Get-into-college tip: Great recommendation letters!
All college applications require recommendation letters from your high school teachers. Colleges want to see what your teachers are saying about you, not just to learn about you from a fresh perspective, but also to gauge your personal and academic potential. The great thing is, unlike college professors (who are notoriously stingy with praise when writing graduate school recommendation letters), high school teachers are more than happy to write you letters of recommendation — and highly positive ones to boot. In high school, counselors and teachers want to see students make their way into college, because it reflects on your school and their own job performance if you don’t make your way to college after four strenuous years of school-sponsored education! So don’t fret — getting a letter of recommendation from your professor is as simple as asking the following seven words: Will you write my college recommendation letter?
While it’s simple to score a letter, it’s much less simple to strategically decide which teachers can write you the best letters, ones which show you in your best possible light. Picking the right teachers to compose your letters of recommendation is worth the extra maneuvering, because great letters can really boost your chances of getting into the school of your choice. Here are some useful tips on how to get the best possible letters for you.
Show-off as many positive traits as you can.
If you had your choice between sending two nearly identical recommendation letters, or sending two very different ones, both which identify and display different strengths you possess, you’d obviously pick the latter. One way to show-off is to get two teachers from very different subject areas to write you separate letters of recommendation. So you’re a total lit geek — but you’d be even more impressive if you could also show that in addition to your English skills, you’re also a math wiz! Don’t be afraid to show-off. Even if you can’t ‘do it all,’ there’s no harm in showing that you can ‘do a lot’! And since your teachers are bragging about you on your behalf, you won’t be the one who looks like the show-off, even if you are.
Extracurriculars don’t hurt!
Even if you never took a class from a certain teacher, they can definitely still write you a letter of recommendation if they know you from a certain extracurricular activity. While in high school, I had my debate coach, who was a teacher at my school albeit one whose class I never took, to write my letter of recommendation. Choosing a representative of a school extracurricular as a writer of your rec letters is a smart idea, especially if it can highlight one of your strengths (like debate, athleticism, dance skills, musical skills) that isn’t represented to the full degree in a standard high school class!
Foster working relationships with teachers.
While your teachers will probably all gladly write you a letter of recommendation just from the basis of you having taken one of their classes at some point in your high school career, it’s better to pick teachers who know you well, because they can speak to specific attributes, strengths, and talents, as opposed to writing the ominous generic recommendation letter that college admissions officers are probably so sick of reading day in and day out. In gearing up to send out those college admissions packets, choose teachers who know you well when deciding which ones you want to have write your letters of rec. If you’re the type of person who sits silently in class and feels like no teacher even knows your name, much less knows you well, you still have time to foster relationships with teachers! College juniors, you have your entire first semester of next year to get to know one of your teachers. Sophomores and freshmen, you have even more time than that. Don’t be shy! Teachers love to talk to students in between class periods, and they would be more than happy to provide you mentorship. That’s their job, remember!
Give your teachers plenty of time.
If you want a good letter of recommendation, you need to give your teacher enough time to write you a one. The proper amount of time to give a teacher would be anywhere from three weeks to a month and a half in advance. I suggest notifying them well in advance — by about a month before packets are due to be sent out — just as a matter of courtesy. If your teacher resents you secretly because you popped up last minute begging for a letter of rec, during the busiest time of the school year when they’re buried under papers and tests to grade and compose, they might not write you as shining a letter as they would have, if you’d have given them time. Be smart and be polite: ask in advance!
Don’t be afraid to tell your teachers what to write.
Of course, you can’t force your physics teacher to tell MIT that you’re a rocket scientist if you failed her introductory physics course, but at the very least, you can suggest it. This is not to say that you should fabricate nonexistent attributes just to get into college. But don’t be afraid to ask your teachers to mention something in their letter, if it’s something you definitely want colleges to know. For instance, while I was getting my college rec letters done, I asked a teacher to include in the letter that I was a part of the school paper. I figured my teacher didn’t know that I was involved in that extracurricular, so it would behoove me to tell him. You should definitely not be shy to do the same for yourself. Your teachers don’t know everything about you. They only view you from a limited light. Providing them with extra, pertinent information about yourself and your abilities is a smart way to get that information included in your letters of recommendation.
