Hello,
I am a rising senior. My question is when should I ask for teacher recommendations. My plan is to apply to one school Early Decision, but the rest regular decision. If I ask now, do you think the teachers will remember because its summer break? Or should I ask a couple of weeks before school starts(around the end of August)?
Any advice will be appreciated.
Thanks!
It wouldn’t hurt to contact them now- but keep in mind that they’re off the clock and may be on vacation or not checking their work email as frequently.
If you get a reply, great! If you don’t, it would be totally fine to just ask them again at the start of the school year, or even a few weeks in. As a rule of thumb, teachers appreciate getting recommendation requests at least 2 weeks before you want to submit your app.
PLEASE ask before school breaks for summer!
Last year I had to write 45 letters of recommendation. (Honest. The year before it was 42. ). You can’t imagine how much time it takes to write that number of thoughtful, honest, complimentary letters of recommendation. It’s so very much harder to do disputing the school year than over the summer.
Ask me in the fall, and I’m juggling school work. prep, grading, meetings, extra curricular and my mom duties. Ask me now, and I’ll find the time I need to write the letter you want and deserve.
Definitely ask the teacher before summer break. As noted above some teaches like to start writing the recommendations over the summer.
You want to ask a teacher if he/she would be willing to write you a positive recommendation for college. If the teacher says yes first thank him/her and then ask if there is anything you can provide to help him/her write the recommendation such as a resume (if you have one), a list of EC activities, etc. You may also mention that you were planning to apply to one college ED.
Asking early is better unless your school has specific rules. Our school would not allow Seniors to ask for letters prior to the second week of their senior year and the requests had to go through Naviance. (You were supposed to also ask the teacher in person). In Naviance our seniors had a brag sheet that told their highlights and their parents also filled out a brag sheet which sometimes missed things the Sr. didn’t put in. Even with that if you had a good relationship with the teacher I would have told them before school was out that you would be requesting a letter through the process in the fall. That way the teacher had the option of starting the letter early!
Thanks Everybody!
Yeah I’ll definitely get in touch with them before the school year ends