Importance of Letter of Reccomendations

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Several of the top publics don’t accept them as part of the admissions process.

They are as useful as most job references - not very useful at all.

It depends very much on the institution. I can understand a low ranking public school is going to have less of a nuanced look at applications than a small private etc.

You missed the mark. Berkeley, UCLA, and UF don’t accept them, although Berkeley may as part of an augmented review. That’s 3 top 30 schools and I don’t bother to look any further.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How important are letter of reccomendations submitted for college applications. A lot of parents write their kids got an excellent letter of reccomendation - how do they get to know? Are these letters not sent directly to the colleges. How do parents get to see them, or know the kid got a strong/excellent letter of reccomendation. Just trying to understand

Some teachers send them to the students after admissions are over. We had that happen. The ones sent were amazing, “best student in X many yrs” type with details. Both of our kids at ivies unhooked and our 3rd one likely will get into their non-ivy T10 ED: they are also well liked by teachers and have glowing remarks on interim grading summaries. The LORs help a lot, if they are good. They also hurt if bad. Some of kids friends never got any sent to them. One likely had terrible recs—top kid but rude to every teacher and disliked by peers, very toxic personality which came directly from the mom. They were shut out of all t20s in a school that sends 5-10% to top schools

This is terribly sad. Why would any teacher write such a bad reccomendation letter which could spoil the chances of the kids getting into college. Better not to write in such a case. Most teachers are on their self inflated ego trips, and never seem to realise they need to encourage students, and if they cant, or they feel the kid is not good enough or worthy of their reccomendation, just politely decline or not write the letter

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wrote 3-4 page brag sheet at end of junior year and became indispensable to teacher.

How do you become “indispensable to [a] teacher”?

If your kid honestly does not know then they aren’t going to get a top of the pile amazing rec. it is a genuine curiosity for the class, eager to participate in discussions, help advance the dialogue when very few are talking, help tie the discussion of the current readings to previous readings. A few kids do this naturally and are respectful of teacher and classmates. A few do it in an annoying way, trying to get attention and hog the floor. Teachers know the difference and we write the good recs for the first group. Some students are introverted and less chatty in class but still care about the subject and prefer to talk one on one with the teacher or come in at lunch and discuss. The genuinely curious students are obvious and in our school there are reports from teachers in the file from kindergarten on: the truly superb students have been that way for years, even if they were quiet when young or mildly boisterous—the natural highly intelligent students who crave learning are obvious, and they make classrooms work better!

Completely agree. and yet not every teacher is fair enough - have coem across a few very egoistic ones who are extremely biased and never fair in their assessments and treatment of kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Several of the top publics don’t accept them as part of the admissions process.

They are as useful as most job references - not very useful at all.

It depends very much on the institution. I can understand a low ranking public school is going to have less of a nuanced look at applications than a small private etc.

You missed the mark. Berkeley, UCLA, and UF don’t accept them, although Berkeley may as part of an augmented review. That’s 3 top 30 schools and I don’t bother to look any further.

And it's another reason why Berkeley and UCLA have no business being in the Top 20. They don't take test scores. They don't take recommendations.

Mediocre.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Several of the top publics don’t accept them as part of the admissions process.

They are as useful as most job references - not very useful at all.

It depends very much on the institution. I can understand a low ranking public school is going to have less of a nuanced look at applications than a small private etc.

You missed the mark. Berkeley, UCLA, and UF don’t accept them, although Berkeley may as part of an augmented review. That’s 3 top 30 schools and I don’t bother to look any further.

And it's another reason why Berkeley and UCLA have no business being in the Top 20. They don't take test scores. They don't take recommendations.

Mediocre.

Which schools should be in the Top 20?

[Anonymous]

They matter more than I realized. DD’s teacher said it was the first time he had shared a LOR with a student and the best he’s ever written in 20+years.

LORs will matter more as some schools do away with essays because of AI.

The pendulum will also swing to standardized testing as GPAs are unreliable and all over the place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wrote 3-4 page brag sheet at end of junior year and became indispensable to teacher.

How do you become “indispensable to [a] teacher”?

If your kid honestly does not know then they aren’t going to get a top of the pile amazing rec. it is a genuine curiosity for the class, eager to participate in discussions, help advance the dialogue when very few are talking, help tie the discussion of the current readings to previous readings. A few kids do this naturally and are respectful of teacher and classmates. A few do it in an annoying way, trying to get attention and hog the floor. Teachers know the difference and we write the good recs for the first group. Some students are introverted and less chatty in class but still care about the subject and prefer to talk one on one with the teacher or come in at lunch and discuss. The genuinely curious students are obvious and in our school there are reports from teachers in the file from kindergarten on: the truly superb students have been that way for years, even if they were quiet when young or mildly boisterous—the natural highly intelligent students who crave learning are obvious, and they make classrooms work better!

couldn't have said it better. And it comes naturally....

Oh please. I’m sure your kid is an asset to the classroom but indispensable to the teacher? I guess the teacher wallows in misery once your child graduates? Decides to retire? Just can’t go on? Goodness, the hubris on this board.