Recommendation Letters?

Applying to College
1

Hi, I just wanted to ask for opinions and advices regarding my Recommendation Letters… I’m a high school senior abroad, in Latin America, and want to study Industrial Engineering in the US. When asking for recommendation letters I read that its good to ask teachers who know you well and perceive your potential, as well as teachers who teach subjects related to your future major and can say good things about you. So I’m thinking on asking my Physics teacher for one recommendation letter because its subject is related to engineering and knows how responsible and committed student I am. I am also planning on asking my English teacher for a recommendation letter as well, because he knows me very well, has a good relationship with me, knows how good I am at English and its subjects and knows about many achievements and awardsI have gained at English. Also, because I live at a non-english speaking country he could be a strong letter regarding my english skills (I also scored a 96 on the TOEFL without studying much). Also, my high school counselor writes recommendation letters if you deserve one, and she told me she could write one for me. So are those recommendation letters good enough for me and my major?

Also, is it good if they are adressed to “Who it may concern” instead of an specific school? I know the Common App accepts the same recommendation letters to multiple schools, but what others outside the Common App? Is it ok to adress them as “To Who it May Concern”?

Recommendation letters are really important and I really want you guys to give me your opinion or any advice you have about this process in college applications… Thanks!

2

You can find the specific requirements for letters of recommendation on the web sites of the schools you will apply to. Each school will tell you how many letters they want and from whom. Your physics and english teachers would both be good choices for most schools. The letters are submitted as part of the Common App and I’m under the impression (it’s been a while since I looked) that they can just write about you without a heading like “To whom it may concern” or an “Attention: Admission” or a Dear Sir or Madam or whatever… Your guidance counselor’s letter is quite different form the one submitted by the teachers - it’s intended to describe the school, and how rigorous your coursework was compared to what they offered and to the other students at the school, and how you performed relative to your class-mates. If he or she can say nice things about you as well, that’s great, but not required. Often guidance counselors at large public schools, for example, don’t know the student personally for whom they are writing a letter so it’s not expected that they would say a lot more. Your teachers are expected to know you personally and hopefully advocate for you.

MIT provides good guidance on letters of rec. Share it with your teachers: http://mitadmissions.org/apply/prepare/writingrecs

3

Concur with N’s Mom: many schools simply don’t want nor need rec letters. One of the topmost engineering schools in the country, Purdue’s College of Engineering, finally started accepting LoRs – and that was reluctantly.