Strong teacher recommendations personalize and differentiate you, place you within the context of other students, and round out your college application. To that end, it is important to start developing your relationships with teachers early on in your high school career; by junior year, you should be actively participating in class discussions and challenging yourself with special projects and papers. When it comes time to gather your letters of recommendation, be sure to choose teachers who can paint a picture of you as an individual, share your unique qualities, and tell colleges how you will contribute academically and on a community level.
Listed below are tips for choosing recommenders and navigating the process of collecting letters of recommendation.
Why are Teacher Recommendations so Important?
While the personal statement and activity descriptions allow students to present their own candidacy, teacher recommendations offer an essential third-party perspective and powerful form of external validation. Having a knowledgeable professional champion a student’s character and abilities lends credibility to the application, elevating it beyond grades, test scores, and self-reported achievements.
As MIT explains:
Because of our highly competitive applicant pool, letters of recommendation hold substantial weight in our admissions decisions. A well-written letter for an outstanding applicant can show impressive characteristics beyond their own self-advocacy.
Marymount University, in Virginia, adds:
College admissions committees love letters of recommendations because teachers can provide a unique and trusted point of view on your academic level, your personality, leadership capability and readiness for college.
As a result, it is very important to wisely choose who you ask, and to provide them with the appropriate information that will enable them to write a letter of substance on your behalf.
Who to Select
Many factors should be considered when you decide which teachers to ask for college recommendations. Select teachers from the five core academic subjects of English, history, foreign language, math, and science. Keep in mind that colleges use recommendations to forecast how you will perform academically in a college setting; choosing teachers from more advanced courses will provide testimony of your ability to excel in a rigorous curriculum. And, contrary to what you may think, the best recommendations don’t necessarily come from the teachers who have seen you earn straight As; sometimes the most powerful letters are ones from teachers who have seen you overcome a challenge and work hard to improve your performance.
Consider the following preferred characteristics of academic recommenders:
- Teachers of 11th or 12th grade courses
- One teacher from STEM (math/science) and one teacher from the humanities (English, history, foreign language)
- Teachers of Honors/AP/IB courses, to demonstrate your ability to succeed at college-level work
- Teachers who can discuss other facets beyond academics; especially those who also know you outside the classroom, such as sports coaches or club advisors
Requirements may be college-specific. Read each college’s guidelines to confirm whether they have any requirements or preferences in terms of providing letters from teachers in specific subject areas, depending on your intended major or program.
Student Responsibilities
In April or May of your junior year, ask teachers if they would be willing to write a college recommendation. Check with your school’s college counselor to see if there is a procedure in place for requesting teacher recommendations.
In June of your junior year, write an email to the teacher recommenders with background information discussing your performance in their classroom and what you learned. This note to the teacher can address the following questions:
- Why did I select this teacher to write my rec letter?
- What aspects of my classroom performance am I most proud of?
- How did this class help me grow as a student or as a person?
- What was my greatest achievement in this class?
- What areas did I work to improve, and how?
- What ideas, understanding and/or knowledge did I take away from this class?
- What are my academic and professional goals?
In September of your senior year, finalize your college list and your choice of recommenders, if you have not already done so:
- Enter your college list on your high school’s admissions software platform and the Common Application.
- Find out from your high school’s college counselor if your school’s policy is for students to submit recommendations electronically through Naviance, SCOIR or another admissions software platform, or directly through the Common App; and enter the emails of your recommenders on the appropriate website.
In November of your senior year, after you have submitted your early applications, check on the colleges’ portals to confirm that your teachers have submitted their recommendations!
Other Recommenders
Many colleges allow students to invite recommenders in addition to academic teachers. On the Common Application, categories of other recommenders include: arts teacher, clergy, coach, college access counselor, employer, family member, peer, and other (such as research mentor). Some colleges will only take recommendations from some of these categories, so check to see which each college will accept. This can be an excellent opportunity to round out your portrait in the admissions process.
Your recommendations provide another opportunity for college admissions officers to learn how you might contribute to campus life. Providing colleges with a full picture of who you are can be challenging. For guidance on all aspects of college admissions, contact Collegiate Gateway. As always, we’re happy to help!