There are two parts of the college application process that are major pain in the butt. First is the college essay. Second is the letters of recommendation. While many state schools and less competitive schools may factor your transcript, SATs, and your ability to pay their tuition as the primary criteria for admission, a greater percentage of the top-tiered colleges will require letters of recommendation. Most schools will require at least three: one from your guidance counselor, one or two from your teachers, and perhaps one from your coach, employer or a close family friend.
If you were like me, you would be nervous about this process. After all, I felt that my teachers would write stuff like “Young Il is such a nice boy. Very quiet and did his homework. That’s it.” And remember that I was a teacher’s pet. If your relationship with your teachers was as tenuous as Bart Simpson’s to Mrs. Krabapple, you may think that you are in trouble. Hopefully, by the time you read this little article, you will have completed enough classes and did well on many of them to be considered for one of the more competitive schools. If you have your heart set towards that degree from Sally Struthers, you don’t need letters of rec.
Don’t think about who can write you the best recommendation. Think about what you want your dream college to know about. That is the primary purpose of the recommendation letters. The letters are not there to show how great you are or how smart you are. Your scores and transcripts tell the story there. Behind every college application process, there is a student, a real person, who may enroll in the school for the next four years. The admissions officers want to know the real you. Somehow they are of the impression that they can get that from your college essays and recommendations.
Before you go asking for your recommendations in a massive campaign that the Kennedy clan would admire, think about what you want the college to know. If you like working with little children (not in the Michael Jackson way but in an altruistic way) and you want to convey that, you may want to ask for a letter of recommendation from someone who manages a children’s center (assuming you work there). If you are a great athlete but an a-hole, don’t ask your coach for a recommendation. If his/her recommendation is about your athletic ability only, the admissions officers will infer that you are a jerk. Every coach says that Rickey Henderson is a great athlete (because he was a real selfish jerk); don’t be Rickey. Think about teachers who know you as a smart person but also know you well enough outside the classroom setting.
