COLLEGE RECOMMENDATION PROCESS

UC's and CSU's do not accept letters of recommendations.

Almost all private colleges and many out of state colleges want letters of recommendation to complete your application. Read the application packet to determine how many and from whom do they want letters, if any.

Determine who you are going to ask for a letter. Does the college want a letter from any teacher, a math or science teacher, or a teacher you have had in the last few years? Should you ask a community member, your priest, minister or rabbi?

Be sure the person you ask to write a letter of recommendation for you knows you well. For example, colleges do not want to hear from an alumni who doesn't know you but knows your grandmother who lives in Ohio.

Please ask a teacher to complete the Teacher Input Form who then returns it to your counselor. This gives your counselor a better idea of your academic qualities.

It takes time to write a good letter of recommendation, so please ask in advance. You will want to give the author as much information as you can. Provide the author with the completed College and Scholarship Information and Activities Form.

If you are using the Common Application, be sure you have the correct email address of your counselor and teacher who will also be submitting materials online. Please complete only the Coversheet, College and Scholarship Information and Activities, and Teacher Input forms below to give to your counselor so that she can write a great recommendation for you.

If the writer will be mailing the recommendation, provide her/him with a stamped addressed envelop (letter size) to each college.

If your counselor will write a letter of recommendation for you, please use the attached forms:
Recommendation Guidelines
Recommendation Packet Coversheet
College and Scholarship Information and Activities Form
Teacher Input Form
Secondary School Report (Print both pages but only complete the information in the box on the front page.)