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What should a teacher recommendation letter say?
A Stanford admissions account shows why praise alone can miss the point. What teachers can describe about your learning and classroom work, and how to steer it.
SourceBased on what we at Aristo learned from the Stanford admissions office.
Readers in Stanford's admissions office read a recommendation letter for one particular kind of evidence, and a national newspaper's account of a committee meeting at a selective college shows what happens when it is missing. One file belonged to a student with an A average, a strong SAT, a plan to study law, and years of track and varsity soccer. A reader flagged a problem with her letters: they dwelt on her personal qualities and said little about what happened in the classroom. One member said he liked her if there was room. Another answered that there was not.
Families find that story surprising, because a letter calling a child kind and well liked feels like exactly what a college should want. It follows directly from what a college is choosing, and the evidence readers need is narrower than most families think.
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