Letter of Recommendation Advice

[mirabillis]

Please help me - a couple questions about letters of recommendations. I know I've read about it umpteen times here, but I'm still no good at searches now that Google search no longer works. 😞

1. When does my DS ask an academic teacher that he wants her to write a recommendation letter? He's currently a junior and in that class right now. He just got back his last essay grade, and did the best he's done all year. 🙂 He has yet to take the AP exam and do AP prep for the class... when should he mention that he would want her to pen a letter for him in the fall?

2. How many letters of recommendation do most colleges ask for? And anything in particular? Like we've got 1 that is a community leader/mentor and this 1 is his teacher... is that good? Should he have 3?

3. When do they usually write these letters of recommendation if he's applying to most schools in the fall? 

[8filltheheart]

My kids have asked Jr yr. in terms of how many, 2 teacher recommendations seems pretty standard. If your ds has other outside teachers, you might want to get 1 more academic LOR in addition to the English teacher, making 2 academic and 1 community leader.

 

[regentrude]

He should ask between now and the end of the semester, so that the teacher could, if they wanted, write it over the summer. Then send a reminder in the fall when he is actually applying, with instructions how to submit. Most likely, instructors will write the letter after the reminder, but it's courteous to give several months heads-up..

[GoodGrief]

It's nice to have teachers for a couple of different subjects he would like to highlight. My last daughter had several possibilities and always offered as many as the school allowed, though trying to keep the recs from being repetitive. Other options are a coach, a music teacher, a spiritual leader.

[madteaparty]

I would mention it now in case the teacher wants to make note of a paper, etc.

ds has given a particular teacher a heads up when he had his semester long class that he would need a recommendation come fall (so, a full 6 months after class was over, but that was the right teacher to ask for various reasons). 

[Mom0012]

My dd has recently asked one teacher and will be asking 2 others in the next couple of weeks.  I believe the common app opens on July 31, and I plan to make sure it is set up early so that recommenders have plenty of time to work on their letters over the summer.

[Mom0012]

14 hours ago, 8FillTheHeart said:

My kids have asked Jr yr. in terms of how many, 2 teacher recommendations seems pretty standard. If your ds has other outside teachers, you might want to get 1 more academic LOR in addition to the English teacher, making 2 academic and 1 community leader.

 

I remember wondering about this when we were getting my son’s application together.  He had a lot of volunteer hours at the hospital and there was nowhere to put the recommendation from his supervisor there or from his Boy Scout leader.  I think someone recommended putting the volunteer work rec under an employment rec and then to put the BS leader rec as a coach.  I think that’s what I did. What do you think about that?

My dd has many, many hours in at the rescue squad and would be able to get a glowing, personal review from her supervisor, but someone was telling me we wouldn’t be able to use a recommendation from there except for certain schools.

Edited April 23, 2019 by Mom0012

[mirabillis]

how many recs are requested in the common app? and are they specified what type of rec (like employment or coach or academic teacher)?

academic teachers has been hard to figure out. my ds has all outsourced classes, but many are asynchronous and hardly any with same teacher with history with him as we'd hoped. so we're going with english as he does meet 'live' once weekly and he's had some outside class email discussion time with her, plus he's shown improvement over the year... but english is his LEAST favorite. he's a math/science guy - our options are limited here. we've got derek owens where he's taking AP calc & Hon physics this year, acing both, but derek owens doesn't know him from adam, kwim? last year he took ap chem with mr. moskaluk and managed a low A and a 4 on the exam - but everyone says they should choose a rec writer from jr year ideally... he also had mrs. stublen over at WHA for alg II but again, that's a whole year ago... anyone have any ideas?

[GoodGrief]

2 hours ago, mirabillis said:

how many recs are requested in the common app? and are they specified what type of rec (like employment or coach or academic teacher)?

academic teachers has been hard to figure out. my ds has all outsourced classes, but many are asynchronous and hardly any with same teacher with history with him as we'd hoped. so we're going with english as he does meet 'live' once weekly and he's had some outside class email discussion time with her, plus he's shown improvement over the year... but english is his LEAST favorite. he's a math/science guy - our options are limited here. we've got derek owens where he's taking AP calc & Hon physics this year, acing both, but derek owens doesn't know him from adam, kwim? last year he took ap chem with mr. moskaluk and managed a low A and a 4 on the exam - but everyone says they should choose a rec writer from jr year ideally... he also had mrs. stublen over at WHA for alg II but again, that's a whole year ago... anyone have any ideas?

There's not a specific number requested in the Common App. They are categorized, though I'm having difficulty remembering the specific categories at the moment. Each school will specify the number and categories they require/allow. You can have multiple recs in the same category and choose different recommenders for different schools, if you wish to customize.

We found that some people were flaky about putting in their rec or legitimately struggled with the Common App system, so it was a good thing to ask several people. IN the end, my daughter had what she needed.

My daughter did use her teacher from her PA Homeschoolers AP English Lit class, as well as the teacher from AP Bio, so online teachers will work if you feel like they are good ones. Your son could always ask the teachers in question and see what they say.

[Mom0012]

9 hours ago, mirabillis said:

how many recs are requested in the common app? and are they specified what type of rec (like employment or coach or academic teacher)?

academic teachers has been hard to figure out. my ds has all outsourced classes, but many are asynchronous and hardly any with same teacher with history with him as we'd hoped. so we're going with english as he does meet 'live' once weekly and he's had some outside class email discussion time with her, plus he's shown improvement over the year... but english is his LEAST favorite. he's a math/science guy - our options are limited here. we've got derek owens where he's taking AP calc & Hon physics this year, acing both, but derek owens doesn't know him from adam, kwim? last year he took ap chem with mr. moskaluk and managed a low A and a 4 on the exam - but everyone says they should choose a rec writer from jr year ideally... he also had mrs. stublen over at WHA for alg II but again, that's a whole year ago... anyone have any ideas?

I’m struggling a bit with this too.  My dd’s Spanish teacher from 7th-10th grade would give her a great rec.  Her Skype Spanish tutor from this year will as well, but I feel more confident about the teacher she had through 10th grade.  So, which do we go with?  It is hard with the online classes.  My dd has taken Latin with Lukeion for the last number of years and I’m sure Mrs. Barr would write a rec, but she seems to be completely swamped these days, so I wonder if she really has time to spend on something like this. First world problems.🙂

I remember someone say that DO wrote their child a rec, so that may be worth exploring.

My gut is to go with the people who will give the strongest, most personal reviews even if they are from 10th, but I keep hearing the 11th and up thing too.

[RootAnn]

If you have a sample account on Common App, put the school in & see what the rec page looks like (at the end, I think?). It'll say how many & what type of teacher recs they need.