508: What Colleges Want (Part 7B): Recommendation Letter Crash Course for Counselors and Teachers
The College Essay Guy Podcast: A Practical Guide to College Admissions
Release Date: 04/30/2024
The College Essay Guy Podcast: A Practical Guide to College Admissions
Today’s episode is all about writing letters of recommendation for teachers and counselors. Continuing our series on What Colleges Want, Tom Campbell (CEG’s Community Manager) is joined by Hanah Lim (CEG’s Director of Workshops and a former high school English teacher), where they provide their tips, tricks, and hacks to help you write more efficient and effective letters for your students. Tom and Hanah discuss: How long should letters be and what format works best? How do letters differ between counselors and teachers? What details might be helpful to include, and what should be...
info_outline 507: What Colleges Want (Part 7A): Recommendation Letter Crash Course for Students and FamiliesThe College Essay Guy Podcast: A Practical Guide to College Admissions
This week, Tom Campbell (CEG’s Community Manager) is joined by Ayesha King (Director of College Counseling at the International School of Los Angeles) to talk about letters of recommendation. They get into: What goes into a letter of recommendation? How are they evaluated by colleges? Who should students consider asking, and how do they ask? What can students and families do to ensure that their letters are the best they can be? What are FERPA rights and why should you waive them? Ayesha King (she/her) has over twelve years of experience in admissions at the secondary, undergraduate,...
info_outline 506: What Colleges Want (Part 6): Demonstrated Interest: What Is it, Why Is it Important, and How Do You Show it? with Dean of Enrollment Christine BowmanThe College Essay Guy Podcast: A Practical Guide to College Admissions
On today’s episode, Ethan is joined by Christine Bowman, Assistant VP for Admission at Southwestern University. In part 6 in our series on What Colleges Want, Ethan and Christine get into: What is demonstrated interest and how do colleges track it? How important is demonstrated interest to a student’s chance of getting in? How might students find out if a particular school considers demonstrated interest in their admission review? What are some practical ways you can demonstrate your interest to colleges? Christine Bowman is the Assistant VP for Admission at Southwestern, where she...
info_outline 505: What Colleges Want (Part 5): A Crash Course in the Supplemental Essays + Application with Ethan Sawyer (College Essay Guy)The College Essay Guy Podcast: A Practical Guide to College Admissions
On this week’s episode, Tom Campbell (CEG’s Community Manager) sits down with Ethan Sawyer (College Essay Guy) for Part 5 in our What Colleges Want series to talk about some of the other written parts of the application—the activities list, additional information section, and supplemental essays. Tom and Ethan get into: How can students write a great Activities List? How can you find out what colleges are looking for in the supplemental essays? And what even is the additional information section? What is a ‘Super Essay’ and how might it be useful? How does a student know when...
info_outline 504: What Colleges Want (Part 4): A Crash Course in the Personal Statement with Ethan Sawyer (College Essay Guy)The College Essay Guy Podcast: A Practical Guide to College Admissions
On this week’s episode, Tom Campbell (CEG’s Community Manager) sits down with Ethan Sawyer (College Essay Guy) for Part 4 in our What Colleges Want series to talk about the personal statement. According to the latest State of College Admission report – after grades, course rigor, and positive character traits (see previous episodes), the college essay is what colleges care about most. Tom and Ethan get into: What is the purpose of the personal statement? How do you find a topic, especially if you’re not writing about challenges? Why do I recommend students NOT...
info_outline 503: What Colleges Want (Part 3): "Positive Character Attributes": What Are They, and How Do You Show Them in Your College Application?The College Essay Guy Podcast: A Practical Guide to College Admissions
In today’s two-part episode, we’re delving into one of the potentially more confusing aspects of what colleges want — “positive character attributes” — which 65.8% of colleges give considerable or moderate importance. In part 1, I’m joined by Tom Bear (VP for Enrollment at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology) and Bob Massa (former chief admissions/enrollment officer at Johns Hopkins University, Dickinson College and Drew University) to discuss: What are these positive character attributes? Why are they important to colleges? How do colleges decide which qualities to seek...
info_outline 502: What Colleges Want (Part 2): A Deep Dive into GPA, Course Selection, and Making the Most of the Academic Opportunities Available to YouThe College Essay Guy Podcast: A Practical Guide to College Admissions
On today’s episode, Tom Campbell (CEG’s Community Manager) and Nitzya Cuevas-Macias (Director of College Programs at Downtown College Prep) cover: How do students decide which classes to take—and what questions should they ask when deciding? Key recommendations for selecting English, math, science, social studies, language, and elective courses The most frequently asked questions we get asked about courses and grades Nitzya Cuevas-Macias was a first-gen college student at UC Berkeley where she studied History and Legal Studies, and earned her Master’s in Mexican American Studies from...
info_outline 501: What Colleges Want (Part 1): A Deep Dive into the Factors Colleges Deem Important & State of College Admissions ReportThe College Essay Guy Podcast: A Practical Guide to College Admissions
Show Notes On today's episode, Ethan sits down with David Hawkins, Chief Education and Policy Officer at National Association of College Admission Counselors (aka NACAC), and they get discuss, among other things: What are the most important factors colleges consider? What significant changes has he seen in the college admission landscape in the past few years? How has the emphasis on college essays (aka the personal statement) shifted? Why has the emphasis in standardized testing changed? What have the impacts been of the Supreme Court decision to ban race conscious...
info_outline 414: A Crash Course in Paying for College & Common Affordability MythsThe College Essay Guy Podcast: A Practical Guide to College Admissions
On today’s episode, Ethan is joined by Amanda Miller, who got her start in financial aid through the at Davidson College in 2014. A few thousand students, several resources, and dozens of financial aid presentations later, Amanda’s an independent financial aid specialist and college adviser who also serves as the financial aid go-to lady for the Matchlighters program and someone we consider to be a part of the extended College Essay Guy family. Ethan and Amanda discuss: How do people identify the best ways to pay for college? What are some things that people who win...
info_outline 413: Intellectual Curiosity + College Admissions: What It Is, Why It Matters to Colleges, and How to Show ItThe College Essay Guy Podcast: A Practical Guide to College Admissions
In today’s episode, Tom Campbell (CEG’s Community Manager) and Susan Tree (a college counseling and admissions legend with 40+ years of experience) chat about “intellectual curiosity”: a quality that many colleges actively look for in students, yet is a little more ambiguous and nuanced compared to mapping out a high school course plan. This is part 2 of a series about students’ academic background and interests and how they factor into the admissions process. is about all things related to the academic part of a student’s college application— which, at many selective colleges,...
info_outlineToday’s episode is all about writing letters of recommendation for teachers and counselors. Continuing our series on What Colleges Want, Tom Campbell (CEG’s Community Manager) is joined by Hanah Lim (CEG’s Director of Workshops and a former high school English teacher), where they provide their tips, tricks, and hacks to help you write more efficient and effective letters for your students.
Tom and Hanah discuss:
- How long should letters be and what format works best?
- How do letters differ between counselors and teachers?
- What details might be helpful to include, and what should be avoided?
- How can teachers and counselors efficiently gather more information about their students to include in the letter?
We hope you enjoy the episode!
In case you missed it: Students and families, be sure to check out last week’s episode with Ayesha King to learn about what goes into a letter of recommendation, how they are evaluated by colleges, and who students should consider asking.
Hanah Lim is the Director of Workshops at College Essay Guy and a former public high school English teacher. She oversees College Essay Guy's essay and application workshop team and organizes speaking events and college application and essay workshops for students at schools and organizations in the US and around the world. She has presented college essay workshops to thousands of students across diverse settings, including community-based organizations, public, international, and independent schools. She also worked as a college consultant for students in Bangkok, Thailand, directed SAT prep centers in Irvine, California and worked with non-profit groups and as an AVID teacher and coordinator to help close the achievement gap. She holds a B.A. in English with an emphasis in Education from California State University of Long Beach. Hanah finds joy in watching musicals, visiting Disney parks with her husband, and playing with her two cats.
Play-by-Play
- 2:19 - Hanah and Tom share their school contexts for writing their letters of recommendation
- 5:40 - How much weight do letters of recommendation hold in admission?
- 10:25 - What is the best practice for the length of a letter of recommendation for college?
- 10:57 - How should it be formatted?
- 14:03 - Should a letter be customized for each college?
- 15:38 - What else is submitted with the student’s application from the high school?
- 16:19 - What is covered in the school profile?
- 19:44 - What is covered in the counselor’s letter?
- 25:25 - What is covered in the teacher's letter?
- 30:46 - How does the Supreme Court ruling on race-conscious admission affect letters of recommendation?
- 36:29 - What generally might be not as helpful to include in the letter?
- 40:38 - Hanah shares her process for writing letters of recommendation
- 49:18 - Tom shares his process for writing letters of recommendation
- 59:01 - How to incorporate a student’s essay brainstorming work
- 1:01:37 - How could generative AI be utilized in the recommendation writing process?
- 1:07:08 - Closing thoughts
Resources
- Continued Learning
- On-Demand Webinar: How to Write Better Recommendations in Less Time
- How (and Why) to Uplevel Your School Profile Post-SCOTUS (College Essay Guy)
- CEG Podcast Episode 507: What Colleges Want (Part 7A): Recommendation Letter Crash Course for Students and Families
- Sample Recommendation Letters
- Junior Questionnaires/Recommendation Request Form Questions
- Sample Junior Questionnaire (for Counselor Recommendations)
- Hanah Lim’s Teacher Recommendation Request Form
- Helpful Student Brag Sheet Questions for Teacher Letters of Recommendation (Johns Hopkins University)
- Working with Recommenders and Advisors (several brag sheets from Common App Ready)
- College Essay Guy's 100 Brave and Interesting Questions (inspiration for your junior survey/questionnaire)
- Equity Resources
- Inequity and College Applications: Assessing Differences and Disparities in Letters of Recommendation from School Counselors with Natural Language Processing | EdWorkingPapers (Brown Unviersity)
- Avoiding Gender Bias in Reference Writing (University of Arizona)
- Do’s and Don’ts of Writing Recommendation Letters | Center for Research and Fellowships (Georgetown University)
- Best Practices for Reading and Writing Letters of Recommendation (Lehigh University)
- Gender Bias Calculator (TomForth.Co.Uk)
- Gender-Bias calculator (Github)
- Bias-Free Letters of Recommendation: MD Education: Feinberg School of Medicine (Northwestern University)
- Efficiency Resources
- Google “Save As” Form Publisher (autofills student questionnaire responses from a spreadsheet onto your school letterhead)
- AI Recommendation Writing Resources (2023 NACAC Presentation)
- 2022-23 College Recommendation Requirements (College Transition)