Letter of Recommendation Guidelines
All students are required to ask their Guidance Counselor and TWO teachers for letters of recommendation. Only two teachers may be asked to write these letters. Choose someone who can not only write about your academic experience at Island Trees, but write about your personal growth as well.
Answer the following questions/respond to the prompts below in a typed Word document or Google Doc. You will submit your responses to your Guidance Counselor and each teacher.
Be as detailed as possible. The more you write, the more detail a teacher or counselor can provide in your letter.
Your name should be on each piece of paper you hand to your teachers and your counselor.
Attach a copy of your activity sheet for the teacher/counselor to reference in their letter as well.
Guidance Counselor Recommendation Prompts
1) If you were writing your own letter, what is one thing you would be sure to include?
2) How did you grow as a student throughout high school? Is there anything you would like highlighted or explained in regards to your transcript? Some ideas – Did you retake a Regents exam instead of settling for a lower score? Was there a course you really wanted to take that did not fit into your schedule due to a scheduling conflict? Did you excel in a course that you struggled with at first? Did you push yourself to take an advanced class rather than an elective or Regents level class? Was there an elective you took because you wanted to explore that subject area before choosing a career path?
3) How do you feel you changed as a person between 9th grade and now? Did you experience a period of personal growth? Was there a difficulty/hardship that made you a stronger person/student - how? What are you most proud of looking back on your high school career?
4) What is something most people do not know about you? What makes you unique?
5) What are you planning to major in/what are your career goals? Be as specific as possible and describe why you think this will be the best fit for you going forward. If you are undecided, what do you think you may want to do with your career? Something social? Business related? Medical? Helping people?
Teacher Recommendation Prompts – your response to #4 can be the same for both teachers but the responses to questions 1 through 3 should be different for each request form.
1. List the class(es) you took with this teacher, what grade you were in at the time, and what your average was for the year in that class (and what you scored on the Regents exam if that is applicable).
2. Finish this sentence: I feel that you are the best teacher to write this letter for me because… You should NOT be writing the reasons you like this teacher/why they are your favorite. Your response should explain what you hope this teacher will write about you as a person and what they know about you as a student that will help a college determine if you are the right fit at their school. It’s what can they say about YOU, not what you can say about them.
3. What is something you learned in this class or something you learned about yourself in this class that will help you in college? (ex: time management, asking for help, how to take notes, study skills, how to master a difficult concept, perseverance, a specific topic that you plan to explore further in college, etc.)
4. What are you planning to major in/what are your career goals? Be as specific as possible and describe why you think this will be the best fit for you going forward. If you are undecided, what do you think you may want to do with your career? Something social? Business related? Medical? Helping people?