I’m a high school senior in the middle of the college admissions process, but I have yet to figure out how to go about asking for letters of recommendation. I got a couple questions if anybody could help me out.
How much notice is appropriate before the application deadline?
Would a resume of some sort be a good idea, and if so, what kind of information should it include?
When is it a good time to ask?
What is a succinct way to ask for a L.o.R?
And just any general tips or pointers
I plan on asking my AP Physics 1 teacher as well as my APUSH teacher if that helps clarify anything.
I’d ask about a month in advance, although the minimum is usually two weeks.
Yes, you should give a resume that includes your GPA, advanced classes taken, organizations joined, basically a college resume (although keep it to 1 page).
Ask after school, before school, or any time you have around 5 minutes to speak uninterrupted to your teacher when they’re not busy.
If you know your GC, ask him or her to review your options. THey might know some inside info (Mr. Jones has terrible grammar, Ms. Smith rambles incoherently, Mr. Williams is fantastic, Ms Walker procrastinates, etc.) that can really be helpful that otherwise might not be known to students. But they get to read the LORs often and see what kids don’t see.
I agree with asking as early as possible. It gives them time to put thought into your recommendation and make it stand out. Also that teacher may be getting other requests for recommendation letters, so the earliest you ask the higher the likelihood they will be able to write you a solid recommendation
You don’t have to have your resume in hand when you ask, by the way - just make the ask. Then tell him or her that you’ll provide a resume and some information about what schools you are applying to, potential major, future interests, etc…so they know what you’re hoping their recs will focus on. And follow up with the info within a week - while thanking them again for doing it. (And remember, come April 1 or whenever you get your responses, follow up and thank them again. Imagine spending all that time writing a thoughtful letter for some kid who is too immature and self-centered to close the loop?!)
Ask the first week of school. Seriously. Most likely, several students have already asked your teachers for letters. Some teachers may have too many letter requests, so have backup teachers too.
Provide them with a resume, a list of your college list and why those schools. Also include your intended major. Ask before or after school. or when they have a free period.
Ask early, especially if your high school is small. By December, certain popular teachers may have upwards of forty such letters to write and you may not end up sounding quite so special. Also provide a resume so that they know what you do outside of their class.
At this point in the year, anytime I see a Senior approaching me, I pretty much know what it’s about: either an NHS question or a request for a letter of recommendation.
Last year I wrote 40 letters, 38 the year before. My husband finished something like # 32 yesterday.
In short, we realize that those letters are part of the job description. Don’t feel funny about asking.
But ask ASAP. It’s time consuming writing those letters-- if I tried to knock them all off at one sitting, they would all sound identical.
Provide your teacher with a resume. Give us anything you think we could use-- info on how you used the material we taught you outside of class, how it relates to your major, anything at all.
In my school, we don’t need that list of schools that SlackerMomMD mentioned-- we upload our letters to Naviance and provide one hard copy to College Placement, and they handle the rest. (The exception is the letters for the Academies; they have a different set of rules.)
I would ask ASAP – during the first week of school. Both of my kids had their LORs lined up at the end of junior year.
There is no other way but to say that you started your college process and would like to know if they would be willing to write you a positive LOR. If they say yes, ask right away if there is anything you can give them to help (ex. some teachers ask for your resume or a list of extra-curricular activities, one of my S’s teacher asked him to explain which English essays he wrote during the year were most meaningful to him etc.). And recognize that writing a LOR is work for the teachers so be sure to than them in advance for their help.
I want to emphasize a line @happy1 wrote that you may have overlooked. Every student asking for recs should ask the teacher(s) whether they can write a positive letter for you. This is always appropriate, phrased politely of course. For example, “Am I a student you would write a strong letter of reccomendation for, or do you suggest I ask someone else?” Don’t argue or question why if the answer is ask someone else, simply to thank the teacher for their honest answer.
While it can be uncomfortable for a student to ask a direct question like this to a teacher, it HAS to be done. I know someone who was on the alumni scholarship committee for a well-known U and they regularly received letters of “rec” for the full-tuition scholarship that raked the kid over the coals. In “The Gatekeepers”,in which a NY Times reporter followed the admissions committee at Wesleyan for a year, is a real-world example of a bad rec. Obviously when the student asked for a rec she assumed it would be positive, but here is what she got:
This could have been avoided if the teacher had been asked if they would write a strong rec. The student did not get in.