<p>I posted this in my chances thread but no one gave me a decent answer. One of my teachers really knows me well (english) and will write a good, possibly great recommendation about my leadership in the class and the impact I have had on the school. The other I have no idea how he will write it – he could say that I am a leader in the class, but I expect him to write about how I do the work required to understand the concepts at the A level but never do anything more. Many kids in the class spend hours every night studying Chem (the class I am talking about, but most nights since I totally understood the material during class, I don’t do any work - In chem there is no mandatory homework"). If he was prompted to talk about my work ethic I am positive that he would respond honestly and probably give me a 3/5 or about average ranking. Will this totally kill my chances at getting into Penn CAS ED? I have 2320 singe sitting and basically perfect 4.0 with a challenging course load and some better than average ECs showing some level of focus and “passion”. Your $.02?</p>
<p>No, it definitely won’t kill you. Sure, it won’t help, but it’s a relatively minor thing. Everything else looks great, so I doubt one bubble will kill your chances or even affect that much at all.</p>
<p>does everyone agree with this? Are you sure that a teacher saying that I only put in enough work for the grade and the 5 and not much more will have negligible effect on my chances?</p>
<p>Even if it’s true, why would he say that? If you think that’s what he’s going to say why did you ask him for a rec? </p>
<p>It seems weird to me that a teacher would agree to write a rec for an A student but then focus on that student’s negative points.</p>
<p>I understand the confusion – I actually am unsure what he will write this is just based on speculation. The reason that I bring it up is because he made a comment in class to one of my friends who literally does no work and gets straight As that maybe he should start to put in some effort because when it comes time to write recs teachers usually have to rate a students effort/motivation 1-5 and “most teachers dont lie on these.” While he has never told me that I am in the same boat, it is clear that I don’t put in the same amount of effort that many students in the class do because it all just comes naturally to me (sorry to sound arrogant but it is true). I guess what I am just saying is, I have no idea what he will write on the rec but it could be something like “average work ethic” and in that scenario, would that in itself take me off the table from Penn ED?</p>
<p>why not ask a different teacher?</p>
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<p>I suppose it depends on if you are acing nearly every test or just managing low A’s while saving yourself extra effort. If you’re acing the tests, the amount of time it takes you at home is irrelevant – it’s not your fault that the pace of instruction is too slow for you.</p>
<p>My son is also a naturally-gifted math and science learner: he looks at it once and he’s done and ready to move on. He’s never ever studied for a high school math or science test and couldn’t care less if major tests were given randomly and unannounced. He got 2 killer letters of recommendation.</p>
<p>Note, however, that he also taught himself 4 AP math and science subjects in his spare time just for fun, and participated in his school’s Math Team competitions. So there was clear evidence in his case of going above and beyond outside the classroom.</p>