<p>if the recommender is a math teacher, it wouldn’t hurt at all i think. however, if he/she is an english teacher, it would raise some questions</p>
<p>She’s a government teacher, so, I guess we’ll call it 50/50. =D</p>
<p>However, it seems to be less of a big deal than I had imagined, because I am just now realizing that the majority of my schools only required one recommendation, so the extra dubious rec should most likely just be considered extra. It’s only a factor at one school, and hopefully everything else will compensate. I have no idea if the rec is even that bad. Maybe I’ll just ask my guidance counselor for a copy of it so she can tell me definitively whether or not I should lose sleep.</p>
<p>But in the mean time, I’m just going to take a breather and relax, which is about the best any of us can do.</p>
<p>My AP Biology teacher last year was an Indian immigrant with a Ph.D in zoology. She was a wonderful person and a great biology teacher, but she couldn’t write in English for a damn. My guidance counselor edited her recommendation for me after reading it… perhaps your guidance office would be willing to take a look at it?</p>
<p>I think that’s a good idea. I’m going to have my gc take a look at it tomorrow. Thanks!</p>
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<p>Say, what?</p>
<p><grin></grin></p>
<p>See how easily it happens? My son’s ENGLISH teacher made a simple error. It was a common error following a prepositional phrase, but I KNOW it was only because she was in a hurry, because she ALWAYS catches every little thing on my son’s papers.</p>
<p>The rec from his history teacher was full of grammatical problems, so he did not use that one.</p>
<p>The one from his German prof (who used to teach at Berkeley) was glowing and grammatically correct, but it had half the school name missing, so that was quite obviously a cut-and-paste mistake. Again, he was in a hurry.</p>
<p>My son, who caught the mistakes himself, actually considered pointing them out, but decided against it - partly because the semester had ended and Christmas holidays had started, and partly because he just didn’t want to bother them again.</p>
<p>I would hope that colleges know by now how many of these rec letters the teachers do, and that they are often in a hurry. Even the best teachers can make mistakes when they are in a hurry and that should not reflect on the student, or even on the quality of the teaching, imo. At least that’s what I’m hoping.</p>
<p>edit: NSM, since you have observed situations in which the teacher’s poor grammar DID negatively affect the student’s chances (which I find rather disconcerting), then do you recommend that the student point out the errors in such a case, or just use it as is? Is it rude to point out the errors, or will the teacher likely be impressed?</p>
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<p>Now that you’ve clarified what you mean, I agree completely. I don’t think I would want my son using letters with such horrendous mistakes either. In his case, they were obviously of the carelessness/in a hurry nature so I didn’t think they were a big deal.</p>
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<p>Like this?</p>
<p>I’m just picking on you now, NSM - just kidding, all in fun! I just couldn’t resist! <chuckle></chuckle></p>
<p>It’s a GOVERNMENT class, not an ENGLISH class…at my school (a top-notch public), government doesn’t necessarily require that much more writing than calculus, and I think grammar errors would only possibly be an indication of teaching quality if the person teaches english.</p>
<p>Hmm, my admissions counsellor tells us she edits, corrects etc. al the recs before submitting them, so ask if your school does that? (just for grammatical mistakes/spelling)</p>
<p>i was wondering about this, too, because my teacher who wrote me a rec for a program is dyslexic, and makes spelling errors throughout all of the worksheets he gives out for class. i’m assuming his rec was filled with glaring errors as well. but is spelling different than grammar? because being dyslexic doesn’t indicate he’s a poor teacher… does it?</p>
<p>Like, roamorse, I have a teacher who’s dyslexic. His subject is physics, and I may or may not ask him for a rec when the time comes, but I can tell you he makes a lot of mistakes (spelling and grammatical). But he is a fantastic teacher, knows his subject extremely well and I believe there is a very high pass rate (with several 5’s thrown in) on the AP every year. Hopefully (and yes I know that is grammatically incorrect), adcoms will look at the applicant’s own quality of writing, their SAT scores and AP scores if they have any doubts about the quality of education the applicant received.</p>
<p>i think they admissions will def def think ‘what the hell? why can’t this guys teacher write…’</p>
<p>but if you dont get in…i doubt this small thing is to blame…def not something to worry about.</p>
<p>phedre…are you that self conscious and afraid of all the condescending scholars on CC that you have to give a warning for when you want to make a grammatical error lol you’re silly for that one…</p>
<p>How would a college know if the grammar was weak because English is a second language for that teacher? For example, my son’s Calculus teacher is Russian and she learned English as an adult. She is completely capable of teaching Calculus but I do wonder how well she writes in English (and if it would hurt him to have her write a rec.) He might also need his guidance counselor to do some paperwork as our one, solitary college counselor can’t do everything. English is not her first language either. Again, she does her job well but writing without grammar errors is more difficult for people who learned English late in life. I’d hate to think a school would think less of the quality of the program because of a language barrier.</p>
<p>There would be far more of a problem if a teacher’s grammar were very weak in a writing intensive course like English or history. </p>
<p>It’s not unusual for math or even science teachers to be from other countries because native born Americans don’t seem as strong in math and science as are many immigrants.</p>
<p>The easiest thing to do would be to talk to the teacher in question, asking if you could see the letter before it is mailed. If there are mistakes in it, point them calmly out to your teacher saying “I think you might have missed this…” as politely as possible. Teachers are often overloaded with grading and lesson plans, so it’s entirely possible that they make a few easy mistakes. Don’t let these mistakes jeopardize your admission.</p>
<p><em>sigh</em> sometimes, I wish the people here getting worried would put things in perspective.</p>
<p>You have 4 reccommendations total, which is more than any college I know of requires. One of them is from Senator Clinton. You have a 760 and a 750 on 2 sections of your SATs, and a 5 on your AP Lang exam.</p>
<p>If you get rejected from the school of your desire, it will NOT be because of grammar issues in one of the 4 letters of reccommendation.</p>