Figuring out who you should ask to write you a letter of recommendation can be a confusing process for many. This is an important part of the application process, and one piece that admissions teams will pay attention to especially. It's their chance to see what your peers have to say about your work performance, whether that be academically, during sports, or in another aspect of life.
It's one thing to hear it from you all your best achievements, but to hear it affirmed by someone who mentored you and saw the growth as well, gives admissions a second unique perspective and shows your dedication was noticed by those around you. Furthermore, these are fellow teachers and coaches who can relate to the admissions team on a different level than a student might be able to. So with that knowledge, who you should ask is important!
Letters of recommendation should be requested to those who know you and your work ethic. These are people who have frequent interactions with you and have had many opportunities to observe your character in some way. Based on this, people like teachers, coaches for a sports team, employers, church leaders, or any other peer who teaches you and sees your performance on what is taught.
There are a couple things to watch out for when asking for a letter of recommendation. First, keep in mind that these should be people who know your character as well. For example, you might be really good in English, but if you never talked with this teacher before, they likely have no idea about your work ethic.
Second, when asking remember that it's perfectly acceptable to provide examples for them to use of demonstrations of your work or character. However remember to keep the examples in the context that they know you. For example, don't tell your soccer coach about your good test grade, and vice versa don't tell your math teacher about scoring the winning goal. Keeping these stories in context makes the letter stronger in credibility, and gives multiple people a chance to explain different ways they've seen the same character traits in you.
We hope this helps you when asking for letters of recommendation. If you find yourself needing more than a blog post to help you with your college applications, we've been there! We're taking sign ups for next year so current juniors this is your chance to get ahead!
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