College-bound students seek teachers' write stuff

Micayla Goodrum spent a week deciding how to ask The Question.

E-mail? Too impersonal. Phone call? A little weird. And friends were no help.

"They were like, 'just drop it off on her desk!' " she said. "They didn't give me any good advice."

Ultimately, the Maury High School senior went for the in-person plea, blurted it out rapid-fire.

"I... walked up to them and said, 'Hey, I really need a recommendation, if you could do it, it'd be wonderful. I'm sorry I didn't call, or text message, or e-mail, I'm sorry, but I really want to go to college!' "

After all, she said, "they're not going to say no, with me sitting right there, begging to go to college."

For those who teach juniors and seniors, letters of recommendation are a ritual of autumn. Requests falling on teachers' desks as surely as leaves fall from the trees.

Unless you're one of those teachers.

"There are the teachers noooo one ever wants to go to," said Melissa Makhoul, who teaches Advanced Placement U.S. history at Great Bridge High. She says she is not one of them.

At this point in the college application process, much of what goes into a school's decision is already out of students' hands. The standardized tests have been taken, the leadership positions have been attain ed, the grades have been earned - or not. That leaves anxious applicants with a few areas to focus on - like recommendation letters.

And beware, potential recommenders: you, too, are being judged.

Maury senior Adam Rosen said he passed on one prospective writer - reasonably, he didn't want him named - because he doubted the man's writing skills.

Instead, he asked his AP psychology teacher and debate coach, who he says is "pretty witty."

"The kids know," said Maury guidance counselor Anne Christie. "They talk among themselves about who would be" the best writer. The general - if maybe stereotypical - consensus: English and history teachers are good; math and science teachers, less so.

On the other side, there are, of course, the students teachers could gush over for pages.

But what to say about that average student they don't know that well - "the hardest letters to write," Christie said.

Or worse, what to say to the bad student - or even the known cheater,

With the bad students, some teachers say they gently nudge them toward someone else. Others use the "I'll write your letter, but you won't like it," approach. But with cheaters, Christie says, if a student continues to press for a letter from her, she'll try to include terms that get an admission officer's attention.

Amid all this, there's the question: How much do colleges even read these things anyway?

"When I first started, I just knew my letter was going to get that kid in," Makhoul said. She used to spend an hour working on each one, she said. These days, though, she can get 40 requests a year, and she's got it down to a science.

"Twenty, thirty minutes, boom. I crank them out," she said.

But, procrastinators take note. Makhoul says she is also one of those teachers who is quick to relent when students make the biggest letter of recommendation mistake of all: coming to her with just a few days left until the letter is due.

"I'm like, 'Well, I'll look at my schedule,' " she said. "But I usually do it. I'm a softie."

Alicia Wittmeyer, (757) 222-5216, alicia.wittmeyer@pilotonline.com