No matter which way you slice it, if you’re a teacher then inevitably one of your students will need a college letter recommendation from you to help them get into the college that they wanted. And while most teachers would already know what to put in college letter recommendations to make them readable and passable, some still don’t.
So, without further ado, here are the five things you need to pay attention to in order to write a good college letter recommendation.
Things to Pay Attention in Writing College Letter Recommendation
- Think before saying “yes”.
If you think you can’t write a positive college letter recommendation for your student or protégé, it would be better off for you to turn down the request and tell the person that you’re uncomfortable writing the recommendation.
It might seem minor at first, but forcing yourself to write college letter recommendations when you don’t want to can be very harmful for you and your students.
- Ask for more information
As much as you’re able to, ask for information from your students such as a copy of their resume. The reason behind doing this is that it lets you speak to the person’s experiences and expertise, and as such the letter will be more trustworthy compared to what it was before.
- Be positive.
Your main goal on writing this college letter recommendation is to help your student getting accepted to their dream college. As such, it’s important to be positive and reassure them that the person you’re recommending is indeed a strong candidate for the school.
Emphasize how good they are at the beginning and end of the letter to help themselves stand out more.
- Stay far away from cliches
Cliches are cliches for a reason. People get tired of them when they read a college letter recommendation. So, we advise you to avoid using terms like “diligent”, “hard-worker”, et cetera.
Instead of using cliches word to point out the strengths of the one you’re recommending, you can instead give them evidences in the form of resumes or portfolio as they’re much more convincing.
- Follow the guidelines
No matter where you’re sending your college letter recommendation, there will always be a guideline to follow. Ask your students about this detail. Usually, it would be something along the lines of where to send it, when to send it, and of course, the format of the documents.
Some might prefer PDF (Portable Document Format) over your standard .DOCX Word document, and getting them mixed up can lead to your college letter recommendation getting ignored.
College Letter Recommendation Templates
Just in case you’re still confused on how to get started writing the college letter recommendation, down below we have templates and samples that you can take a look at to get a better understanding of the contents of the letter:
Closing Words
And that’s all we can say for this tips on how to write a good college letter recommendation. Now, while the letter is not necessarily made for you, or important for you in that matter, it’s one of the deciding factors in your student’s future.
So, we hope you can follow this guide on how to write it to the best on your ability to ensure that your students and/or protégé get the recommendation letter that will help them get to their college easier than before.
That’s all from us for now, thank you for reading this article, we hope you find it useful, and we’ll see you next time in another article, and don’t forget to share this article to your friends if you find what was written useful. Sharing is caring, after all. See you next time!
