What to give teachers writing your recommendation letter

SStanford's admissions readers look in a letter of recommendation for evidence of an unusual mind, and a great many letters describe a pleasant, hardworking student who could be anyone. Because the letter is the part of an application a student controls least, most families decide nothing can be done about it and hand the teacher the usual brag sheet. That is where many strong applicants quietly lose ground, since a reader hoping to meet a future scholar finds a portrait of good character instead.

There is a better thing to give a recommender, and it starts with understanding why even a devoted teacher ends up writing much the same letter for a long line of students.

Why specific classroom examples help a teacher recommendation

A well-liked teacher at a large high school may write dozens of letters each fall, some well over a hundred, and even the best of them build a template. Hand that teacher a brag sheet and a few items get dropped into the template beside a line about what a pleasure you were to teach. The reader gets a letter that could describe any good student, usually about character more than mind. Readers who work for a faculty are looking for evidence of an unusual student.

What to hand over instead

What we learned from Stanford's admissions office is simple. Replace the brag sheet with a short cover letter: half a page is ideal, and a full page is the limit. Start with what you want to study and why, so your history teacher finishes reading and realizes you are serious about philosophy and law. When the letter says what your activities and essays already say, the reader sees one coherent student.

Then name the moments a teacher with two hundred students can't be expected to remember: the afternoon you stayed late to argue about the Paris salons, or the Gertrude Stein novel they suggested and you actually read. Keep it understated, have someone you trust read it, and hand it over in person. Tell them you know how many letters they write and wanted to make yours easier.

The teacher will still write what they want. You are making it easier to write something true and specific.

Two cautions

Readers look for phrases like "the best in many years." Never ask for them, because a teacher who feels steered can say so in the letter. And where a college allows it, choose the teacher who knows you over the one whose subject matches your major, and look past the usual names. A principal or a research supervisor rarely writes a hundred letters a year, and has no template to fall back on.