<p>I am an international student and I am soon going to meet with my guidance counselor to ask for a recommendation. I basically need to know how to help her in the best way possible, since she has never gone through this process before with any student.</p>
<p>Are there any good links/material that are available for an international student to help the guidance counselor write her recommendation? Since I do not know her well, are there some standard questions I should be asked in order for her to write the recommendation?</p>
<p>The MIT guidelines are excellent and (with the exception of the specific item regarding knowledge of MIT) generally applicable. To the extent that your counselor can customize each reference letter and knows enough about the colleges, the addition of a paragraph “why is <specific college=”"> a good fit" personalizes the reference.</specific></p>
<p>In addition to what fogcity says: sometimes students and teachers think a letter of recommendation is an endorsement of the student’s character (he/she is honest, hard-working, has lots of character). This is not the purpose of college letters of recommendation. They are looking for the sort of anecdotes contained in the MIT tutorial. Print it out and hand it to your teachers/counselors/head master. Good luck.</p>
<p>Fogcity, thank you for your input. Very much appreciated. Are the teachers obligated to customize their letter to the colleges I’m intending to apply to? </p>