<p>Should it be before school starts?</p>
<p>probably give them 4-6 weeks before you really need it in my opinion, but tell them 2 months in advance to give yourself a 2-4 week buffer -- if they're willing to do it now though, thats great too i suppose</p>
<p>if you are a rising senior you should ask at the beginning of senior year or end of jr year.</p>
<p>I know my answer is going to be vague, but all I can say is ask them as soon as you can (more specifically, as soon as you have finalized your list of colleges. Sometimes teachers ask for those.) For me, I requested a rec from my teachers as early as the summer before senior year because they usually receive a lot of requests during the first term of senior year.</p>
<p>I have already asked the 2 junior year teachers i want recs from, i got that locked down before school ended.</p>
<p>khaki, it's also a good idea to provide those teachers with a resume of your EC's, accomplishments, and awards. This will assist him/her with providing a more individualized rec since yours won't be the only ones he/she will be writing. I don't know your stats, but the quality of your recs could mean the difference being getting accepted and getting waitlisted.</p>
<p>My teacher interviewed me today, so my teacher will have enough time to write the most awesome letter. It may be a bit early, but better too early than too late, right?</p>
<p>Yeah, if you know which colleges you're applying to, it doesn't hurt to ask now. Definitely better than waiting until September. But I waited, since I didn't know what schools I was applying to yet.</p>
<p>I don't know what colleges I'm applying to yet. Should I send them a message letting them know that I'll want them to write it, and that I'll give them further details as I find them out?</p>
<p>That would be a good idea. Another idea would be to ask them to write a generic recommendation (one that isn't tailored to any specific school) and then once you find out which school's you're applying to, ask them to add a sentence or two about how you'd fit there. I don't know whether teachers are willing to do that though--they might prefer that you just wait.</p>