How to cultivate a "friendship" with a potential recommender?

Pre-College Topics High School Cafe
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<p>I’m applying to MIT, which requires that at least one of my recommendations must be a math or science teacher. I was hoping to have my IB Biology HL teacher write a rec for me, since I want to major in Microbiology, but he made some choices regarding teaching our second year differently which I felt were detrimental to my preparation for the exam (he put us with the AP class, which meets daily, while we meet only every other day, because of our A/B day schedule. This wouldn’t be an issue, but we’re missing labs that we’re expected to write reports on, and he’s giving us the same stuff as AP which, if you’ve seen both AP and IB Biology info, is most definitely not the same), so I talked to him. He was very dismissive, and so my classmates went higher up without me and basically made the situation into an “us vs. him” atmosphere.</p>

<p>At this point, I’m EXTREMELY skeptical that he would be willing to write a nice recommendation for me, if he wrote one at all. So, I’m putting forth 150% effort in my IB Math SL class in order to show her that I deserve a great recommendation.</p>

<p>I’ll happily take either a) advice for fixing the situation with my Biology teacher, though it’s really so complicated and has escalated so quickly, that I don’t think I could help it, or b) any tips/advice to help demonstrate that she should write me a great rec.</p>

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<p><em>bump</em>
10char</p>

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<p>

If you think of it like this, you will probably have a bad time getting a good recommendation. It’s pretty easy to catch someone who is trying to use you.</p>

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<p>Don’t try to befriend teachers just to get a recommendation, that crap is shady. Just be a good a student and a pleasure to have in class and you’ll get the recommendations you want.</p>