters of rec, these reports are professional opinions sent directly to an organization considering an application (in this case, the Social Security Administration). And like letters of rec for a teacher, this appears to be part of a doctor’s job, especially those doctors who treat people for conditions that often result in permanent disability. Are people similarly appalled that many doctors charge patients for sending these reports? My wife, who is currently applying for disability benefits, has run into this with some of her physicians.</p>
<p>While I can understand the teachers frustration, there are many other ways to filter out the kids who just want the rec because…</p>
<p>I am wondering if the teacher has a reputation for writing great rec’s for everyone…if so, then he kind of created this problem</p>
<p>if not, here are some ideas:</p>
<p>1- say will only send directly to schools, so student must turn in a stamped envelope</p>
<p>2- ask each requester to write an essay on why they want to go to that college, he doesn’t need to read it, but those kids that really really want one will right the essay, alot of kids wouldn’t bother, so that would weed out some</p>
<p>3- ask the kids to see the completed application for the college (if that is ethical), that will show interest</p>
<p>4- won’t write one unless student has been in his/her class in last year</p>
<p>5- the deadline idea is great</p>
<p>6- put each kids name in a hat, pull out 10…okay not such a great idea, but better than paying!!</p>
<p>If the teacher asks the kids to do something, anything, along those lines, many kids won’t bother, so the numbers will dwindle.</p>
<p>As well, what about deserving kids with no money? Only the rich kids get rec’s? I find it distasteful and with a teacher like that, I wouldn’t want them to right my essay anyway. I have no respect for someone who can’t come up with a solution that doesn’t involve $$. As I stated, I understand the problem, but the teacher needed think through his solution and come up with something better.</p>
<p>A much more honest way would be to institute a sliding scale:</p>
<p>$25 - Outstanding recommendation with examples (student to provide the text of these examples)
$15 - Generic excellent recommendation
$5 - Generic fairly positive recommendation
No Charge - Generic mediocre recommendation (“Apparently this student didn’t impress me, as I had to check my records to confirm he had been in my class. My gradebook confirms that he did pass, however, and to my recollection he had no serious behavior problems.”</p>
<p>I’m joking, of course, but how far away are we from that? I find it hard to believe that a teacher would try this, or that a school administration would allow it. I would have assumed the whole thread to be a ■■■■■ if it wasn’t Marite who posted it. What’s next? Fees for grading tests? While I applaud the teacher’s entrepreneurial spirit, charging for recs is an exceptionally ill-conceived idea.</p>
<p>This is rediculous…college costs enough as it is!</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that each applicant signs a statement saying that they will not read, or attempt to read, any recommendation written for them AT ANY TIME (in accordance with such and such a law)… It’s on almost every application I used when applying to colleges… I don’t see what the problem is… my math teacher had to write 35 letters of recommendation, and she was more than honored to do each and every one of them…</p>
<p>Here is a direct quote from the Penn application: </p>
<p>“Confidentiality: Under the provisions of the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, the student named above, if enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, has the right to review his/her educational records. The student may waive his/her right of access to this specific recommendation by signing the statement above.”</p>
<p>Therefore, students shouldn’t be allowed to even READ the letters of recommendation in the first place… so long as they signed the waiver… ‘recommendation shopping’ wouldn’t even exist if students abided by their promise in their signature on the application</p>
<p>Extremely unethical!!!</p>
<p>Writing recs is part of their job - and any teacher who ‘limits’ the number of rec’s - in any way - is not doing their job either. And yes - they are supposed to be confidential!!! - tho some ‘nice’ teachers are pretty forth coming with a copy to the students or their parents.</p>
<p>As adults - have you ever had to pay for a recommendation for a job??? I think NOT!!!</p>
<p>Charging? That seems like “buying” a recommendation to me. Okay–we did send cookies to each teacher AFTER they submitted the recommendations. :)</p>
<p>None of my son’s teachers complained about writing recs, they were happy to do so. He gave them stamped, addressed envelopes, a copy of his personal statement and extra curricular resume (we are on block–you are lucky to have a person for more than 18 weeks the entire four years at the school), and the instructions that come with the common application for the applications that could use that form. He didn’t ask to see them, they were mailed off directly by the teacher. He did enclose stamped post cards to be returned by the colleges on receipt of the recs so he would know when they arrived. He thought maybe this would make it easier on the teachers.</p>