How to Gain Glowing Recommendations from Teachers

To get teachers to write nice things about you, prime them on what you want them to write about you.
Here are a few quasi-scientifically proven facts:

1. Your favorite teachers and guidance counselor have MANY other students asking them to write recommendations.
2. They don’t remember how great you are.
3. They have a go to format and generic things to write about a student.

And these facts have these ramifications:

1. They are busy and will rush your recommendations.
2. The things mentioned about you in the letter will be generic, and lacking in details.
3. Unless you are their absolute favorite student of all time, you will get a lukewarm recommendation letter.

 
Remember the last time you used Yelp or any of the thousands of review apps? A good restaurant or business always has very passionate, unique, and specific recommendations; the same can be said about successful applications- an outstanding recommendation goes a long long way in the college and scholarship application process. Your chances of getting into a great college improve dramatically when you have someone vouching for you. So how do you do it?
You write a short note, detailing of the things you’ve learned at their classes and how you have grown. You use examples in this short note when you are giving them the required documents for the recommendations. By doing this, you are not only showing maturity in self-reflection and telling them that you’ve learned many things from their class, but you are also feeding them materials that they can use in the letter. At the very least, you are refreshing their memories about you- and when they add in those specific stories and details, your recommendation will become THAT much stronger.

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