<p>This is a message for students when asking for letters of recommendation. It has probably been said on here before, but when asking a teacher think about who you are asking. I had a student one year who said she could not dissect in my class because she was a vegetarian. I allowed her to leave my room everyday and gave her something comparable to do. A year later she decides to become a doctor and wants a letter of recommendation from me. Another student failed my class twice and wanted a letter of recommendation, and yet another told me how much he disliked my class during his junior year and then asked me for a letter when he was a senior. Please think about how you performed (and behaved) in a teacher’s class before asking for a letter. Also, make sure that when you ask for the letter you give the teacher a list of your ec’s and gpa and class rank. The more the teacher knows about you the easier they are to write.
Thanks</p>
<p>“I had a student one year who said she could not dissect in my class because she was a vegetarian. I allowed her to leave my room everyday and gave her something comparable to do. A year later she decides to become a doctor and wants a letter of recommendation from me.”</p>
<p>What’s wrong with that? S is a vegetarian, doesn’t do animal dissections, and is currently a medical school student. No problem at all getting the grades, test scores, research and recs he needed in college - and most people (including his profs - some of whom were also vegetarian) respect that he lives his principles.</p>
<p>I don’t think the OP was dissing vegetarians. Rather, he was pointing out that when asking for a rec, kids should ask themselves whether they stood out in a positive way in the teacher’s class. The teacher was asked to evaluate the student as a biology student, not to comment on how firmly held her principles were. Because the student didn’t participate in part of the class, the teacher had no basis for recommending her and may have had genuine reservations about her pursuing a career in medicine. </p>
<p>I hope the teachers my daughter asks for her recs are as honest and principled as the OP appears to be. Too many teachers are willing to write lukewarm recs that really don’t help, rather than just saying they cannot do it.</p>
<p>OP was implying that he or she couldn’t evaluate the student because they didn’t do animal dissections. That makes very little sense unless it was a class on animal dissection, in which case the student would have opted out of it unless it was required either for the major or for med school. It should not be the case that students who won’t do animal dissections can’t get letters of recommendation from the profs whose classes include this component, assuming they mastered the material and were otherwise appropriate.</p>
<p>OP is simply offering helpful advice. He included one example (out of three) that you find objectionable. It is reasonable for any teacher to think less highly of a student who does not participate in a class activity that he considers important, regardless of the validity of the reason. This is especially true since the teacher “gave her something comparable to do” and thus had the inconvenience of extra work.</p>
<p>Perhaps you don’t realize that your taking exception to his attempt at helpfulness comes across as offensive.</p>
<p>Kudos to your successful son. May he continue to thrive in medical school and in his vegetarianism. Please allow others to express their opinions without being attacked.</p>
<p>We’ll have to agree to disagree rmldad about who is being offensive here.</p>