LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION

Colleges often ask for letters of recommendation (LORs) from your Teacher and/or School Counselor to support your application. Colleges value LORs because they reveal things about you that grades and test scores can’t, provide personal opinions of your character, and show how you may be in college classroom and as a member of their community.

Teacher Letter of Recommendations

Prior to asking, determine if the college you are applying require/accept Teacher LORs. Not all schools accept letters, such as University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Check the application checklist found on each school's website, your SchooLinks, or in your Common App account to see if they require/accept LORs. If a LOR is required, colleges will typically want 1-2 from a core academic teacher (English, Math, Science, Social Studies or World Languages) that you had in the past year or so. Lane students can request a max of 2 teacher letter of recommendations.

How to request Teacher LOR

Ask your teacher, politely, in person or via email if they are willing to write a LOR. Remember, teachers are human and are busy! Give them at least 2 weeks to submit your LOR.
Send your teacher the official LOR request in SchooLinks. Here are the steps:
1. - From the dashboard, click the College icon on the left navigation sidebar, then select College Applications from the drop-down menu.
  - Click on the pencil icon of the school you want to request a teacher evaluation for.
  - Click "Add Recommender" and search for your teacher and click "Submit Request."

You will now see the assigned teacher's name and the status of your teacher evaluation! The teacher will be alerted that you have requested an evaluation and will be instructed to complete it for your application.

NOTE: Before you can request teacher letter of recommendations, you must complete your FERPA waivers and ADD schools/applications to SchooLinks.

For a step-by-step guide click here.

Counselor Letter of Recommendations

Some colleges will also ask for a Counselor LOR. This letter is different than your teachers, as your school counselor will provide more contextual information on your family background, achievements in activities, and highlight parts of your transcript.

Prior to asking, determine if the college you are applying require/accept Counselor LORs. Check the application checklist found of each school's website, in SchooLinks, or in your Common App account to see if they require/accept Counselor LORs.

How to request Counselor LOR

Ask your school counselor, in person, if they are willing to write a LOR. Remember, they are human and are busy! Give them at least 2 weeks to submit your LOR.
Add the school(s) to your “College Application List” in SchooLinks.
Complete the Senior Info Sheet in your Counselor’s Google classroom. The Senior Info Sheet is a short biography/brag sheet to help your school counselor write a comprehensive LOR.
Follow up with a thank you note!

FAQs

How many LORs should I send to a college?

Keep in mind that admission reps read hundreds and hundreds of applications and recommendation letters. If you decide to send more than the minimum, then be sure it is worthwhile and the teachers have something different to say about you. Otherwise, you are overburdening your teachers and admission reps. Never send more than the college allows...this may show your inability to follow directions! Please note that Lane students can request a MAX of 2 teacher recomendation letters.

Can I include a LOR from a coach, sponsor, or mentor?

Again, it is important that you follow the college's instruction on recommendation letters. If they ask for an academic teacher, be sure to include one. Some colleges may allow for an "other recommender." If that is the case, then you can certainly include a letter from a coach, sponsor, or mentor. You can either invite the "other recommender" on Common App, or have your recommender send the LOR directly to the college via email or snail mail.

Can I submit my application before my teacher/counselor submit their LOR?

Yes! You are allowed to submit your application before your counselor or teachers submit their recommendation.

How do I confirm that my teacher submitted my LOR?

Before you bug your teacher...check your SchooLinks! Under College Applications and Recommendation Tracker, click on View all Requests. You will see a list of the letters and evaluations grouped by the Teacher giving the evaluation. If the teacher has been assigned to multiple colleges, you can click Show at the right end of the bar for the teacher to expand details.

Each recommendation letter and evaluation will show one of the following three statuses:

Request Pending: The recommender has been requested to submit an evaluation or recommendation which has not been submitted yet.
Request Fulfilled: The recommender has submitted the requested evaluation or recommendation, which has been transmitted to the destination institution(s).
Declined: The recommender has been requested to submit an evaluation and has declined to do so. Another recommender will need to be selected by changing the evaluation request.

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