Teachers and counselors are human beings, too. Their plates are full.
It is up to you to stay on top of them to make sure they meet deadlines in writing your recommendations, etc.
🗝️ When you ask your teacher to write a recommendation, do it in person. Tell them why you are asking them.
Examples: You were my teacher in both my 9th grade year and my 11th grade year; I am hoping you can speak about my academic growth.
Another example: You were there for me in my sophomore year when I lost my dad. You saw how much I struggled academically and how I managed to reapply myself in the middle of my junior year.
A final example: You know how much I struggled in your course and how hard I worked to achieve the grade I earned.
If you have one, share a resume with him/her. If I have a piece of paper from you to put in my file folder of recs to write, it reminds me I am writing you a rec.
Here is a true story of a conversation I had with a teacher just last week.
She told me that two of her juniors approached her about writing a recommendation, and she said the difference in their approach was stark. Let this be a lesson to you.
She told me that one young man stepped into her office looking a little nervous. He told her that he was glad that she was his teacher in his junior year and that he felt that he had grown as a writer in her class. He shared a couple of examples of that growth. And then he asked her if she might consider writing his recommendation; he was holding the form behind his back.
She was touched by the fact that he was nervous and that asking her to write his recommendation was clearly a big deal to her. She was moved that he had detailed his growth in her classroom.
Every teacher loves hearing that he/she has helped you grow in their discipline. She told him she would be delighted to write his recommendation.
And he already helped her with the content of that letter–she would focus on his growth as a writer.
Conversely, another young man popped into her room and said, “Would you write me a rec?” There was no lead up. No appreciation for what she had done for him as his teacher. Nothing.
And then another young man standing behind this guy said, “Yeah, me, too?”
She was NOT impressed.
Don be that kid who does the “drive-by ask” for that recommendation. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth of the teacher you asked. ’t
Just this weak approach to asking for the recommendation alone may result in a lukewarm recommendation.
🗝️ Follow up with the verbal request with an email to your teacher.
Here is a dangerous approach—asking me after class as we are heading out to lunch or popping your head in my room at the end of a school day to ask if I will write you a rec. I say yes. You leave. I am tidying up my room. I am thinking about my mother’s care at her memory care center. I am worried about my brother who has lung cancer.
By the time I get to my car, guess what? I forgot you ever asked me to write the rec.
You haven’t given me a piece of paper. You haven’t written me a follow up email. I have no visual reminder. Around October 30th, you remind me I am writing you a rec. I panic. I go home that evening when I already have 75 Hamlet essays to grade and my mom’s memory care wing has just called to tell me my mom has fallen again.
I will meet the deadline, but it will NOT be of the same caliber as the student who asks me while handing me a hard copy of a resume or follows up with an email so I have a tangible reminder.
🗝️Better yet, I always had my students applying by November 1st get out their planners and make a note to send a quick email to their teachers on October 15th to remind them they have recs due on November 1st. Do the same for regular deadline recs on January 1st.
What do you write in the email? It’s as simple as this:
🗝️ Dear Ms. Fischer: Thank you again for agreeing to write my college recommendations. I want to remind you that some of them are due on November 1st. Please let me know if there is anything I can do on my end to assist you. I am attaching a copy of my resume. |
Do the same for your counselors. If you are applying for scholarships and they need to follow up in any way, shoot them an email a couple of weeks before the scholarship is due reminding them of the recommendation they have promised to write. Stay on top of them.
⚠️ A word of caution about involving too many adults in reviewing your essays:
Let me be crystal clear about this: If you run your common app essay by multiple adults, you WILL find an adult who hates what you have written. It will reduce you to tears.
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