chris
This is the point in the year when seniors should start getting letters of recommendation. If you’re not a senior, start thinking about who you want to write you those letters and ask them about it soon. I waited until the last minute in high school to get my letters and, although one of my teachers was really wonderful and put aside some other work to do mine, I got rejected from other people who were too busy. Don’t let that happen to you!
Before we go further, let’s talk a little bit about what letters of recommendation are and what they do. Basically, a recommendation letter is a short letter to a school/scholarship/program from a person who isn’t you (or a family member) that talks about how awesome you are. They are important because every other part of your application comes from you!
How do I ask for a letter?
When requesting a letter of recommendation, it’s important to ask someone you know really well. It should be a teacher, counselor, mentor or family friend who can say good things about you outside of the classroom. Remember to ask early – they take a while to write!
When you get someone to write one, be sure to remind them about your personality, experiences and aspirations. That includes info like:
- What was your experience at your school like and what are you known for at the school?
- Did you take any upper-level classes? If so, why?
- What are your grades like? What’s your GPA? Class rank?
- What kind of extracurricular activities are you doing? Remember to explain what the organizations are and what your role in them is. Your groups might have really cool names and be really important, but the recommender might not know all about it, so you have to tell them.
- What are your goals after high school? If you know what you want to major in and where you want to go, tell the recommender about it.
Isn’t it their letter? Why should I write all that?
Your recommender needs to know what motivates you and why you’re going to succeed. They need to know what you’ve accomplished, and what makes you memorable and awesome. The better you show the recommender this sort of thing, the better the letter.
If you don’t give them that information, the letter they write could look very vague. The admissions people might ask, “Why did this student ask for a recommendation from someone they didn’t really know that well? Does this student not have someone who knows who they are and is proud of them?”
I know there are people who are proud of you and want to talk about it, so seek them out! Who’s writing your letters?
Hey Chris, I didn’t know recommendation letters were so important
By reading the info you provided it sounds like a recommendation letter contains a lot of important facts about students. Do you know of any form that students can complete and give to their recommenders to streamline the process? Also, I remember when I was in high school, many of my friends wanted to read what a recommender wrote about and when they discovered that the content of the letter wasn’t fabulous, they were so upset. In a situation like this, what should a student do? Not send the letter? Let the recommender know his/her dissatisfaction? Get another recommender? Do nothing at all? —Gracias!