Who Else Should I Ask for a Letter of Recommendation?
Who Else Should I Ask for a Letter of Recommendation?
Letters of recommendation play a major role in determining how your application is perceived by admissions officers. The people who support you tell the story not just of what you’ve done but what kind of student you are likely to be in college.
Are you proactive? Do you lead discussions or learning opportunities? Do you draw novel conclusions that propel conversations or research forward? Do you have a track record of doing excellent work without needing instruction? Do you have a charming sense of humor or uncanny recollection of history?
Details like these help admissions officers differentiate between students with equally impressive grades and activities. Sometimes, students have experiences that warrant soliciting a letter of recommendation from people outside of their high school. A well-executed supplemental recommendation can fill in gaps about your story or your contributions that you couldn’t address as effectively in your essays or interview.
In the same way that you work to make your mark in the classroom, we encourage you to do so in your extra- and cocurricular activities. And when you do, you will create more willing advocates for yourself who can give specific details about your contributions and how they might enhance your college experience.
Below are four groups of people you might consider asking for an extra rec letter from.
Your Boss
Admissions officers love hearing about your work experience, especially when it allows you to cultivate skills applicable to your future goals. If you’ve had a job or internship where you’ve been able to make significant contributions, your boss might be a good person to advocate for you.
Take inventory of your impact before asking your boss to write a rec letter. If you’ve mostly done clerical work or haven’t taken the lead in some capacity, your boss’s letter will not be very helpful. In this case, you are better off illuminating any useful takeaways from your work experience in one of your essays or in your activities list.
If, on the other hand, you brought something to the table that has improved the way your employer operates, their letter could be a powerful addition. Perhaps you used your social media savvy to bring new attention to the business. Maybe you used your language proficiency to help your company reach a new demographic. Or maybe you identified an area the company was overlooking and began your own background research before professionally presenting your ideas. If this feels true for you, strongly consider asking your boss for a letter of recommendation.
Your Research Supervisor
For students who choose to pursue research opportunities, your supervisor may make a strong recommender if you’ve had an opportunity to distinguish yourself in your work. Similar to work experience, you must have made meaningful contributions to the research project and demonstrated initiative for this recommendation to hold weight.
Do you have regular contact with your research supervisor? Are you included in decision making processes? Have you sought deeper understanding on your own or worked to build a mentor/mentee relationship beyond the scope of this project? If this sounds like you, your research supervisor is likely to provide a strong recommendation for you.
A College Professor
Have you built a special intellectual relationship with a professor in an area of interest? Perhaps you took a summer course at a college and then followed up with your instructor over subsequent months. Or perhaps you simply took the time to investigate academics who share your passions and sparked a conversation.
If you’ve been cultivating such a mentorship, this college professor (community college counts as well) could be a great recommender for you. They will be uniquely positioned to describe your college readiness. Their insight will make it easier for admissions officers to envision how you will interact with professors on their campus.
Here, again, you must have been proactive in fostering this connection. If you’ve only exchanged an email or two, the professor will likely not have enough to say about you to warrant a letter. Taking initiative in ways like this helps the most successful students maximize their opportunities to gain admission at highly selective institutions.
An Alum Who Knows You Well
Some students are lucky enough to have family friends who successful alumnae of their schools of interest. Perhaps they are a parent’s business partner or some similar connection. If they can speak to how they’ve seen you flourish over the years and why they know through personal experience you’ll be a great fit for their alma mater, their letter of rec might help put your application over the top.
To be clear, you must have built some level of personal relationship with this alum. Since virtually every rec letter is positive , the ones that offer specific insights are most valuable. For 11th graders and younger students, take time now to think about possible relationships like this that might be worth cultivating and what steps you can do before you apply to help build this bridge.
Not every student needs to or should consider including supplemental letters of recommendation. Sometimes “less is more” is the wisest strategy when it comes to supplying admissions officers with material to read. Consulting an admissions expert will help you implement the best strategy for your family and keep each step of the process in order.
The expert admissions consultants at Wise World Prep have helped hundreds of students maximize their potential of being admitted to their top choice colleges and universities. Over 20 years, we have successfully guided students through each stage of the application process – from choosing competitive high school courses to building an appropriate college list to drafting winning essays to writing persuasive update and appeals letters. We would be happy to answer your questions and partner with you to create a successful admissions roadmap.
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