Letters of Recommendation

In a time of grade inflation New evidence of high school grade inflation and shifting views on test blindness What is Test Optional? , a teacher's letter of recommendation potentially carries a lot of weight in a student's application for college admission or scholarship programs. This is an uncomfortable spot to be in considering that there is no feedback cycle for these letters; even if a student is selected, it is never clear how much weight a LoR carried in that decision.

I have two objectives when writing a letter for a student: sharing my personal insights and corroborating their personal information. In an ideal case, I can provide perspective on a student in a variety of contexts; the dream scenario is a student that I have taught, coached, and supported in some extracurricular. This lets me distill a fundamental story where I can share traits and qualities that the student always carries with them. These anecdotes should also align with the story the student is trying to tell in their own writing as well. My letter might be the only outside qualitative information in an application so I hope it can serve as proof of a student's veracity in their own writing.

What to Provide

A few essentials: how to submit the LoR, its due date, and any specific prompts I must address. If I know a student well, that should be all that I need but there are some other things that can help. The easiest thing would be reminders of some factual information: what class(es) did I teach you in and when was that? If you have any other documents already prepared for an app like a resume, those can also let me add more context to a letter. The best thing you could do is let me know what stories you feel are essential that I tell; some things are better coming from a teacher rather than the applicant and I want to make sure I cover those points if applicable. I do not want you to attempt to write the letter for me, but it helps me pick what to prioritize in the time and space I have to write.

My Structure

Unless there is a truly exceptional story to tell, my letters typically take on the following structure: context, insights, and potential. Context is the easiest part to write (and is typically required by most institutes). It is an overview of how long I have known you and specifics of those settings that will shape the rest of the letter. For example, was it a required course or an elective or extracurricular you chose to participate in? This is especially important for settings like AP electives that can demonstrate a particular strength or interest in a topic.

With that out of the way I can get to the fun part of writing: what I have been able to observe in my role(s) and what can be gleaned from those insights. I can't turn off my Science writing habits, I start with the raw (usually anecdotal) data and then provide my analysis on what it implies. Did a student do their work quickly (and accurately) to work on personal projects? Do they go above and beyond in assignments to satisfy their own curiosity? Do they help their peers learn? Do they appear to enjoy the struggle of hard work?

I try to leverage the data to explain this student's potential as an asset in their future teams. It is a delight to write about students who lead through example and to explain how I think that a student could be a beacon of positive change in their field. When I can, I will end my letters with a genuine statement of interest in finding out what the student accomplishes next.

Generative AI and Assisstive Tech

LoRs can contain significant PII What is PII? paired with stories that a student might not want shared beyond the scope of the program they are applying for. This is especially true for Generative AI programs that rely on collecting and processing as much data as possible to reconfigure it as outputs. When writing a letter, I will never deliberately feed student's data into a process that would retain it. I usually use Google Docs to write my letters and I am not clear on what the recipients will do with the information once I share it, but aside from that I will do what I can to keep the data private.