Recommendation Letters: Is 2 Weeks Etiquette Enough?

Applying to College
1

<p>So is 2 weeks ahead an adequate amount of time?
Is it the etiquette ideal time frame?</p>

2

<p>oops. i’ll say 3 weeks. </p>

<p>whew. found an alternative. yay!</p>

3

<p>The general etiquette says at least a month.</p>

<p>(My school strongly suggests more than that if possible, which is why I gave 6 weeks).</p>

4

<p>3 weeks is fine. College counselors have said, at least 3 weeks. (QuestBridge also gives this.)</p>

5

<p>I would give a month, at least. As much time as possible, in any case. My mother is a high school teacher and if you asked her now for a recommendation for EA or ED she’d be pretty irritated, especially since a LOT of kids ask her.</p>

6

<p>Definitely at least a month, like Johnson and MLeigh have said.</p>

7

<p>Our school recommends that one talks with prospective recommendations writers in the spring of junior year so that one is not scrambling about in the fall. His recs were very happy with five-six weeks’ notice this fall.</p>

8

<p>I consider it respectful to give more like two months. The problem with three weeks is that the teacher could be grading a major assignment (ten pages papers for sixty students) for another class on a time schedule, could be going out of town, could fall ill. At my school, 1 June of junior year is the deadline. That doesn’t mean one has to name colleges then: just get an agreement to do recommendations. Remember, teachers could be doing many other recs, and may be doing recs for students who need specific forms filled out (such as some of my colleges required).</p>

9

<p>hm…</p>

<p>well, i know for sure that the teachers that I’m gonna ask aren’t busy 24/7…and one of them actually already wrote me a letter last year for some scholarships i applied for. so okay. 1 month. whew that still is enough time. </p>

<p>thanks!</p>

10

<p>My counselors have recommended 2-3 weeks. 3 weeks seems good. If it’s a popular and busy teacher, you may need to ask earlier before too many people have asked him/her and they stop taking requests for recommendations.</p>

11

<p>My teachers suggest asking at the end of junior year…which I will definetely do, considering that our school is huge and there are only a few good teachers which EVERYONE asks for recommendations from.</p>

12

<p>Carpe Aeternum- when I said I gave 6 weeks, I meant folders, forms, envelopes, the like.</p>

<p>I actually asked my teachers way back in May.</p>