Make the Most of Your Recommendation Letters
“What do you mean I can’t read my recommendation letter?” Recommendation letters have always struck me as, simultaneously, the most curious and awkward part of the application. Think about it. Who doesn’t cringe at the thought of approaching your teacher to ask them to do this favor for you, a chance for them to wax poetic about your virtue, talent, and contributions to the classroom. Anyone? Now that I’ve maybe just unlocked a new irrational fear, let me explain why it’s really not that big of a deal. Even better, you actually have more control over your recommendation letters than you might initially think.
What’s Included in a Rec Letter?
Recommendation letters are just one piece of a very large puzzle–the picture of you–in the application process. All of the other pieces in your application, e.g. transcript, test scores, activities/interests, and essays are always going to be more heavily scrutinized. Recommendation letters almost always just serve to corroborate what’s already in the application. But they are not without their merits.
A good recommendation letter can provide additional context about your learning style, interests, character and integrity, and even personal matters that occurred while in high school that might have affected your grades or performance.
I can’t stress this enough, context matters! Sometimes a transcript is just a bunch of numbers. It might not always tell the whole story. If this applies to you, colleges will ask you to write about any extenuating circumstances that occurred during your high school years, but this is also where your recommendation writers can lend a helping hand.
Who Should Write My Letters?
Not all colleges require recommendation letters. This is true of many of the large public universities, though they may allow recommendation letters to supplement your interests and character. The general rule is that the more selective a college or university is, the more likely you will need to ask up to two teachers from core academic subjects (English, math, science, social studies, or language) and your high school counselor to submit recommendation letters on your behalf. Teachers see you everyday or every other day and have more insight into your subject content mastery, contribution to the classroom experience, and work ethic.
When it comes to the counselor recommendation requirement, this is when many students get nervous, especially those at larger high schools where students might only meet with their counselor once or twice a year. Don’t worry! Colleges understand that school counselors have large student caseloads. The counselor rec letter provides context about the high school, i.e. the learning environment you come from as well as any additional context mentioned above, e.g. outlier grades/experiences, transferring schools, etc. and fills in the blanks that a transcript might not indicate from first glance. Additionally, the counselor rec letter is bundled with and submitted with your high school transcript and school report, which goes lengths to explaining your high school demographics and grading scale.
When Do I Ask?
When you ask your teachers and counselor for a letter, it is with the understanding that they will each write one letter that is specific to YOU but not specific to a college or university and that it will be sent to all of your colleges that require letters. As a bonus, you can ask them to submit this same letter for scholarships, honors colleges, or other special programs. It’s common to ask teachers at the beginning of senior year (and if you do, I strongly urge you to ask at least one month before your first application deadline), but I suggest asking at the end of junior year before you leave for summer break for a couple of reasons.
Some teachers cap the number of students they write letters for. Yikes. It’s a great feeling though going into summer knowing that you have already secured your bid so to speak. Don’t expect that teachers and counselors will write your rec letter over the summer – hey, it’s their break too! – but some may, just to get it out of the way. Most want to take the summer to recharge, refresh, sleep and then write letters in the fall when they have a clear head and a happier outlook.
How Do I Ask?
When requesting letters of recommendation, always aim to ask in person. Again, I know it’s awkward, but teachers (especially junior and senior teachers) and counselors understand that this is part of the gig. They get it! A simple way to ask is “I would really like for you to write a recommendation letter for my college applications this fall. Is that something you feel comfortable doing?” or “Do you feel that you could write a positive letter on my behalf?” This is important. It seems obvious that you would only ask teachers that have something good to say, but it bears repeating. You should also ask more recent teachers. Junior year teachers are the norm, but it’s fine to ask senior teachers near the beginning of fall term: “Hey, I know I’ve only been in your class a few days, but would you write my recommendation letter?” Too cringey? Okay, I joke, but really, the first set of deadlines occurs around November 1st so even senior teachers have time to observe your work and write a positive letter.
What Should I Prepare?
When confirming your recommendation requests, also inquire of what materials your teacher or counselor will want from you. Besides a college list and eventual access to send letters on your behalf through an application or digital platform like Common App, Naviance, or Scoir, you may want to provide a resume and what we in the field lovingly call brag sheets, a series of short answer responses about your strengths, your classroom and/or extra curricular experiences, etc. Your teachers or high school may have their own brag sheet survey or a questionnaire for you and often a parent/guardian to respond to.
Pro tip: brag sheets are where you have the most control over the content of these recommendation letters. To demonstrate, let’s take a minute to reverse engineer this process. When you complete your college application, you will encounter character limits on activity descriptions and maximum word counts on essay responses. Think carefully and intentionally about what you don’t have space in your application to write about or expand in more detail, and let your recommendation writers pick up the slack. Essentially, help them help you! How can your rec writer enhance, corroborate, and/or support your application?
Think beyond the grade you made in the class and consider the following:
In team projects (if applicable), what role did you play in that team? Were you the de facto leader, the morale builder, the timekeeper, etc.?
Were there specific lessons that made you light up? Make connections across academic disciplines? Want to research more in your own time? Seek outside resources?
Are you a collaborator, someone who wants to lift others up in your educational journey? Colleges especially want to see that learning is not a zero-sum game, where your success is at the expense of another’s. If someone is struggling with a lesson or content, do you make yourself available to help or explain it in a different way?
If you are struggling, how do you seek help or advocate for yourself? Do you ask questions? Go to office hours? Do you persist?
These are just a few examples of the golden nuggets you could include in a brag sheet that a teacher could expand on, providing examples and anecdotes to enhance your application and make you stand out. When it comes down to it, colleges view these letters through the following lens: What is this student bringing to the table as a learner, collaborator, and future contributor to our campus community?
Recommendation letters, along with test score reports and transcripts, fall under the category: What Others are Sending on Your Behalf. It is generally understood that you will NOT get to read them. But, but?!! I’m serious. The Common Application, in fact, asks whether you want to waive access to your recommendation letters. Colleges prefer and I urge that you choose this option because they consider those letters to be the more truthful assessment of you and your abilities and hence, they are given more weight in the admissions decision. If you choose, however, not to waive your access, you may be able to see your recommendation letter in the future, but ONLY at the school at which you decide to enroll (after you are enrolled) and only if they keep them on file the following year. Consider this: by that time, you've already been accepted...so really, what's the point? So don’t be tempted. I know you’re still dying of curiosity. It will pass.
