Letters of recommendation?

AO4109 · August 7, 2011, 4:57pm

I plan to apply Early Action to U of M, but I have a couple questions about the letters of recommendation I was hoping someone could answer. (Sorry if some of these seem pretty basic, but I'm the first in my family to apply to college and we have pretty poor counseling services at my school).

I read that a teacher recommendation and a counselor recommendation are necessary to apply. Is there a certain way that the teacher/counselor should send the letter to the school? Is there anything specific that should be included in the letters? Should I have more than one recommendations from teachers, say one from English and one from science?

Thanks in advance.

zinthafan · August 7, 2011, 6:28pm

Your teachers and counselors should already know what a letter of rec. calls for. If there's something specific you wanted them to mention (for instance, how you worked with their spouse on a submarine or something idk) then you can tell them to please include that in.
They can either send it to the admissions office via mail or easiest is common app where they just address a letter of rec. to all schools in general and they tend to prefer that too. Yes, get 2 letters of rec from teachers preferably one in math/science and another outside of that is liked by a number of colleges if you're going into LSA that'd be a good idea.

doctor1468 · August 7, 2011, 6:55pm

Like zinthafan mentioned, you should just use commonapp. There is a place where you just fill out the contact information of your recommenders, and an e-mail message will be generated requesting them to submit a letter of recommendation on your behalf. I don't know the specifics, but everything is done online.

As for sending letters in the mail, I believe this is usually for supplementary letters that are not required, but are just an extra addition to complement to application.

And like the previous poster already said, your counselor and teachers have probably written recs before, so they should know what to do. Still, you should be wise when choosing your teachers. Preferably choose teachers you have had recently. But if you end up having to seek one from someone who taught you freshman year, don't be hesitant to remind that teacher of what you achieved in his or her class, so that they have something to go off of, instead of being vague, which will only hurt you.

SHSurprise · August 7, 2011, 8:34pm

Applying for transfer to LAS, doesn't says recommendation is required. Any suggestions?

zinthafan · August 7, 2011, 9:54pm

I'd still send in 2 like majority of freshman applicants; how can it hurt?

777Blue77 · August 10, 2011, 2:24pm

Based on my experience, I don't think (but remember, I'm not an admission officer) it matters what subject the teacher teaches.

I applied to Umich Engineering through Early Action and got accepted. I had a Spanish teacher, an English teacher, and my AP Government teacher write letters of rec for me. I applied to Engineering without a letter of rec from either a math or science teacher.