Writing my own LOR

[throw958]

One of my LOR writers asked me to write up the first draft of the letter, so I've been trying to do so (pretty sure the "first draft" will also be the thing he directly submits). After doing a bunch of research, most resources advised doing two things:

1) Use concrete anecdotes and examples to show the student's proficiency instead of just meaningless praise. I.e. Describe how he showed he was intelligent through a specific task he completed.

2)  Directly compare the student to other students. I.e. "The student distinguished himself from his peers", "One of the brightest students I've taught", "Stood out from the rest of the research assistants etc", "Top X% in his class", etc.

The first is fairly easy to do since I obviously have a ton of anecdotes about myself. However, I'm not really sure how to do the second. I obviously don't know how my LOR writer sees me relative to my peers, and it seems extremely presumptuous to hand him a draft saying that I was one of the best students he's had. How am I supposed to compare myself to his other students for him?

Does anyone have any advice on this? Unfortunately, I can't get another LOR writer, this specific writer is extremely important to my application. It also seems extremely important to do the comparison, almost every resource and example I found repeatedly stressed the importance of doing this...

[philipjames11]

Seeing as this LOR writer is imperative to your application, I will not suggest to find a different one. Instead, praise yourself more than you may even deem worthy. Go overboard in a reasonable way, and if your recommender does not agree they should change it. If you feel statistics are helpful, throw them in. Make up x percent and make up superlatives that you think are worthy of you, and when you send the draft over make sure to say that statistics and anecdotes are merely placeholders for the writers own views. Don't forget an introduction in an LOR is important. Teacher for x years, founder of this lab, etc.