S2’s guidance counselor has a wall of her office with small pennants of the colleges her students attend. She did not have his so he got her one and a Starbucks card. The two teachers got shirts from the college, a Starbucks card for the teacher we didn’t know personally and a gift card to the beer store for the one we did.
@Materof2 I’ve never purchased a Love Pop and had forgotten about them. Thanks for the reminder! They will be perfect for the graduations we have coming up!
I just looked up Love Pops cards and they are pretty amazing!
A public school teacher went out of her way to write a LoR for our son when he was applying to a private selective HS. We of course thanked her, and after he was no longer at the public, sent her a gift card to Amazon within the school district’s guidelines. Every year or so, or after a significant milestone, we’ve sent her an email thanking her again, because we honestly feel that the HS transformed the arc of our son’s life. She appreciated the updates; she said it gave her goosebumps to realize how impactful a LoR can be.
My daughter wrote a thank you card and included a small Panera gift card to her teacher and community recommenders.
She waited until the end of the year, since she used several of them for scholarship recommendations as well.
I might be in the minority on this, but we didn’t include the guidance counselor because that’s part of her job. Which she barely did, but that’s another story.
Wow, this never crossed our minds and I don’t think it’s a done thing at our small public high school. The GC and LOR writers are close to the students and my 2016 grad has remained in touch with them after graduation. She thanked them at the time, and my current HS senior will do the same. I honestly think they would find actual gifts a bit over the top.
$25 to lor writer, $50 to the teacher who did lor and helped a ton with essays. S put off his essays until the last minute, and was getting emails from the teacher at midnight while he was reviewing them a couple days before they were due. Way above and beyond what should be expected. S and that teacher have a great relationship though, and to be honest he probably anticipated how it would go when he agreed to help.
Nothing to GC. Maybe should have for little sister benefit, but honestly other than doing required paperwork on time she did nothing. I’m 90% sure I know more about the process than she does. S was an athletic recruit and it was ED application to a very selective school. Both rarities in our HS.