Hi everyone, I’m a high school Junior planning to ask my AP Lang teacher and guidance counselor for a letter of recommendation, but I have a few questions.
Once I ask them and they’ve written one, what can I do from there? I’m going to start applying to colleges Fall of 2013. Will I have to give both of them an addressed envelope for every college wanting me to send it in? What do I do if it can be uploaded to Common App? How can my teachers upload it?
Sorry I’m a bit clueless,
Shelby
Okay, well I just finished this whole process so I have a bit of advice. Check to see what schools use the Common App. The Common App is the easiest way for teachers to do recommendations. If your schools use the Common App, great! From there, there will be a specific “School Forms” tab on your right hand side. Click that. You need to authorize release of all recommended records. Then choose your recommenders. My counselor was one, and three other teachers. Important note: Colleges do look at recommendations because of the perception of the teacher into your eyes. “How will our teachers view you?” So I made it a point to choose teachers that I had a good relationship with but also saw me work hard and overcome obstacles. Colleges would rather see how you struggled and overcome through a class than if you were absolutely perfect and had predictable straight a’s. It shows how you handle struggle.
But, moving on from that side note, you’ll select your recommender and enter their email address. The teacher will receive an email and from there, they just do what they do.
If the school is not on the Common App, my understanding is that you provide your teacher with that information (that they’re not on the Common App) and provide them with any documents they need. For example, I applied to Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music for a BM in Music Theatre. Because of this, I needed to provide my teacher with a Music Teacher Recommendation document. But, from my understanding, usually there is no document. Make sure to give them the address. They will seal the envelope and (from what my school did) they would sign over the seal with their signature. This was to make sure students didn’t open them. I was then given back the envelope and I mailed it.
So yeah! That was just my experience with this. It could be different but hopefully this helps!
some non-common app schools still have an online lor system like the common app’s as well
How to ask for letters of recommendation?
Why, of course, just think of it like asking someone to prom. You know, get a giant “recommendation?” sign, go on the announcements, serenade them outside their window at night, etc.
Hey guys, I have a mini-dilemma here.
So the schools that I’m planning on applying to ask for either 1 or 2 letters of recommendation. The problem is, I only asked one teacher for a letter before the end of junior year. I’m pretty quiet in class, so I think teachers know less about me than about their other students.
Anyways, I was thinking about emailing my PreCalc teacher to ask for a recommendation letter. Is that stupid? (Couldn’t think of better phrasing) It’s the middle of summer, so she would probably have time, but I wasn’t really a special student in her class. (did my homework, middle-of-the-pack grades on tests) Anyone with the same problem?
Thank you for this wonderful thread!
I accidentally started a new thread before I saw this but:
Hi, I’m a student looking to transfer elsewhere and I took one physics class with a really enthusiastic (laidback personality, but extremely difficult tests) professor last winter. I’m going to his office later today and I’ll ask for an LOR (I’m about 85% sure he’ll remember me) but I don’t know how to go about asking for both an academic evaluation and a letter of recommendation.
Common App has a section for ‘academic evaluator’, and I could say “after your brilliant class in winter quarter, I developed a stronger passion for physics, but found that I wouldn’t be able to pursue that passion at this university. Thus, I decided to transfer, and I was wondering if you’d feel comfortable with filling out an online ‘academic evaluation’ on the Common App? I came to you because despite taking one class, I think it was one of the most important classes I’ve ever taken here and the things I learned are directly relevant to why I’m transferring.” However, I"m not sure how to tack on a separate letter of recommendation on top of that.
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<li>Also, I’m 15 years old, and this professor doesn’t know that, but I feel like telling him that would increase my chances of getting a good evaluation/LOR. How would I slip this into the conversation without making it sound like I’m deliberately delving into personal matters to sell myself?</li>
</ul>
thank you!
Thank you.
This has been a very helpful thread; thank you!
Always give your teacher/counselor a handwritten thank-you note after they’ve written you a recommendation.
Question about recommendations from the common app:
After my teach submitted his rec on my common app today, I got an email from him say “I submitted the online version of the recommendation.” I was wondering is this email was automated from the common app, or if he typed and sent it himself? It just seemed too short and sweet to be directly from him. Since no other teachers have submitted their recs yet for me, I have nothing to go by.
If it wasn’t automated, what should I say back?
my advice: turn it in as fast as possible. seriously.
thanks for the help!
I recommend a hand-written note. Can never go wrong with that, but then again, I’m old-school 
A book I read recently suggested language like “I am applying to ____ among other schools and I wonder if you feel you know me well enough to write a strong recommendation letter” - the idea being that you give them an out for “not knowing you well enough” and emphasize what you expect with “strong”.
Hi! I’m a current junior seeking some advice. I’m beginning to think about which teachers to ask for recommendations and I can’t decide whether to ask my honors english teacher or ap chemistry teacher for my second recommendation. (I’m sure about my apush teacher who knows me quite well)
I’m taking the hardest possible junior course in both subjects and am doing well in both classes but I was wondering if I should ask my chemistry teacher so I have one humanities and one math/science recommendation.
HOWEVER although I’m sure my chemistry teacher likes me, she doesn’t LOVE me so I’m not sure if the letter she’d write me would be strong.
On the other hand, my english teacher likes me very much even though she doesn’t know me that well personally.
On another note: how can I work on getting to know my teachers better? Genuinely, though… I’m not interested in schmoozing.
I think most schools that want 2 recommendations would rather have one humanities and one math/science recommendation, so APUSH and Chemistry would be better than APUSH and English. We found that a lot of schools actually only ask for one (plus your guidance counselor) so in many cases you’d be able to send just the one APUSH one that your sure of.
I am also a junior currently. My problem is that, in my current school, I know which teachers I would have write the recs, but I will be moving over summer. So, is it possible for me to ask the letters of recs from my current teachers or do they have to be from the school I will graduate from? If I do have to have letters from graduation school, how do I get to know teachers and vice-versa in less than 3 months (EA/ED) or 5 months at most?
You can get teachers from the school you went to through junior year. It will just be slightly more complicated (depending on how exactly your new HS handles letters of recommendation). My advice to you – get to know your new guidance counselor ASAP after your move. You will need the current counselor to write the counselor letter for you, so you need to let him/her get to know you as well as possible. Let the new counselor know that you are going to be submitting letters from teacher from your old HS and ask what you need to do to get that to work logistically. Your counselor should be able to help you with that. (For what it’s worth, my son submitted a letter from a teacher who had been a long term sub for his junior year, and one who had taught him sophomore and junior year but then left the HS, so neither of his letters were from current teachers at the HS either. It’s doable but sometimes a touch complicated.)
Ok, thanks a lot for the advice.
For those asking about applying to multiple colleges… at my school we gve the teachers sheets of paper with out school’s letterhead at the top (gotta make em fancy) and they just print however many copies you need.