<p>Math isn't my strong suit, but am I missing something?</p>
<p>My son's high school class numbers ~750 students. If each student applies to only 3 schools and asks his/her math teacher for a written recommendation, then wouldn't that teacher be asked to write 2,250 letters? </p>
<p>I realize that there must be some forms in place that teachers use, but I've known many of them to craft beautiful letters. How do they find the time? Is it that most kids don't require letters of recommendation for colleges, or they don't apply to college, or what?</p>
<p>Just something that's confusing to me & I thought somebody might weigh in!</p>
<p>Well, I believe the teacher writes the letter and usually sends it through the Common Ap site, which forwards it to admissions at any number of schools - so even though letters may be sent to 3 schools for an applicant, it is the same letter.</p>
<p>So, in your scenario, you’re down to 750 letters - still a LOT!</p>
<p>But the other mitigating factor is that (people, correct me if I’m not remembering this correctly) the letters are not required from teachers of particular subjects - so some kids might ask the English teacher, others will ask the History teacher, and so on. Any given teacher won’t be asked to write a letter by ALL students in 12th grade.</p>
<p>Still though, I’ve wondered how they handle it too, because even 20 letters is a lot if they are really individualizing them…</p>
<p>I know that S’s AP physics teacher would spend many nights and weekends throughout the year writing great, detailed letters of rec for the many, many students who requested it. The good thing for him is that there were only 200 seniors every year and not all of them took AP physics. It is true that many of the teachers did write a lot of letters, but most times, they only need to write one letter per student & it can be used for all the schools (tho it still is time consuming). I’m sure other teachers also spent a lot of time doing so, but he was the one I saw the most, pretty much any time I was on campus after school.</p>
<p>I would guess that the vast majority of colleges do not require or even look at letters of recommendation, at least for admissions purposes (perhaps for certain scholarships). My son needed recommendations for his Top-20 schools, but not for the state flagship, his safety school.</p>
<p>I would also think that only a few students from any given class would warrant special writing treatment and that, for most, a template of previously-written parts or generic descriptions could be quickly cobbled together.</p>
<p>I’m talking from the perspective of a large public high school. Teachers in smaller, private, expensive high schools that are Ivy League feeder schools must have a real challenge ahead of them each fall – send 10 recommendations to the same college and I’m sure the admissions committee compares them with one another to “read between the lines.”</p>
<p>My D has had to write “templates” for some of her teachers for her letters of rec that the prof would then read and edit, sign, and send in. They have been very pleased with the letters she has written and say it was better than anything they could have written. It must have worked, since she got in to the school she wanted to major in. I have also asked people if they want me to write a template for a letter of support or recommendation when asking for a letter. It’s very helpful to give them an idea of what you’re looking for and ways in which they could provide more detail to the reader.</p>
<p>Hmmm–HImom, that’s an interesting approach. I think when the time comes (this fall), I will recommend that my kids ask their respective teachers about the template idea.</p>
<p>I was just thinking about how as parents we get all wrapped up in the college admissions process & then move on, yet teachers are caught up in it every single fall. Yikes!</p>
<p>Another thing that is very helpful to teachers (or others writing recs) is a resume/personal statement from the person seeking the letter. It should state the highlights of the person’s experience and qualifications for whatever the person seeks, something about the person’s desires and whatever else the seeker feels would be helpful to the teacher. It’s not necessarily as specific as the template, but would contain a lot of the same info that could be copied & pasted (if put on a flashdrive or DVD/CD or e-mailed as a WORD attachment). It should also be given in hard copy.</p>
<p>It has been a good approach for me & D. Don’t know if S has used it and know H hasn’t, as he agonizes about writing. D & I are pretty good at writing–it flows well for us.</p>
<p>Thanks! I can ask my kids (I have B/G twins HS class of 2012) to put together something like that. I see how that would be very helpful for a teacher & result in a good outcome for the applicant!</p>
<p>I have two HS teacher friends who are very popular with their students, and each year, they write tons of recommendations. Knowing this, some of their students (including my oldest son) handed them his resume at the conclusion of his junior year. That way, they had the summer to work on his recommendations. Often what teachers do is start a small file about their students listing strengths and weaknesses, stories about the student, particular works they have done, etc. Then, when they are asked to write that recommendation, they pull their file notes and can work from them (along with the student’s resume).</p>
<p>The kids at our public high school are required to ask for letters of recommendation at the end of their junior year to give the teachers the summer to work on them.</p>
<p>At my kids’ school, some teachers would limit the number of students for whom they would write recommendations. These teachers would put a lot of time, effort, and thought into their recommendations. There was probably no way they would be able to write that kind of recommendation for a student who asked for it in October or November. It was always best to line up recommendation writers by the end of junior year.</p>
<p>In addition to academic recommendations, for the last two summers my son has needed recommendations for his summer job or volunteer trips. And some kids need them for other programs.</p>
<p>Just this week my son (a senior) needs 3 non-college recommendations for his summer job application. And if he doesn’t get this job, he may have other job applications to fill out. They don’t all have to be academic teachers, and for example, he is asking his coach for one, but it makes it difficult on a kid to come up with three adults (who are not friends or family) who know him well enough to write a sterling recommendation and yet aren’t the same ones he already asked for college recommendations. (The summer job requires specific forms, so they couldn’t just recycle his college rec.)</p>
<p>Makes it stressful for everyone, because we already know the teachers are overworked.</p>
<p>My older daughter asked her bio teacher for a recommendation- but she waited too late & the teacher had already been spoken for the # she chose to do.
Teachers don’t need to write recs specifically targeting a school, they are letters discussing the student.
They also can & should limit the numbers they write in order for them to be meaningful.</p>
<p>Our kids are instructed to ask tachers for recommendations by the end of school Junior year, as well… and are encouraged by the Guidance Department to provide teachers who accept the challenge with an academic resume, to help the process along.</p>
<p>^They should ask the teachers this spring, but they probably don’t need to enclose resumes yet. The teachers will tell them what sort of schedule they need and the good teachers will also ask for what information they want. Both my younger son’s teachers said they would write letters, but that they weren’t going to write the letters till the fall so my son could get back to them. The math teacher didn’t ask for any extra information, but wrote a beautiful letter about my son’s approach to match. The history teacher asked for a copies of one of the research papers, a reminder about the grade received on the AP and the course, and also wanted the student to write a paragraph or two about what they had liked about the course, what textbook they had liked best and why and what they were thinking about for a major. It was a lot of trouble, but I suspect the letters that got written by that teacher were helpful.</p>
<p>At my son’s school, the college counselors have worked with the teachers to come up with a procedure that outlines how the kids should prepare the forms, etc. They specify self-sealing 9 x 12 envelopes with 3 stamps, etc. While it may seem over-the-top to be so regimented, I think it facilitates the process. My son has applied for fairly new program that is only offered at certain schools. To help his teachers, he included a page or two from the colleges’ websites that describe this program. That way, it enabled the teachers to write about his suitability for the program. The college counselors got positive feedback from the teachers about this and let my son know that it was a great idea.</p>
<p>My husband is a math teacher at a fairly small independent college-prep high school. He doesn’t get asked to write hundreds of recommendations since each senior might ask only one or two teachers for a rec- he is not writing one for every senior. And he can use the same basic recommendation for each student, tailoring it slightly to each school. STILL, they are quite time-consuming! He doesn’t mind doing it as long as the student gives him the forms well ahead of time (believe me, he’s had kids ask him a day or two before they are due! :() and as long as they express some appreciation for the time that he puts in to them- most of the kids do, but there have been a few along the way who haven’t even said “thank you” for the effort he puts in to writing a good recommendation for them. Also, be sure to put stamps on envelopes if you are asking teachers to mail something for you!!</p>
<p>"The kids at our public high school are required to ask for letters of recommendation at the end of their junior year to give the teachers the summer to work on them. "</p>
I have also asked people if they want me to write a template for a letter of support or recommendation when asking for a letter. It’s very helpful to give them an idea of what you’re looking for and ways in which they could provide more detail to the reader.</p>