Hi, I am an international teacher and need some help with reference letter.

Parents Forum
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<p>Hello.</p>

<p>I am an international teacher from China. I am writing a reference letter for my student Lily. I want to recommend her strong sense of independence and perseverance, since in my country, kids are particularly dependent on their parents. </p>

<p>I would like to mention her experience of travelling unaccompanied to Hong Kong to take the SAT tests, yet I am NOT sure about whether this might sound ridiculous to the admission officers in America. I know that American students are highly independent and travelling alone is not a big deal at all.</p>

<p>Here are a few paragraphs about her travelling experience in my reference letter for Lily. (NOTE: I also wrote about her absolutely amazing self-learning performance, since she received straight 5’s in all of her AP courses, which she learned ALL on her own) </p>

<p>===============
Firstly, among all my Chinese students, Lily is the first one to take SAT Reasoning and Subject Tests. In addition, each time she went to Hong Kong for the tests, she would choose to travel independently within a day; she would first take a train to Shanghai, then fly to Shenzhen, and finally take a shuttle bus to Hong Kong and check in a hotel all on her own. After the tests, she would hurry back to school in the same way. </p>

<p>Such a way of traveling might seem complicated and burdensome, yet the experience contributed to Lily’s strong sense of independence and perseverance. First, to an underage student like Lily who used to live under the wings of school and family, she developed her skill in elaborately planning the details of the trip in advance. Moreover, during the journey, Lily learned to quickly relieve the stress caused by the constantly changing environment, properly respond to unexpected incidents, and endure physical fatigue and exhaustion. Indeed, compared with most of the other students who directly flew to Hong Kong as a group or traveled with their parents, Lily impressed me the most.</p>

<p>======</p>

<p>Is it acceptable? Thanks for your advice. (I really don’t want to ruin her chance of getting into college)</p>

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<p>Yes, it is important to point out Lily’s independence, and most American Adcoms do know how protective Chinese parents could be. At the same time, it is important for you, as her teacher, to go into more detail on her performance in your class. What makes her stand out? Be as specific as possible - a paper she wrote, her participation in class, her involvment with her classmates, special insight she may have brought to the class. </p>

<p>I think her independence probably could be best disclosed by her college counselor, if he/she is willing to write it. It could clearly show to adcoms that Lily will be able to adjust to American school, and be self sufficient.</p>

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<p>Talk about her performance in class.
Let Lily write about her SAT experience in her essay.</p>