Teacher rec letters - do they personalize

[Anonymous]

Or mention the fact that the teacher was an alumni if they were

Or is it one rec letter that’s uploaded to all colleges on common app

Does anyone know?
If you are teacher please share if you even have the option to personalize based on schools

[Anonymous]

You have the option. I don't do it often, but sometimes for a kid who is very involved in the extracurricular I lead, I will make a note at schools that also have the extracurricular about how they might contribute in that area at college.

But generally, I am writing these letters in the summer before I have an idea where the kid is applying. I write one letter, that is as positive as I can honestly make it for that child. Writing different letters for each school is not, in my opinion, a reasonable thing to ask.

[Anonymous]

I am outside DMV. I am on a PTA scholarship committee that gives scholarships to top seniors.

Our public high school teachers write 1-2 page letters of reference.

I have never seen any of them mention anything about their alumni status.

The more exceptional the kid is, the warmer the letter. I saw letters that were a bit short but none that undermined the candidacy of the student.

Teachers value maturity, leadership, intellectual curiosity, and good behavior towards classmates.

They do usually list some things the kid told them about (beyond the teacher's classroom).

[Anonymous]

PP. The letters we get for the PTA scholarship are sometimes personalized for the scholarship and sometimes are just the single generic college app essay.

It is frequent that they mention the student's intended major and try to connect the student's abilities to it.

English teachers do write better recos in my opinion.

Recos from the same teacher differ enough across students. They are not fill-in-the-blank sounding but there are commonalities. In other words, you can tell their style.

[Anonymous]

at our (expensive nyc) school, teachers usually personalize for the ED/SEA school and then generalize for rest. a couple of the well known teachers will personalize more, but most of our kids end up at their ED or SEA

[Anonymous]

My daughter's teacher graduated from our state's flagship and offered to write a LOR specific to this school. I wonder if it makes any difference. Anyone know?

[Anonymous]

It really depends on the school and the teacher.

We had letters required for UK applications and there were specific requirements from the UK to be covered in those letters, which we forwarded to the teacher who had agreed to write.

However, when we read one, it was top paragraph and bottom paragraph a totally standard letter that could apply to any student and then in the middle, a paragraph very specific to our child. And none of the UK required information had been included.

Ultimately it didn't matter because the kid got offers from all the places they applied to.

[Anonymous]

In general they are not school-specific and the same ones are uploaded/sent to whatever schools request them.