Recommendations

Admissions officers read the letters of recommendation as they are interested in your qualities in school such as whether you demonstrate a genuine interest in a subject, accept criticism, and work to make improvements.

You will be asked by the counselor to waive your right to see the letters of recommendation. You do not have to sign the waiver but most admissions officers consider that the recommendations have more validity if you have done so.

Counselor’s Recommendation

The counselor writes the Counselor’s Recommendation (school recommendation). It is a confidential document, based upon the counselor’s knowledge of you and the information that you provide during interviews, and on the Counselor’s Questionnaire, given to you, usually at the beginning of S7. If family members have attended a university to which you are applying please review the legacy status page and let the counselor know.

Teacher Recommendations

The majority of colleges and universities ask for one or two teacher recommendations. Some specify the subject-area teacher that they wish to hear from, whilst others allow you to choose who will write your letter of recommendation. Check your application form and college websites for details. The counselor will help you to select teachers to write for you if you have a choice.

You will need to make a formal request to each of your selected teachers to write you a recommendation. You must then provide the teachers with the following:

• Specific recommendation forms from the colleges or universities that are supplied with your application form.
  
• The names and addresses of the colleges and/or universities.

Teachers are not obliged to write recommendations for you. Some may refuse as they may feel that your chances of being accepted may be hampered if they are honest about you!

Extra recommendations that are not requested by the college or university may be included in your application. These are only useful if someone in your community knows you very well and can provide information about you that is not available in other parts of the application.

If you have an outstanding accomplishment in a certain area such as music, art, writing, athletics or drama, you may wish to submit a sample of your skills.