I decided to ask my IB Global Politics teacher to write my letter of recommendation as I plan to pursue international relations and the aforementioned teacher and I have a really good relationship. She’s already sent my letter via common app, but she sent me a draft as well (even though I waived my rights to read the letter). I read through it and though she coins me as one of the “most intelligent students she’s had in her entire career” along with several other kind descriptions, there are numerous grammatical errors (subject/verb agreement, punctuation, etc). How will this impact my chances of admission? I come from a low-income background (less than $35,000/year), and the school I attend is in a small town in the midwest. Will college admissions officers understand that one teacher’s lack of grammar education doesn’t necessarily reflect on me as a student as well? I am ranked 1st in my class, 4.7 GPA, 33 on the ACT (retaking once more in hopes of a 34+). I feel as though my extra-curricular activities and essays should be fairly compelling. I dance 20-40 hours per week, have some national and international awards for ballet, started my own ballet school to reach out to students who couldn’t afford traditional tuition when I was 8-years-old to offset the cost of my ballet training, started a collaboration to teach ballet to refugees, volunteer weekly to teach English to Latin American immigrants, and am also the Vice President of my school’s key club and Secretary of Math Honor Society. I’m interested in quite a few T20 schools, but I’m worried this letter of recommendation will reflect quite poorly on me. Any advice or thoughts would be much appreciated!
I’m sorry this has you concerned. I would say since there is nothing you can do about it anyway, keep your focus on all that YOU have accomplished so far that makes you a competitive applicant and keep it going since they may also be asking for updated transcripts. The content of the letter hopefully shines through and an AO who is impressed with all you have done, will likely see the good in that letter.
I would also say that there are so many factors that go into getting accepted at a T20 school and it would take more than this one letter to get you in and more than this one letter to keep you out of the running.
I wish you the best!
Admission officers will be concerned about you and your qualifications – not the recommender and his/her qualifications.
I agree. AO’s are looking for statements like, you are one of the “most intelligent students she’s had in her entire career”. That’s what will shine through. In my opinion that’s the main take away from most letters. The rest is often just restatements of what is already in your app.