Conquering Teacher Recommendations

Asking teachers for a recommendation ranks high among the most stress-inducing parts of the application process. It’s not hard to understand why that is, but of course there is no avoiding it.

Unfortunately, some students procrastinate to the point where their options become limited, since each teacher can write only so many letters. The best advice, as one counselor told us, is to buck up, and look upon the experience as a valuable, character-building life lesson. “You’re going to have those conversations throughout your life, and maybe it’s uncomfortable, but it will pay off,” she said. “It’s a tiny microcosm of adulthood.”

Asking the question isn’t the only concern; it’s also contemplating what the teacher might choose to say. For that reason, the teacher recommendation is arguably the least controllable part of the application. What’s more, the student is not privy to whatever the teacher writes.

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Which of the following sections is most likely to undermine an otherwise

strong application?

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Adding to the tension, our survey found that, next to the main essay, the teacher recommendation is the part of the application most likely to undermine a student’s chances. By the same token, it also stands to provide a major, perhaps potentially decisive, boost. Think about it: What better way to validate a student’s application than with a third-party endorsement? If a love of learning is a pivot point in the admissions decision, a teacher’s stamp of approval just might seal the deal.

Based on all of the above, one of the best things students can do to help their cause, is to become as engaged as possible, as early as possible, with as many teachers as possible: asking questions, participating in discussions, seeking advice, going above and beyond at every opportunity. Making their presence felt and remembered.

When such efforts are made, asking a teacher for a recommendation is not such a big deal.

The Secret of Supplemental Essays

So much energy is expended on the “main essay” that the supplemental questions sometimes get short shrift. This is likely exacerbated because these school-specific prompts are often presented as “optional.” Of course, everybody knows that this isn’t really true, and that if you really want to be accepted, you had better take the time to answer these questions, and answer them well.

In fact, some admissions counselors have told us that they read the supplementals before the main essay because their quality can reflect the applicant’s true level of interest.

While some schools use the supplements to try to get a better sense of student personalities and how they think, the most commonly asked question is some form of “Why do you want to attend our school?” It is a deceptively complex question that requires students not only to deep-dive research the school but also look inside themselves to figure out why they feel the way they do about spending the next four years of their lives there.

The biggest mistake many students make, according to the counselors with whom we spoke, is to treat the question generically, and basically submit the same answer to every school. As one counselor told us: “The response has to pass the white-out test.”

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What do you most like to see in the "why our college" question?

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We asked our respondents to identify what’s most important to cover in the “why our college” question, and received a broad array of responses. Numbers one and two were “references to campus culture” (60%) and “personal anecdotes” (55%).

So, again, the gold standard is to try to elicit an emotional connection to the school, most probably based on something seen, heard, felt, smelled or otherwise experienced while visiting campus. How best to capture this is a difficult question, but being mindful and aware of a particular, specific moment, and then distilling it into words, is a possibility. Finding connections between the school’s mission and values and the student’s, is another.

If that just doesn’t quite happen, other less spiritual, opportunities abound. Simply visiting the school’s website and finding courses, professors, research and study abroad opportunities, internships, special programs (e.g., first-year programs), and clubs can be a direct path to a convincing answer. Our survey respondents said they like to see references to any and all of the above.

Next Thursday: Conquering Teacher Recommendations

How Activities Influence Admissions

It used to be that colleges looked for “well-rounded” students, whose interests spanned as broadly as possible. These days, we hear more about the “well-grounded” student, who tends to delve vertically into a particular area of interest and shows a deep level of commitment.

This is reflected in our survey results, with 67 percent saying “consistency/depth within interest” was most important with respect to extracurricular activities. By comparison, “diverse interests,” was selected by just 27 percent. Consistent with this, 73 percent said “long-term commitment” mattered most.

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What do you value most in extracurricular activities?

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Our findings do seem a little at odds with a concurrent demand for a certain level of eclecticism in academics: many schools seem to favor those who express passion for both the sciences and the humanities, as much ardor for physics as the classics, for instance. Perhaps it’s that schools remain impressed by omnivorous interests, with the proviso that the student connects the dots between them to create a larger, more interesting and memorable portrait.

So, it may be the connections between activities, as much as the activities themselves, that tell the story. This does not necessarily mean that extracurriculars should be linked with academics, however: just 17 percent said such connections mattered.

What matters most, according to our survey, is “leadership/initiative,” cited by 75 percent of respondents. Presumably that means it’s still impressive to be captain of a team, president of the class, or editor of the school newspaper. Yet “initiative” can manifest itself in other ways, such as founding a club or organizing an event.

Surprisingly, just 27 percent said that “originality/creativity” is important. This may not mean schools are unimpressed by innovative extracurriculars, just that they don’t necessarily expect it.

Next Thursday: The Secret of Supplemental Essays