I am so sorry, but I am starting to plan ahead for college admissions, and I am so terribly lost in it all. I do not have a lot of resources, and I just wanted to know who do you ask for recommendation letters? Do you ask your teacher, principle, mayor, councilwomen, president of the U.S, anyone? I am so sorry for asking I am just planning ahead because I am really scared I will not be accepted to any colleges of my choice. Also, I have many connection with my councilwomen as I volunteer a lot with the city, so should I ask her? She knows me pretty well
PS: thank you so much, this realllllly helps me :))
There are many free resources online to learn from, but you can also try a book from the library.
You need to look at the admissions pages for the colleges you are interested in. If they have requirements and restrictions for the letters then they will tell you. Many colleges don’t take any at all. The ones that do often will ask for two,. although some ask for one. The main letters are supposed to be from your teachers. Preferably Jr or Sr year teachers. Although you can use sophomore year, freshman year is considered a bit far behind you. These teachers can speak you as far as knowing you from an academic viewpoint. Hopefully they may also be able to speak well about you on points of character. You would not usually use anyone else. Some colleges will allow another one to two letters from other people. You would only ask people who do know you well from an academic or talent standpoint or someone who has worked with you at a job, internship, volunteer position or research. So yes the councilwomen would be find as an extra recommendation for colleges that take an extra one. Hopefully she can briefly describe how she has contact with you, then speak on your work and personal traits,
Ask your guid counselor for advice too as some teachers may be more adept at writing useful rec letters than others. As Brownparent said, only submit the councilwoman’s rec letter for colleges that accept them. Many DO NOT.
Ask junior and senior teachers that know you best.
Also it’s best (I remember seeing one top college even requiring this) to have one letter from a humanities teacher and one from a math/science teacher. It shows some diversity and how you are not one dimensional.
