Reply to Any questions for someone who went through 12 years at a DC private school?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]He knew I wasn't applying to any Ivy League schools before I asked him to write a letter of rec (so obviously no matter what he put in the letter, I wouldn't have gotten in haha). I later learned that some teachers take pride in having writing recs where a high percentage then go on to Ivy Leagues. I'm not sure if there's any professional benefit to this (maybe publishing opportunities or seminars?), if they happen to know some people at Ivy Leagues, or if it's just general bragging rights. But there were definitely a few teachers who basically only wrote letters if the student was applying to at least a couple Ivys. [/quote]

I don't think I approve of your teachers' thinking, but I don't think it is snobbery or elitism. They may have thought that a teacher recommendation to a large state school would not affect your chances of getting in. Those schools are heavily reliant on test scores and GPA for their decisions.  At Michigan, UVA, or the UC system, teacher recommendations just don't mean that much.  On the other hand, teacher recommendations can be determinative for the super selective schools.  Recs are like student essays and the more powerful they are, the more weight they carry to break the ties among a large pool of highly qualified applicants. Because of smaller class sizes and lower teaching loads, independent schools teachers can write far more personal recommendations for their students than public school teachers and admissions officers know that they teach students pretty similar to the colleges' pool. These often take hours to write plus a lengthy meeting beforehand. So there is a pretty hard limit to how many they can take on. The teachers certainly do not get any benefits from colleges where their students get in, though the independent schools benefit mightily from families happy with college admissions.  [/quote]

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