<p>D is junior and wondering if she could/should ask teachers for recommendation letters before senior year since they will be inundated with requests this coming fall. Does the date on the letter matter? Also, does the teacher make copies of the letter and then sign each one? How does that whole process work? One more thing, D's GC seems to be very uninterested, detatched and wholly unhelpful. Would colleges take a rec letter from principal in place of the GC rec?</p>
<p>Each high school is different. At DD’s HS there was a whole process and I think the kids requested letters before the end of junior year, so they would be ready for hte admissions cycle in the fall. The letter was then provided to the college counselor who kept the file (or made a bunch of copies and had them signed) and sent them in an admissions packet that included all recommendations, transcripts, and a resume.</p>
<p>You might have your daughter ask what the process is at her school and whether she is responsible for sending letters or whether it is done centrally through the guidance office. Additionally, many letters are now submitted on-line with the common app.</p>
<p>Take a look at a copy of the Common Application so that you can get an idea of what a Teacher Recommendation Form and a Secondary School Report (to be filled out by the GCs) looks like. </p>
<p>Until you know which colleges that your kid is applying to, and what specific form might be required for that application (not all schools use the Common Application), you can’t really do much now except talk to the teachers and ask if they would be willing to write recommendations for you.</p>
<p>If you are Johnny on the spot in September with your paperwork, believe me, you will be WAY ahead of most of the kids.</p>
<p>Agree with MDMom that she should check with how your school handles the GC recommendation process. Ours had the kids and parents fill out informational sheets that the GCs would then use to write their letters.</p>
<p>The teachers at our school are more than willing to work on the letters in the summer. The very poplular teachers can only do so many, so it makes sense to ask early. Also, in my state the flagship universities have very early scholarship deadlines, so it is not uncommon to need the teacher recommendations in the beginning of October. DS has already lined up 3 letters, including a special one that will be used as an alumni rec as well as a teacher rec.
Have your daughter begin asking her teachers how they normally like to handle the letters and what information that they prefer.</p>
<p>My son went to his teachers at the end of his junior year and asked for recommendations. They were glad he did that, because they write a lot of recommendations. This gave them time during the summer to put together their thoughts without the pressure of a deadline.</p>
<p>Thanks. I’m going to have D follow all of your suggestions. </p>
<p>I really worry about relying on her GC for anything.</p>
<p>As a high school teacher, I would MUCH rather be asked for rec letters just before the kids’ senior summer. That way I have time to work on them and they can be ready to go if and when the kids apply ED or EA.</p>
<p>How many different teachers should be asked?</p>
<p>Most colleges ask for 2. If your kid is undecided about what they want to major, it’s better to ask for one from a humanities teacher, and another from math/science. I would stay away from teachers who do not write well. In that respect, you could enlist GC’s help - “I would like to ask teacher X, Y, Z for recommendation letters, who do you think would be better for me?”</p>
<p>Thank you. :)</p>
<p>Another suggestion, if you don’t feel comfortable w/the GC writing a recommendation for your student, ask the Principal. My daughter did that. Knows him very well, etc.</p>
<p>A GC rec is required, a principal´s letter could be in lieu of that, but not another teacher´s rec.</p>
<p>If your kid goes to a large school where the GC doesn´t know your kid too well. Have your kid put together a list of accomplishments for the GC. You could also provide a letter with certain special characters of your child that they may not normally see. Our school asked us to provide such a letter for D1, and it was fun to write it. D1 still has the letter.</p>
<p>My son asked teachers May or June of junior year. They told them what their process was. Both of his said they’d be happy to do it, but that he should come back to them in September. </p>
<p>We didn’t specifically ask for teachers who write well, but the process works in a way where you do have the opportunity to say to the GC - I am thinking about asking teacher x and y - what do you think? The GC also asks you to ask two teachers spring junior year for recommendations from two teachers to help her write her letter. My son interpreted this to mean different teachers from the regular LOR writers. He got one from his orchestra teacher - we saw a copy of that one and it was clear, while it was a perfectly nice letter - it was also completely useless. It described the program he was in, but really said very little about our son or his position in the orchestra. </p>
<p>My sons didn’t know their GCs terribly well, but they gather a bunch of information from many sources and write good letters.</p>
<p>Varies from school to school.</p>
<p>Lake Jr.'s high school essentially insists that kids approach teachers before the end of the junior year. For my money, the Guidance Counselor is a bit disinterested in most of the kids, so I remind Jr. about planning and preparation and getting those recommendations as soon as possible.</p>
<p>D has asked two of her three. If they know you well, it means they can jot some things down right away while you’re still studying with them. And the good ones do tend to get overwhelmed with requests.</p>
<p>Also, it never hurts to ask now. The worst that can happen is they ask you to come back in the fall. Two teacher recommendations is all you need, but there are a handful of schools (MIT being one of them) that may ask for one recommendation from a humanities/social studies teacher and one from a science/math teacher. So if you don’t want that combination for schools that don’t require that, you may want to ask three teachers. </p>
<p>In some schools (not ours as far as I know) some teachers will limit the number of letters they will write, so it pays to ask them early.</p>
<p>My daughter also provided a resume to each teacher. For letters for scholarships and programs, she gave them a brief summary of the program and what the program was seeking in a candidate.</p>
<p>It’s not too early to ask, though teachers generally will not want info til September. My kids asked teachers in the spring, and then sent an email before school started asking what info they needed from him. They also included in the email why they were asking this particular teacher. Some teachers will use Naviance for sending recs; others want envelopes and stamps form you. Ask.</p>
<p>Both our kids were at large publics. The GC asked for a questionnaire from parents with info and background. Also asked the kids for same. Both were due before the end of spring semester junior year, as the GCs worked on these over the summer (and would add updates if needed in the fall).</p>
<p>***Make sure your kids take the GC questionnaire seriously. Consider it practice for writing college essays. S2’s GC was really impressed with the effort S2 spent on his, and I think it was reflected in the care she took with his letter. We know she read the parents’ comments, too, because the UChicago rep mentioned something in the acceptance letter that was ONLY mentioned in the GC questionnaire.</p>
<p>***We also used the GC questionnaire to discuss issues that the kids wouldn’t put in an essay and/or that might shed light on the transcript (special circumstances at home, illness, student’s ECs are limited because he cares for elem-age sibs after school, etc.)</p>
<p>***This is also an excellent time for your student to get a copy of his/her transcript and make sure things are correct – i.e., grade changes are reflected, courses are accurate/designated as Honors, AP, GPA is correct, etc. We found out there were issues with both kids’ transcripts. Better to find out junior year and get them fixed while teachers are still around to verify the changes than to do it senior year when every senior is flooding the registrar’s office with requests.</p>
<p>One of S2’s teachers only did a few letters, so S was thankful he asked the teacher early. S1’s teachers asked for a resume, and one had a supplemental questionnaire. </p>
<p>S2 found out that one of the teachers who he hoped would write a letter would only do so if the student participated in this teacher’s EC, the idea being that the teacher would know the student outside the context of the classroom. Even though S was involved with the EC during the summer and the external folks who coordinated it (though not through the school club – there was not enough time with debate and his sport), this was not sufficient. He was glad he asked in the spring and found that out. He had time to arrange for another social sciences rec that would go to all of his schools and then got another IB teacher’s rec (see below), which he treated as a supplemental one.</p>
<p>It all worked out – S had the same teacher for IB HL Euro, TOK and IB Philosophy senior year, so he wrote one of them. OTOH, this teacher would send his rec letter to only two schools – so S had to be strategic in where the teacher sent the letters (i.e., the two schools he wanted most). Suspect that letter would have been a game-changer at a couple of other schools, but I seriously doubt additional acceptances would have changed the final results.</p>
<p>I’m definitely going to suggest to my D that she go ahead and give her teachers a heads up before exams start. I’m also leaning toward asking her principal to write her a rec in the event her GC drops the ball. Thanks for all the info. I am anxious to find out what our HS’s procedure is for college app process.</p>
<p>great suggestions, Countingdown, thank you!</p>