My D has asked her counselor and two teachers for LoR’s which should be done by the end of the month if not sooner.
But the colleges are all over the place in what they seem to want. What she’ll have is a counselor LoR, English teacher LoR, and Engineering teacher LoR. Some want all of these, some only want the counselor letter, some want a single LoR without specifying who it should be from. Some want a single teacher LoR with math/science preferred and some just want a single teacher. IT’S SO CONFUSING OUT THERE!
This leads me to a few questions. For a school using Naviance, do they just send all the info and let the college sort it out? Or do they give you a choice, like College X gets only Mrs. A’s letter? Do colleges get annoyed if you send more LoR’s than they requested (as long as it is just one counselor plus two teachers?) If colleges are picky about getting only what they ask for, should D talk to counselor about which letters might be most helpful? I could picture the English teacher LoR being the most “high-ranking” (even though D is going into STEM), but I think all the letters will be strong.
I’m not sure how helpful this is as we haven’t actually “done” it yet but here is what I can see in Naviance and what our CC has told me.
Once the schools are moved to the “applying” list, they show how many letters are required and how many are allowed which can be more. It also shows if any “other” letters are allowed. We may consider this at a couple using S17’s private music teacher (ok, I’m considering it, I haven’t told S this idea yet lol). Our naviance was just “enhanced” and appears to allow you to choose which teacher for which school up to the total that is allowed and I can see the functionality is there. So that should (in theory) show on the HS end and the teachers get notification and it tracks that they go out on time. On the common app end there isn’t much to do since it will tell you that your school sends them through Naviance.
Where it gets sticky for me is schools that aren’t common app and don’t require letters, but will take them (we have one of those). And it also gets sticky if a college has added EA as of this year but it doesn’t reflect those dates in Naviance yet (we have two of those).
Our CC advised us to ask the teachers, give them the list of schools and dates, regardless of what Naviance says and she will try to find out why the EA schools aren’t showing the right dates.
She strongly advised sending all letters any school will take (versus just what was required) so that is our plan of attack. We will still need to figure out which teacher for which school as some will take one, 2 or 3 and some (to your point) only require the GC. For those I’d really like a letter, S17’s GC is brand new and doesn’t know him at all! Nor, really does the head CC and the GC is the one who fills out the counselor rec. I am not banking on that one at all! S has to decide who gets the #2 and the #3 spot. #1 goes to his Junior year US history teacher. The other spots are down to the AP Physics teacher or his Alg 2/PreCalc teacher who he had for 2 years. He will ask both and use those at the schools that will take 3 but for the ones that take 2 I don’t know. He has to decide this week as he is giving them the lists next week, along with a copy of his resume…
@eandesmom, well that pretty much answers my questions! I had never scrolled down on the “Colleges Applying to” page far enough to see the LoR link. This is such a big “doh” moment that I may go full Homer Simpson and get a donut…
Thank goodness it looks like all but two schools will take all three letters even when not required. I feel really good about the GC and English teacher letters, but I’m just not sure about the engineering teacher. From conferences he’s seems to think D is a great student, but he’s one of those naturally enthusiastic people, so maybe he says the same thing about all the students.
One of the “problem schools” that only allows two is a reach that I’d probably take off the list if not for D’s insistence, so I’m not too worried about that one. But the other is a strong target known for good merit. I guess I’ll see what D or I can get out of the GC or her case manager regarding which letters they advise to send.
LOL! Ours only went “live” like a week ago and I was a bit scared to click on it but once it did it answered most of my questions. It didn’t answer it for Western since they are non common app.
I need S to finalize the list so I can really “see” what the others allow.
Former college admissions professional, so here’s my 2 cents’. Admissions offices receive and read tons of files each year. Depending on the college, they will place more emphasis on a transcript or AP scores, or they may place relatively even weight on essay, LoR, transcript, etc. There is usually an indication of what factors are considered most heavily in admission on the college’s web site in the admissions section. But one thing that probably isn’t needed is 10 letters of recommendation, especially if letters 3-10 don’t say anything different from the first couple of letters.
I’d usually suggest a letter from a teacher in the subject area(s) your child is thinking of majoring in to show talent/interest/ability to excel in that area and what they’ve done to demonstrate their passion or their focus on that topic. And a letter that can speak to how well your child approaches work, obstacles, what do they do when they encounter a setback (low test score, etc.) - do they give up or do they develop a plan and work to overcome the issue? But letters just to submit a bunch of letters isn’t helpful.
Personally, when I saw a ‘fat file’ with a dozen letters in it (most of which were indistinguishable from one another) I had to wonder why the student felt they needed to submit so many? If the college says it wants three, send three. But don’t feel like you have to send more than the number specified. And select teachers who can write knowledgeably about your child’s talents, interests, abilities, passions, goals, etc. That’s what makes for a really good recommendation letter.
@nvauser1, thanks for the “behind-the-scenes” feedback. Luckily D is not THAT student and will have a total of only three letters:
One co-written by GC and her IEP case manager – this one I expect to be very strong.
One by her soph/junior English teacher – this one will definitely be strong and teacher has said she will give her a copy (so we’ll know for sure).
One by her junior year engineering teacher – this is the tricky one. From conferences and D’s impression, this teacher really likes her and thinks she does great work, but he is the least known by either D or me on a personal level. I’m sure the LoR won’t be bad, but it may just be “pretty good.”
I’m sure the first two will meet your criteria of “can write knowledgeably about your child’s talents, interests, abilities, passions, goals, etc.” The last one might or might not fit this.
She wants to major in engineering, so the “least likely to be great” LoR is also the most important! I’m not sure what to do in the case of schools that will only accept two LoR’s. In her case, it is one reach and one strong target. What combo is best to send:
GC and English teacher (strongest combo, probably)?
Two teacher LoR’s (are teachers more important than GC’s? I don’t know!)?
Engineering teacher and GC (this seems the most normal, but not sure it’s the best)?
@bopper, Yes, exactly what I’m worried about is that the engineering teacher’s LoR will be like the one for poor “Jen” in the link.
Right there with you…my Homer moment on Naviance was when I complained that they only showed the regular decision dates and didn’t show dates like scholarship consideration deadlines. The GC told me there was the drop down menu (which is via the Edit button on each college’s line) and man, it is awesome when you hit that thing. All kinds of options came up that I didn’t know were there.
Didn’t want to mess with it since it is my student’s thing/space, but also because they have added so much more from two years ago and it scares me too…but gosh it is nice learning about the features it has and having the correct dates in there for EA, ED, scholarships, etc. I had been printing the page with wrong dates then using a pen (goodness no, not a pen!) to cross off the date and write in the correct one.