HELP: Teacher doesn't know how to write recommendation

Applying to College
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<p>I’m applying to US colleges from a small, local (and somewhat crappy) Hong Kong high school where people are very unfamiliar with the US college application process. So when I approached my class teacher for a recommendation letter, I was very worried - a typical recommendation letter in Hong Kong is, well, a number of adjectives linked together in a form of three or four simple sentences. Okay, I exaggerated a bit but you know what I mean.</p>

<p>So I spent extra effort explaining to Mr. O, my class teacher as well as physics teacher, that the US admissions are greatly different from Hong Kong’s and the teacher evaluation actually matters. A generic recs will not help. Nodding and agreeing, he said he would include specific examples. He even claimed that he would write the best recommendation ever. </p>

<p>I was pretty confident about it because he knows me very well. He has been my physics teacher for 4 years. I was also heavily involved in the school science club(he’s the teacher-in-charge) in which we learn advance topics out of the Hong Kong math and physics syllabus and participate in various fun science projects, e.g. making balsa wood bridge, drinking straw contraption, some matlab etc. And I’m always one of the ‘discussion starter’ in class. There are so much anecdotes and stuffs to write about, class participation, after class participation, eager learning…</p>

<p>Then he showed me the letter yesterday. I read it and I was like,</p>

<p>UH-OH.</p>

<p>No. I am not blaming him. I can tell he had tried his best to write ‘the best recs ever’. But it’s just not in the right direction… he wrote, instead of a personal recommendation, a list of accomplishments (non-accomplishments). He didn’t lie, it was indeed very specific. It was indeed the ‘best recs ever’, if your standard for a good recs is, uh, namedropping.</p>

<p>Honestly I am quite upset. I am disappointed that all these years of involvement in school and close teacher student relationship are being reduced to this factual sheet of activities. He might just as well include my scores for the quizzes.</p>

<p>CC, WHAT SHOULD I DO?</p>

<p>I can’t like, tell him to rewrite, can I? It’s just rude. Or should I just leave it as it is, cause, this is what my teacher have to say about me after all…</p>

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<p>just tell him what criteria is most important to you about college recs. tell him to write about how he felt of you as a student in and out of class, what he learned from you, etc.</p>

<p>but, for teacher recs in the US, at least, you’re supposed to check off something that waives your rights to view teacher recs.</p>

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<p>I understand you. If you saw what my counselor/math teacher wrote! She’s been teaching me for 6,5 years and there were 3 sentences, one of which was about how I watch football and that I support our national team!
Honestly, I’ve no idea what you should do. I just wanted to say that you’re not alone.</p>

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<p>Perhaps the tutorial here would help</p>

<p>[Writing</a> Recommendations | MIT Admissions](<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/apply/prepare/writingrecs]Writing”>How to write good letters of recommendation | MIT Admissions)</p>

<p>While published by MIT, its advice is applicable for most US colleges</p>