Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Job Searching Career Advice. Table of Contents Expand. Table of Contents. What is a Reference Letter? Types of References. Before Writing a Reference Letter.
Request Information for the Letter. What to Include in a Reference Letter. How to Write a Reference Letter. Letter Length, Format, and Font. Reference Letter Sample. By Alison Doyle. Alison founded CareerToolBelt. Learn about our editorial policies. If you do not feel comfortable recommending someone—whether it's for a job or graduate school or for something else—it's best to let the person requesting the recommendation know that you cannot write it , rather than writing a negative letter.
This will give them an opportunity to seek out someone who can wholeheartedly write a positive recommendation. Keep in mind that your own reputation is in play when you write a letter of recommendation; you do not want to endorse someone in a letter who you do not think will perform well since it could cast a negative light on your own judgment. You also do not want to lie in the letter: Don't exaggerate accomplishments. Overblown praise can diminish the impact of your recommendation.
But be aware that since most recommendation letters skew very positive, any criticism will be very noticeable. A Letter of Recommendation Can Help a Candidate Achieve Their Goals: Students and job candidates use these letters to help make their case to academic programs and employers. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile.
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List of Partners vendors. Job Searching Job References. Table of Contents Expand. Words that are generic or cliche would weaken your letter , like "hard worker" who "goes above and beyond" and "always shoots for the stars. Similarly, your letter shouldn't feature ambiguous wording or phrases that could be confusing or interpreted in an unflattering way.
If it says you're "fiercely independent," this could sound a little harsh, like you don't always work well with others. If your recommender says you "lead by example," she could, intentionally or not, be suggesting a lack of leadership positions in the school. Finally, if your recommender focuses on your "tremendous potential" and "room to grow," an admissions officers might read between the lines that your recommender isn't too impressed with your progress so far.
While these phrases aren't a red flag per se, they should be balanced out with other strengths and positive comments. Sometimes your recommenders will show you their letters before sending them, so you can look them over and politely offer any suggestions for revision. Other times, your recommender will keep the letter confidential. In this case, the best thing you can do is ask a teacher who has a reputation for writing well and putting effort into her letters.
If you hear someone uses a form letter for everyone and just plugs students' names in, then avoid that person at all costs! Practically speaking, English teachers often get slammed with recommendation letter requests in the fall of senior year, because they're generally good writers. If you'd benefit from a letter from your English teacher, make sure to ask her early and talk to her about your ideas for your letter.
Ask a recommender who can write well and will put in the time and effort to craft a thoughtful, error-free letter. Ask your counselor for advice, and make your request early so your teacher's quota for rec requests doesn't fill up. If you're applying to a selective school, like in the Ivy League, another feature that can make your letter stand out is a statement of high ranking.
On the flip side, a statement of average ranking could be a dealbreaker and would best be left out. If you're applying to a selective or Ivy League school like Harvard, a statement of high ranking could stand out and impress admissions officers. Here are a few examples. Carla is without a doubt the most talented and driven student I've ever had the pleasure of teaching in my fifteen years at Roosevelt High School.
Pablo is one of the top three students I've had in my AP Calculus class in the ten years I've been teaching it. Due to her impressive determination, effort, and intellectual curiosity, Alexis has risen to the top of her class.
Statements like these are especially impressive if your teacher or counselor has been at your school for many years. Your ranking could also get more specific, like saying you have a top "aptitude for scientific inquiry," "curiosity for solving problems," or "sophisticated analysis and understanding of literature. Conversely, if your recommender says you're "above average" or "satisfactory," it sounds lukewarm and won't add much to your application.
For a top school, a mediocre ranking like this could even sink your application to the bottom of the pile. A statement of high ranking from an established teacher or counselor is one feature that could help make your recommendation letter great. Finally, your recommendation letter should come from a qualified person whose opinion admissions officers will take seriously. Schools have requirements for who your recommendation letters should be from.
You also should know who to ask and who not to ask. I mentioned a few times that your letters of recommendation should come from teachers or counselors who know the student well. Readers can pick up on this pretty easily, from the depth of insight provided and how personalized your letter is.
They should also come from the right people. For instance, more selective schools ask for two teacher recommendations and one school counselor recommendation. Other schools just want one teacher rec and one counselor rec. Dartmouth and Davidson are unique in that they want a recommendation from a peer.
Does that mean you should ask any teacher you've ever had in high school? Definitely not. Usually the best rec letters come from junior year teachers , because they had you in class recently and for a whole year.
Another good teacher is one that had you for more than one class or advised you in an after-school club. A freshman or sophomore year teacher would probably not be recent enough. Your recommenders will state who they are and how they know you in their introductions. That way admissions officers know to give their opinion serious consideration.
These introductions might like look this:. As Jim's 11th grade AP Chemistry teacher and academic advisor, I'm honored to provide him with this letter of recommendation to Dartmouth College. If you're champing at the bit and really want to jump directly to my letters, here's Recommendation Letter Example 1 , and here's Recommendation Letter Example 2.
But I highly recommend that you stick with me for the next two sections—you'll get a lot more out of this guide and get much stronger rec letters as a result. The goal of your overall college application is to communicate who you are as a person, in an easily digestible package that can take 20 minutes to understand or less. From this package, colleges will decide whether they want you to join their community or not. Yeah, it doesn't feel great to have your 18 years of existence compressed into a web form.
But that's the best system colleges have come up with so far to deal with the tens of thousands of college applications they receive every year.
What do colleges care most about? Ultimately, it boils down to two things:. These are the ultimate goals of colleges when selecting their next class of students. Your application must convince the college that you will succeed in both goals. Of course, these are complex ideas—success is not only hard to predict, but different people also have different ideas of what success means.
For the first admissions requirement of academic success, your coursework and test scores play the biggest role. This means you're in a great position to succeed academically in college. Download it for free now:. How do you show the second requirement—personality traits? Part of this is in your personal essays and extracurriculars, where you'll show what you're interested in and give voice to your personality.
But of course you'll describe yourself as curious, creative, collaborative, kind, and so forth. Who would describe themselves as unethical and mean?
This is why colleges need objective, third-party observers to comment on who you are. This is where your teacher recommendations come in, and why they're so important. The role of the rec letter is to show who you are as a person. Your teachers have engaged with you throughout at least a year of class. They've seen you in class with other students, and possibly out of class too. There are hundreds of small interactions that piece together to form your teacher's impression of you.
How do you interact with students? How do you interact with teachers? How creative was your work? How much did you participate in class discussions? How motivated were you to excel in school? Are you a jerk nobody wants to be around? Or are you someone the teacher entrusts with the future? Recommendations from secondary school teachers and counselors are extremely important at Harvard and at many other colleges, particularly those with selective admissions processes.
Faced with more academically qualified applicants than places in the freshman class, our admission officers review the two required teacher recommendations and the counselor report with great care, often commenting on them in writing on "reader sheets" in each application.
We often project the recommendations themselves onto large screens so that all members of the Admissions Committee can see them during the subcommittee and full committee review processes in February and March. Recommendations can help us to see well beyond test scores and grades and other credentials and can illuminate such personal qualities as character and leadership as well as intellectual curiosity, creativity, and love of learning.
Along with essays, interviews, and other materials in the application, recommendations can offer evidence of an applicant's potential to make a significant difference to a college community and beyond. What does this imply? To beat a dead horse: your teacher recommendations add more color to your academic achievements, your test scores, and your GPA. The best recommendation letters for colleges rave about your personality and personal qualities. You do not want your recommendation letters to just be repeats of your resume.
This gives the admissions officer zero extra information about who you are a person. You do not want your recommendation letters to just say, "Johnny got an A and turned in his homework on time. Great recommendations talk about more than your class performance. They discuss your personal qualities, how interacting with you feels like, and why you're likely to succeed in the future. First, I'm going to show my letters to you, with analysis of why they were so effective.
You'll see the highlights made by my Harvard admissions officer, which will tell you what things she found important. Then I'll give you advice on how to build relationships with your teachers so you can get letters like this on your own. Usually you don't get to read letters of recommendation for students because you sign the FERPA waiver, waiving away your rights to read your application. But I was able to retrieve my full Common App and Harvard application from Harvard, complete with my original letters of recommendation.
Most colleges require you to have two letters from teachers in different subjects. The two teachers I asked for letters were my favorite two teachers in all of high school. Personally, I vibed most strongly with teachers who actually cared about teaching.
They gave engaged students with energy, treated us kindly and empathetically, and went above expectations to help students succeed. Not only did I have the most fun with these teachers, but they were also more likely to advocate for me enthusiastically in their letter. You might not vibe with teachers for the same reasons, but it's important you choose teachers you get along with and who you feel will write you very strong letters.
My first letter comes from my AP Chemistry teacher from 10th grade. My second comes from my AP English Language teacher from 11th grade. As you read these letters, remember—these letters didn't come instantly. They take hundreds of small interactions over a year or more to build an impression of who you are.
You can't trick a teacher into writing a great recommendation letter for you. If you honestly like learning and are an enthusiastic, responsible, engaging student, a great recommendation letter will follow naturally. The horse should lead the cart. She was one of our younger teachers, having taught for just a few years before I had her. By the time I applied to college in senior year, I had known her for two full years and engaged with her continuously, even when I wasn't taking a class with her in junior year.
We'd build up a strong relationship over the course of hundreds of small interactions. All of this flowed down to the recommendation you see here. The horse leads the cart. First, we'll look at the teacher evaluation page.
The Common Application now has 16 qualities to rate, rather than the 10 here.
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