Hi, I’m a high school senior who is undergoing application process right now. So I have three teachers who taught me Spanish, English and US History for my Junior year (Spanish and Eng) and Sophomore year (USH). They know me very well not only as a student but also as a person. So I’d like them to write me letters of recommendation. But the thing is, all three teachers are retired right now so they’re no longer teachers at my school. But can they still be considered as my academic teachers and write me letters of recommendation? I’ve also wanted to know how do I send those letters to schools when they’re done writing them. Do teachers submit the letters back to my common app and do I send the letters manually to specific schools or do teachers send letters directly to schools that I’m applying to? Please help me out with this as soon as possible!
Yes you can use them, please talk to your school’s office or guidance counselor about how to do it. I’m sure other people may have asked that teachers as well. You did ask them already, right?
Other thing, is not to get letters from all three. You only need 2 teacher letters. Jr year is better. It is best to get one from eng/hist/flang and one from math/science. If you can’t get one from each then at least just get 2 from same area, not 3.
Thank you so much! I didn’t expect anyone to reply this fast!
But I haven’t asked them for letters yet. But I also know nobody asked those three teachers for letters yet. My high school is extremely small so all three teachers I mentioned above know me so well, including my USH teacher who taught me when I was a Sophomore. In fact, my USH teacher was the one who spent the most time with me helping me with lots of stuff like National History Day, I’ve known her for solid 4 years and trust me she knows me VERY well. Even after I’ve become a senior, I always ask her for help. That’s the main reason why I really want to include her even though she was my sophomore year teacher.
and I looked at the common app and some of the schools require two letter but they also allow three.
I really appreciate your help @BrownParent!
They may allow 3 but it is not good judgement to use 3 unless the 3rd will be very different. Say a sports coach, a professor you did science research with etc. Otherwise best to stick to 2. It actually dilutes the impact with 3 teachers saying basically same thing from same branch of academics. Good luck.
There is no problem to invite all 3 teachers on CommonApp for LOR. You then have the flexibility to assign different teachers for each school. Note that the requirement for LOR is different from school to school. Some may want LOR only from core teachers (4-core or 5-core), some only allow junior and senior teachers. So one of the 3 teachers on your list may be not eligible in some case. In addition, if you do think the 3 teachers may cover different aspect of you, there is no problem to assign them all to the school that allows 3 LORs. My D even assigned 4 teachers to one school which she is now attending with scholarships. So the number of LORs within the allowed limit is not a problem but the contents are.