Anonymous
Post 01/08/2026 18:56     Subject: Teacher recommendation great and not great
I've read applications, and the committee looks for trends. If this teacher's rec is the only one with a negative view of your child, then they will likely not give it much weight.
Anonymous
Post 01/07/2026 13:32     Subject: Teacher recommendation great and not great
Engage the principal and counselor before the recommendation is submitted.
Anonymous
Post 01/07/2026 13:24     Subject: Teacher recommendation great and not great
Anonymous wrote:Will two glowing recommendations for MS outweigh one negative one coming from public school? Grades are excellent, as was interview and shadow day. This is for a private school that isn’t as competitive as the big 3. We had no choice but to ask for this recommendation. I haven’t seen any of them but can assume three will be great and one won’t be. Because the recs are coming from public school, they aren’t run by the HOS or anything and teacher can pretty much say what they want without any dispute. It’s super frustrating because I feel like our child has been unfairly goaded and targeted by this teacher. No, I have not said anything to the teacher myself about this for fear of being labeled difficult. Just sucking it up and hoping for the best and telling my kid to do the same.


You sound unhinged. Your daughter sounds spoiled. I would not want your family at our school; we already have our share of people like you.
Anonymous
Post 01/07/2026 13:00     Subject: Teacher recommendation great and not great
Teacher here. Teachers don’t generally write negative comments on recommendations. We vary how gushing we are in praising students and admissions people can probably read between the lines to some extent. If I had absolutely nothing good to say about the student, I would let parent/child know ahead of time and we would need to have a meeting. And I teach at public school
Anonymous
Post 01/07/2026 07:06     Subject: Teacher recommendation great and not great
As one admissions team said at an open house last fall, “Your recommendations are where teachers get the last word.”

Good luck, OP.
Anonymous
Post 01/07/2026 06:35     Subject: Teacher recommendation great and not great
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What do you think the teacher is going to say? I think how much it impacts your DC’s chances really depends on that.


Op here. I think the teacher will say DC is disrespectful towards this teacher and possibly has low frustration tolerance. (I would argue teacher is disrespectful and out of line with how they treat DC but I don’t get a say here) But the teacher won’t dispute that DC is diligent about work, engaged in class and academically high performing.


From your response, it seems you would agree that your child’s been disrespectful and has a low frustration tolerance - even though you also think the teacher’s also not respectful. If true, then this is not a situation where a letter written alleging things without them being true.
Anonymous
Post 01/05/2026 22:34     Subject: Teacher recommendation great and not great
And teachers do recs at our private without admin oversight - I would imagine that most would run a negative rec by admin though