I am happy to write letters of recommendation to support students in taking advantage of educational opportunities. When making your request, please be sure to give me plenty of notice* and have the following ready in a folder with your name on it:
To whom is this letter going? What information do I need to submit it? (In most cases, the letter will be uploaded on Naviance, but if there are special instructions, be sure to let me know up front.)
What are you applying for? Admission? A scholarship? A job?
Why do you want this admission/scholarship/job? What is your objective? Why should they award it to you? This is no time for modesty. Tell me how fabulous you are. Include a few sentences on something we have done together (e.g. Girls Have IT Day, a big programming project, EPICS, etc) of which you are particularly proud or which you found particularly interesting. Letters of recommendation are better if they include specific details, but I have a bad memory so I need your help here. I will not use your words verbatim, but I need you to remind me.
Include which classes you took from me and what year you took them (e.g. Sophomore, Junior, etc)
Please include your parent brag sheet. I enjoy reading what your parents have to say about you.
Please include a current resume. Be sure your resume includes your activities and any awards you might have won. If you maintain an "I Love Me Google Doc", print that out and include it as well.
The deadline for requests and submission of materials to me is October 1 for college recommendations. For other letters, I need at least two weeks before the deadline. If I have already written a letter for you, I can sometimes handle last minute requests so be sure to ask. I will tell you "No" if I am not able to accommodate your request.
I put a lot of time and effort into preparing letters of recommendation and I really appreciate it when you let me know if you got accepted! Please be sure to share the good news with me.