Asking teachers for letters of recommendation….

Now that the end of the school year is near, it is time for high school juniors to ask teachers for letters of recommendation. Spring is the best time to ask. This gives teachers the summer to write letters. Remember, teachers do not get paid extra for writing letters of recommendation. They write them on their own time. Here are my tips for how to ask.

  1. Ask in person: Find a time, either before school, after school or at lunch time to ask a teacher when they are not too busy. Make eye contact and ask if they’d be willing to write you a letter of recommendation for your college application. During the conversation, share with the teacher anything of interest about you that may help the teacher write a compelling letter. What major you may be interested pursuing, courses you might be interested in taking, an internship you are looking into etc. If your school provides a brag sheet for you to complete to help the teacher write the letter, make sure you complete it.

  2. Ask a Core Course Teacher: Admissions offices look for letters of recommendation to be written by core course teachers. So, request a letter from your science, math, history, English, or foreign language teacher. If you are applying to a specialized college (STEM) and they request that you have a science or math teacher recommendation, make sure you follow through.

  3. Ask a teacher that gave you an A (or B): Did you do well in the class? Even if you received a B for one quarter but improved your grade after that you can still ask that teacher. You want to ask a teacher from a core course that you did very well in and showed participation and enthusiasm.

  4. Is the teacher from 11th or 10th grade? You should request a letter of recommendation from a teacher from 11th grade. But if that is not possible 10th grade would be the next best option. 9th grade is too far in the past. 11th grade teachers can write about your most current performance which admission offices look for.

  5. Does the teacher specialize in what you want to study? If the teacher teaches in the field in which you want to study, bonus! This will help support your application tenfold!

Last, make sure to say thank you when asking for the letter of recommendation. Send a thank you note after the letter is written. Teachers who write letters of recommendation should be thanked!