Oh definitely! Just wondering if I needed to submit more than 2 teachers and one other
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I think 2 teachers and 1 other probably hits the sweet spot!
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Does your school counselor not ask students to fill out a âbrag sheetâ?
Anyway, heard at a few admissions presentations that they donât place a lot of emphasis on counselor recs from large schools because they know the counselors canât get to know the students well.
Yep, I come from a large school and we have a mandatory brag form to fill out. Surprised thatâs not more common!
They fill out a âsenior profile,â but it doesnât appear to have a lot of information that could go on a recommendation. I think itâs more to give the counselor context of which colleges the kid is planning to apply to, because they donât necessarily get to meet with the counselors to talk about this in person. My S23 had one 15-min meeting with the counselor in his junior year, and that was it. My D26 didnât have a junior year meeting with hers until she specifically requested it at the end of the year because she wasnât sure what she was supposed to be doing (forms to fill out or anything), and again it was just a few minutes.
Agree - and the more you ask for, probably the higher the chance that less good ones appear. I think itâs better to stick to teachers or other recommenders that you know will write good ones.
When D19 applied to nyu, they had one mandatory and 3 maximum - she only supplied one and that was enough.
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Oh, hi! Thank you for the kind words!
Iâve never been to this thread before, because my younger kid was Class of 2017 and just turned 27 
and it feels weird and lurky to hang around the âClass of Xâ threads now. But I see Iâve been missing out on some good snark here 
.
When it comes to us old-timers who donât have college or pre-college kids anymore, I think it boils down to the fact that we all have our reasons for sticking around on CC. Hopefully thereâs altruism involved but weâre all getting something out of it too. Best we can do is be self-aware about that and try not to get something out of it at the expense of the kids!
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I have to say this is a remarkably snark-free thread. I think all of us just got fed up at the same time!
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BUt tHerE aRe prOgRessiVe arEaS iN OutEr MonGoliA!!!
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random complaint- the amount of supplementals some of these schools are asking for is insane!
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Thatâs for sure! Especially if youâre applying to a UC school. Holy moly.
For CA kid, applying to 9 UCs through one application, 4 PIQs doesnât seem so bad. Plus I feel the prompts are easier for the kids to handle, they directly apply to their extracurriculars or academic areas of interest. So for instate kids 4 PIQs for 9 colleges is not a bad deal. For OOS I understand it can feel too much when you are planning to apply to just one or two UCs.
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We finally have a list - 12 colleges(still too many in opinion) plus one UC and one CSU application. I think kid ended up with a good mix of colleges, a couple of super reaches but he wants to give it a try, who am I to stop him. Most are on west coast, a few on east coast too. No colleges in the South. But I am hoping he ends up on the west coast only, fingers crossed!
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We are in state, but your out of state logic applied to my D26. She was only interest in one UC - Santa Cruz. But, when she looked at the PIQs, she decided she didnât want to do all that work for one school so cut it off the list. Agree with you though for those who are applying to a bunch of them, itâs not that much work per school.
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I think Iâve put this out there beforeâŠmaybe even in this threadâŠbut Iâve lost track - however itâs something that still circulates in my mind even 30 years later.
I participated as (one of) the student representatives on the admissions committees for Veterinary School - these were small groups comprised generally of two active practitioners (aiming for one small animal and one large animal vet but often it was just small animal docs due to the numbers skew), then one basic sciences instructor(first two years) and one clinical instructor, one active student and one admissions office member. There were maybe 4-5 total groups.
After eliminating the applicants who didnât meet the pre-reqs or didnât have all their documents submitted - they would divide up the applicants between the groups for review and initial ranking so the applicants could be scheduled for interviews (and the applicant interviews are a whole nother series of anecdotes, but I digress).
Anyway, what struck me was the number of applicants with at least one LOR (out of a two required but three maximum) which was just a âmehâ letter - not necessarily poorly written, but more so along the lines of not knowning the applicant well at all, or for a very short period of time, or couldnât relay anything specifically noteworthy about the applicant at all - AND - a surprisingly large number of applicants would have at least one -BAD- LOR along the lines of this applicant is not a good candidate donât take them.
After the first time I sat thru the process, I made some comment about this during a coffee break - and several of the non-student participants who had been thru this multiple times basically said âThis is pretty commonâ
Granted this is anecdotal from -professional school- in the mid ninties, however I have colleagues who now sit on the practitioners side of the admissions groups and they say it still goes on.
So my gut reaction is - if given the option of multiple LORs, make certain your student is asking them the right questions before asking them to write for them, provide a âbragâ sheet that can really give a full picture of your student, and donât strive to meet maximum LOR numbers â stop with only those your student is 100% certain of STRONG support. Any question or uncertainty on their part should be a cautionary flag to consider.
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THIS! D26 thought she was almost finished. 3 schools to go (2 are UC/OOS). Between those schools, she has 7 essays to write! Not to mention at least one honors college application and all before the end of November. also - those admissions officers are reading a LOT! makes my head spin!
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my kids have graduated as well, but I still lurk on these threads. Every so often I feel the need that I should comment, but I dont. Maybe I should. BTW one of the high schools where I currently live has maybe a 25% 4 year college rate. (many who go, go to community college first). I was subbing yesterday and saw that one counselor is assigned to college stuff, and then the rest are divided up by alphabet. This school has 3 social workers.
In our high school, one of the APUSH teacher said he will not write the recomm letter if he knows the student has more than two teacher letters including his.
My S26 asked this teacher, and AP Lan teacher. He tried to get AP psycho teacher (who also know my son very well, and happy to write), but eventually gave up.
LORs:
D26 has 2 teachers that are doing LORs for her for all her schools.
- One (an English teacher) is doing more of a generic LOR that can be used for all schools.
- Second one (CS teacher) is willing to tailor each letter for each application.
Main part of the LOR is the same across the board- but she will throw in a few things in the intro/summary that are specific to each of the schools D26 is applying to.
RIT states they prefer a counselors req to be included- so D26 has asked the counselor for an additional LOR from her. This is the only school that will get 3 LORs.
The counselor barely knows D26 so not to thrilled with this being a âpreferred by RITâ request. (great counselor- but she has 200+ students and is new to our school as of last year- so she can only do/know so much about each student!).
D26 is working this weekend on the brag sheet needed for this last LOR.
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Our school has a maximum of 2 LORs from teachers allowed. They suggest one stem and one humanities/social sciences in line with general recommendations. The school also requires that everyone has to be asked in person (including counselor for their rec); suggests that asking teachers is phrased something like âdo you feel you know me well enough to write a good recâ (and move on to a different teacher if they seem reluctant); and emphasizes that good letters take time which teachers do on their own time, unpaid, and to respect that.
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