Above is an example of a good letter of recommendation while below is a letter you will hopefully not receive.
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all about letters of recommendationYou need two recommendations, plus one from guidance, which is included in your transcript envelope, so you don’t really have to worry too much about that one. However you do need to fill out your own brag sheet, have your parents fill out a brag sheet, and have a resume to help your guidance counselor write this letter.
Who should I ask? You should generally ask teachers that you had your junior or senior year and felt you had a good relationship with. You can also ask coaches, directors, and other faculty and/or staff you share a connection with. It can depend on what you want to pursue in college, but you should try to get recommendations from two areas of study like English/Social Studies and Math/Science. There are lots of exceptions for this rule, if you’re going to an art school, you probably need a recommendation from an art teacher, not necessarily one from Math or Science; however if you’re majoring in engineering the Science teacher would be important. Once you know which teachers to ask all you have to do is actually ask them. While this may sound simple you still have to write a letter of request, and give a pretty please. Once the letter is written it is also nice to give the teacher a nice thank you note. At this stage teachers and colleges will differ in the letter of recommendation process. While some teachers will give you copies of the signed letter others will want a stamped and addressed envelope. Some colleges will want the letter digitally sent and others prefer a physical copy. This can be confusing and the only way around it is to pay careful attention and double check that every college receives your letter. You’ll also need three blue sheets, or “brag sheets” which are for teachers NOT writing your formal letter of recommendation. Teachers fill these out and submit them to your guidance counselor, to help the counselors write your letter of recommendation. There is a little more freedom with these, you can choose almost whoever you want. BELOW ARE INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO “INVITE” TEACHERS AND COUNSELORS TO SUBMIT LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION USING THE COMMON APPLICATION ONLINE PROCEDURES: 1. Register with the Common Application. - Go to the Common Application home page and click on "Never Registered? Go here". - Fill in your name, address, e-mail address, etc. - Create a user name and password (write down your user name and password). - Click the "Register" button on the page bottom. 2. Next, click the ”Education” button in the list on the left side of the page. 3. Fill in all the requested information, including your counselor’s name, title, e-mail address ([email protected]), phone number (401-398-1300), and fax number (401-885-1336). Click the “Save & Check for Errors” button at the page bottom. 4. Next, click the “My Colleges” button in the list on the left side of the page. 5. Enter the names of each of your colleges, one-by-one, into the narrow window left of the “QuickAdd” button. After you enter a portion of a college’s name, the full name of that college will appear in a drop down window. Click on the full name of the college and then on the “QuickAdd” button. Repeat this procedure for each of your colleges. 6. Next, click the "School Forms" button in the list on the left side of the page. 7. On the next page, check the small box on the top left side of the “Release Authorization” box to give permission to your the high school(s) (and community colleges, if you took classes) to send your records to the Common Application so the records can be forwarded to the colleges you are applying to. * Also, click one of the bubbles under the Important Privacy Notice heading. Type your name and today’s date in the signature window and date windows at the page bottom. Click the “Save” button. 8. The next page may indicate your high school uses Naviance eDocs. (EGHS does not use Naviance eDocs) Click the "Invite Official" button at the page bottom. 9. In the “Personal Data” box, click the "Counselor" bubble. Also, consider checking the box, “I understand that, upon inviting a School Official, I will no longer be able to alter my Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) release authorization.” Then click the “Send Invitation” button at the page bottom. 10. The next step is to invite all of your teacher recommenders. On the same “School Forms” page, click on the “Invite Official” button below the name of your counselor. - In the “Personal Data” box, click the "Teacher" bubble. - Enter your teacher’s title, name, and e-mail address. - In the “Teachers Only” box, click on “Select” in the small window and choose the subject taught by this teacher from the pull-down list of subjects. - Click the “Send Invitation” button on the page bottom. 11. To invite additional teachers, click again on the "Invite Official" button below your counselor’s name in the “Recommenders” box. 12. Repeat the steps described in 10. above to add additional teachers. 13. After you have added all of your teacher recommenders, on the same "School Forms" page, click on the name of one of your colleges shown at the center top of the page in the dark red “My Colleges” box. 14. Near the page bottom, click on “Select” in the small window and choose the name of a teacher who is to send a letter of recommendation to this college. 15. Click the “Save” button at the page bottom. 16. If you wish to have an additional teacher send a letter of recommendation to this college, click the “Add Recommendation” button at the page bottom and repeat 14. and 15. above. 17. Repeat 13. through 16. above for each of your colleges. 18. Your counselor and teachers will be contacted via e-mail from the Common Application website to complete and submit their recommendation online. You can verify your recommenders have submitted their letters of recommendation by viewing the “School Forms” page at any time. On the “School Forms” page, click on the name of one of your colleges shown at the center top of the page in the dark red “My Colleges” box. There will be a notation next to each recommender’s name at the page bottom indicating whether or not they have submitted their letter of recommendation to this college. Other helpful links |