<p>I am a senior who just finished applying to college, and I had some questions about thank you notes for the teachers who wrote my recs that I figured all the wonderful parents here might be able to help with! </p>
<p>My main problem (and sorry if it's sort of a stupid problem) is that I'm just not sure exactly what to say...I assume I would start with something like "Dear ____, Thank you so much for writing my letter of recommendation" or something along those lines, but I just have no idea what to say after that! </p>
<p>Just for some background about the teachers who wrote my letters -
1) The first teacher was my junior year English teacher. I loved her classes (most definitely the best English classes I ever took), and she really liked my writing - we got along very well. Should I perhaps reference how much I liked her classes? </p>
<p>2) The second teacher was my sophomore year math teacher and I have him again for AP Calc this year. He is very, very, very shy, and I feel like I wouldn't know what to write about except math. He knows me very well as a math student (which is why I asked him to write the rec - I applied to a lot of engineering/physics programs) and I did well in/enjoyed his classes, but I have absolutely no idea what to say to him. </p>
<p>Any general guidelines/advice about what should be included in these thank you notes would be very much appreciated!</p>
<p>I’m in somewhat the same situation (writing thank you notes that is).</p>
<p>for #1 yes! Thats what I’m doing for one teacher. His class was very interesting and I really enjoyed it. </p>
<p>My second is somewhat the opposite of you, this teacher I’ve had all four years and so I’ve already had a conversation with him in person thanking him for writing recs so it seems weird just to put the same in writing. </p>
<p>For yours maybe you can just say how excited you re about one of your top choices and that you’ll keep him posted on any big news, something like that. Or include a math joke? haha I dont know.</p>
<p>^Thanks, those were some good suggestions - and it reminded me, I also ended up deciding to apply EDII to Swarthmore between the time when I gave them the envelopes and stuff and now, so I will mention that. I discussed the schools I was applying to and had a nice conversation with my English teacher when I gave her the forms, but my math teacher just took the envelopes and said he’d email me if he had questions…he really is quite shy ;)</p>
<p>Just the fact that the teacher gets a thank you note counts for PLENTY. You don’t have to gush for pages. </p>
<p>“Thank you for writing letters of recommendations for my college applications. I know that you are a busy person, so I appreciate the time you took and effort you put into writing these letters. Once again, thank you. Sincerely, XXXX”</p>
<p>THEN, keep these teachers informed of what your results are as they come in. These teachers now have invested in you–they’d like to know the end results of their labors. </p>
<p>My Ds wrote another thank you letter when they had decided which school to attend. It’s not necessary, but they also gave a little gift that accompanied this thank you note–one gave a college mug, another gave a small box of chocolates.</p>
<p>“I’ve decided to attend XXX University in the fall. Thank you once again for writing a letter of recommendation for my college application. My acceptance to college could not have happened without your efforts.”</p>
<p>When my Ds are in town and visit the high school, they make an effort to say hello to their GC and their letter writers to let them know how college is going.</p>
<p>When older D graduated from college, she sent each of her letter writers (and some of her favorite elementary and middle school teachers) an announcement of her college graduation and another thank you note telling them how much she enjoyed their classes and how much their teaching efforts meant to her and helped her succeed in college. </p>
<p>Teachers don’t always get to see the fruit of their labors. You can’t thank them enough.</p>
<p>I agree they don’t get thanked enough. Sometimes people think if a teacher is good, they know it and get compliments, but many students/parents only speak about the bad ones.
I spent time with my twins first grade teacher once at the grocery store. I told her again how much they loved her, shared some short stories, quotes from them, and I could tell how much it meant to her, she seemed to almost tear up.
I think acknowledging their time, pointing out something you liked about their class and and telling them you will update, is fine. It doesn’t have to be long, just sincere.</p>
<p>Of course you should talk about how much you enjoyed the classes. Even a math teacher would enjoy hearing that he made things easy to understand, that his classes were lively or that you particularly enjoyed learning about whatever (imaginary numbers, series, trig, the four color map problem - so many cool things in math!)</p>
<p>If you’ve gotten an EA acceptance you can mention that you are sure their letter must have helped.</p>
<p>If you do the letter soon, you can use a “Happy New Year” wish as an excuse to put it in writing in addition to what you’ve said in person.</p>
<p>Years after I stopped teaching college, I still keep the thank-you notes I got from students.</p>
<p>Presumably if you are asking a teacher to write a recc for you, you must have done well in their class, and must have learned something because of their teaching.</p>
<p>Writing a note that says some variation of the following would be appropriate:</p>
<p>"Thank you for writing my college recommendations. I appreciate your support and particularly enjoyed [refer to something specific from their class or mentoring that stood out]. </p>
<p>Sincerely,"</p>
<p>Make sure to let your teachers know about your acceptances. It’s really special to teachers when you share with them your excitement upon receiving acceptances, and when you let them know what colleges you’ll attend.</p>
<p>Teaching is in general a low paid, underrespected job that people choose to do because they like working with young people and introducing others to their own intellectual passions. The best reward that teachers get is thank-yous.</p>
<p>What everyone else said. The letter needn’t be long. If you have some acceptances, you might want to mention those. It’s just the fact that you’re writing the note that will be meaningful. Son’s LOR was written by perhaps the most popular teacher in the school. Her very strong positive reaction to Son’s thank you note let me to believe that not many students bother to say thanks.</p>
<p>Just agreeing with the others. Short and sweet is fine. I encouraged my d to thank them for taking the time to write, since it does take time - it’s not a 5 minute check the box on the form type of thing.</p>
<p>“Her very strong positive reaction to Son’s thank you note let me to believe that not many students bother to say thanks.”</p>
<p>That was my experience: Many students ask, few students express appreciation. Even fewer bother to tell teachers/professors/GCs where they’ve decided to go to college and what acceptances/scholarship offers they received. Yet, all of the people mentioned care about the students and would rejoice to hear the students’ news. The people also are wise enough to know that the student probably wasn’t accepted to everything they applied to. No reason to avoid sharing the good news because of some rejections.</p>
<p>“I’m going to urge my son to send hand-written thank yous. But, if he resists, would it be too horrible if we compromise on an email thank you?”</p>
<p>The last social nicety that I forced my sons to do was to write handwritten notes to the teachers and GCs who had written their recommendations. Sons had no choice: No handwritten thank-you, no transportation to college.</p>
<p>After they finished that task, I felt that I had done my best to teach them courtesy, though I did hope that they’d continue as adults to exhibit the courtesies that I’d tried to teach them.</p>
<p>The things we teachers want to be thanked for are the ways we have had an impact on you and helped you learn and grow. Thank them for the influence they have had not just the act of writing a LOR and you can’t go wrong.</p>
<p>Regrettably, no. 17 year old boys don’t come pre-wired with an inate understanding of why paper notes are more meaningful than email. I suppose that’s why Northstarmom herself admits to forcing her sons to write them. </p>
<p>To compound the issue at our house, it is policy at our HS that all LORs be requested by email. Based on that, it’s not a stretch to see why Son might assume an email thank you is OK.</p>
<p>Wow, your student must request an LOR by email, DougBetsy? I think of that as such an immature way to ask someone for an LOR. My son asked me whether he could do that, and I told him “no”. I wanted him to look his teachers in the eye, and ask politely. </p>
<p>When it came time for thank you notes, he never asked if he could email one! He sat down and composed a couple of nice notes without too much coaxing on my part. I just handed a couple of thank you cards to him and reminded him that he should take of this. One of his teachers was really demonstrative in her delight to receive his thank you note.</p>
<p>DB, congratulations to you too. Everything that you have written about your son indicates that he is a wonderful young man too . I would bet that with a little discussion you could convince him to write a simple thank you note the “old fashioned” way. If I had to do major arm twisting to get mine to write a thank you note, I would not have chosen this as a battle to fight over. I would have just let my kid know my opinion, and left it at that.</p>
<p>My S desires to wait on sending his thank you note/gift to LOR writers until he gets his acceptances and decides where he’s going. This is a few months down the road.</p>
<p>Do you think this is acceptable? I think his plan is to write the notes but then deliver everything in person when he can chat with the LOR writers. Gifts are already purchased and wrapped in waiting …</p>
<p>FAP, I would encourage him to go ahead and thank them now. His thankfulness isn’t contingent on where he’ll be accepted or attend. Plus it will be one less thing to do in a very busy spring ;)</p>
<p>He could email his recommenders in April/May (whenever he makes his final decision) to let them know where he’ll attend. But personally I think that’s a long time to wait for the thank you.</p>