Basically, I am a student at the end of junior year and I am interested in getting teacher recommendations but I have basically no idea how this process works…I was wondering if anyone could give a detailed rundown on what I should be doing/supplying the teacher/when to ask/etc…??
any help will be GREATLY appreciated.
<p>first you should make a list of teachers that u think know you the best and like you the best and narrow the list down to 2 (maybe 3) teachers. If u have a good list of 4-5, u should try to pick ones of different subject areas. after that, you should always... </p>
<p>FIRST, ask the teacher if they would be willing to write your recommendation, dont randomly show up in their classroom one day with a stack of papers for them to fill out. u should ask them early on in the year. the earlier u give them the forms, the more time they have for u. do not do this too late. teachers do not like and often reject forms that are given to them without proper time to fill them out.</p>
<p>SECOND, pre-prepare all the information that they will need to fill out for your specific college. fill out all the blanks that pertain to you and obviously dont fill in the ones that are meant for your teacher. you should somehow paperclip these papers together so it is more organized</p>
<p>THIRD, letter and stamp. you should send the teacher recommendation in a legal-size envelope, not a regular envelope. many colleges specifically ask you to not fold the pages and just to be courteous/neater/more progessional, sending it in a business envelope makes urself look better. always pre-address and pre-stamp the envelope. u can either paperclip the papers the teacher should fill out to the exterior of the envelop or just put it securely inside and let them deal with it. if you put it inside, ur papers are safer and u dont risk the teacher losing the papers that she/he should be filling out</p>
<p>FOURTH, you should always, but not too often or early, before the deadline is approaching to ask ur teacher how the recommendation is coming. teachers often times have a plethora of recommendations to write and sometimes misplaced yours or what not. it is not rude to ask, but dont ask multiple times. only ask a few days before the deadline of the recommendation. </p>
<p>FIFTH, its nice to have a cover letter for ur recommendation addressed to ur teacher, thanking them for their help. they are taking their own time to help you out. they are not responsible/required as teachers to fill out any college teacher recommendations. in this letter you can also mention some areas in the subject where u excelled in which u would like ur teacher to acknowledge. u should also take this opportunitiy and attach a resume so ur teacher knows exactly what u have been up to. with all that done, in the letter u should remind the teacher to keep a safe EXTRA copy of the recommendation if for some unfortunate circumstance that the college misplaced/did not receive your recommendation. </p>
<p>SIXTH, its always nice to give them a small gift or even just a card to thank them for their time/effort. u dont need to get them anything extravagant/overly opulent and expensive.</p>
<p>Wow, thank you shrek for the detailed info, I also wanted to know how we went about doing this. Do colleges mind if you include an extra recommendation from someone else, i.e. if you want to go into pre-med, a recommendation from a doctor or if you want to go into humanities and writing, a recommendation from a known writer? Or is that just annoying? Because I know these admissions officers have too many applications to sort through to really read all the extras you give them.</p>
<p>So should I mention recomendations to teachers now, at the end of junior year, or at the beginning of senior year??</p>
<p>btw...thanks a lot for all that info</p>
<p>sarorah - usually included in the college application packet is 1 extra recommendation from someone you choose (whether a boss/religious leader/family friend what not) so you can utilize that to your own benefit and most people do. but dont push it. usually, it is best to stay with how much the college gives you. if they give u 2 teacher recommendations and 1 extra, its best to only submit 3 recommendations, hwoever there are those who like to go overboard, but remember, going overboard is not necessarily a good thing that will benefit you. there is so much that can be said and after 3 recommendations, colleges get the general idea really well</p>
<p>dazed - beginning of senior year is good.</p>
<p>**I still don't get one part.</p>
<p>Do you ask teachers to print extra copies out for all the colleges you are applying to and give them however many envelopes they need?**</p>
<p>the easiest way is to repeat those steps for each college that you are applying to. (but dont repeat the cover letter/resume). u should have a pre-addressed/stamped envelope and all the filled out paperwork for each college. since each envelope will be pre-addressed, ur teacher will know that the paperwork inside that envelope is going to X college. teacher recommendations have lotsa instructions on them so ur teacher will not get lost. each school has their own recommendation forms, and if they use the common application, usually you lightly highlight the name of the university at the top of the common app and each school gets 1 form. dont just print out 1 common application form and hand it to them. each school needs their own form/envelope.</p>
<p>one thing i forgot to mention is to put down ur home phone number or an easy/fast way to contact u in ur cover letter so if they have any difficulties/questions about the recommendation they can contact you immediately.</p>
<p>Joke of the Day:</p>
<p>CC Student: "Hello.. My Brown.. You are my favorite teacher.. So, i want you to write a few recommendation for you."
Mr.Brown: "Alright.. Sure.."
CC Student: "I am applying to all UCs, all UC States, and all Ivies.."
Mr.Brown: "That sure is a lot of recs I have to write.."
CC Student: "Yea, and you better start working on them now.. They are due tommorow.."</p>
<p>I really don't know much so don't make fun of me...but does a teacher need to write a different recommendation for each college? As in if you apply to 10 colleges, they must write 10 different recommendations??</p>
<p>yes... unless all ur colleges accept the common app.</p>
<p>actually, no. the common app is just convenient because u can fill out the same form, but all recommendation forms ask the teacher to write a letter and attach it to the page. the only thing the teacher has to do is write 1 letter and change the name of the school for each school.</p>
<p>but of course schools that dont use the common app (but most do now) they might have some extra questions on their school-specific recommendation form. but the actual letter that they send will be the same and they need not write 10 different 2-page long letters (it is the actually recommendation that takes a long time, not the form-filling, that is just tedious)</p>
<p>It seems that colleges are asking a LOT from teachers to request recommendations. If every kid needs 4 Rec's (on average), and the student, teacher ratio is 20:1, that means every teacher has to write 20x4 letters.</p>
<p>ya spartan pho3nix, I was thinking the same thing.</p>
<p>Does it have to be hand-written? Oh god.</p>
<p>a teacher does the rec once, most of the time and thats all that is needed.</p>