What makes a strong college recommendation letter?

RReaders in Stanford's admissions office scanned every letter of recommendation for one particular kind of sentence, and at least one Ivy has written the same preference into its rating scale. That college's reading guidelines, made public during a lawsuit, reserve the highest letter ratings for it. It is the most persuasive line a letter can contain, and a busy reader trusts it for reasons we explain below. Families who learn what the sentence is tend to reach for the obvious use of the knowledge, and the obvious use is a mistake. It can make a student look arrogant to the one adult whose opinion of her is about to be written down, and it can quietly cost her the letter.