Letters of Recommendation 

Not all colleges require or even accept letters of recommendation. Check each school's application materials to see if they require or even accept letters of recommendation. If they do, think seriously about who will write your letters of recommendation for college.

You should have at least 1 letter from a teacher who can speak to your strengths in an academically rigorous course. You should also have at least 1 letter from another teacher who knows you well. Ideally, these are teachers you've taken class with for at least 1 full school year already. You should start asking for letters at the end of your junior year. 

Steps:

1. Fill out a detailed brag sheet. You will give this brag sheet to your letter writer if they agree to write you a strong letter of recommendation.
   1. If you are asking a counselor, you will fill out the Common Application Counselor Brag Sheet. 
   2. If you are asking a teacher, you will fill out the Common Application Teacher Brag Sheet. 
2. Ask your potential letter writer if they are comfortable writing you a strong letter of recommendation 
3. Give your letter writers a copy of your brag sheet
4. Give your letter writer at least 1 month to write your letter 
5. Thank your letter writer 

For Colleges Applied to on Websites and CommonApp

How to request a letter of recommendation on Xello:  

• From the Student Dashboard, under Goals & Plans, students click College Planning. 
• Under College Applications, they select the institution to which they’d like a letter sent. 
• If the institution isn't visible at the top of the list, they click View My Applications to open their full list of college applications. 
• Under the Application Checklist, they find Recommendation Letters. 
• To the right, they click Request to open the Add Referrer page. 
• After filling out the referrer’s name and email address, they click Next. 
• They are prompted to write a personal note with a minimum of 100 characters. 
• Helpful tips are included in the Need Help? section to foster ideas on what to include in the note. 
• Students can opt to attach a resume or brag sheet. 
• To finish sending the request, the student clicks Send. 
• The next page is the Application Checklist. Students click on Recommendation Letters to view the updated progress of the letter. 

Requesting a Teacher Evaluation or Recommendation Letter for a Common App
A teacher evaluation is a recommendation letter or recommendation form. Students use Xello to request Teacher Evaluations for Common App colleges. Teachers only need to fill this out once for it to be sent to every Common App college the student has saved. Make sure the letter is specific to the student’s accomplishments and not to the institution. 

How to request a Teacher Evaluation on Xello:

• From their Student Dashboard, under Goals & Plans, students click College Planning. 
• Click View My Applications to see the full list of colleges they’re tracking. 
• Click on a college with the Common App logo to open a brief profile of that college. 
• Next to Teacher Evaluations, they click Request to open the list of every educator at their school in Xello.  
• If the option for Teacher Evaluation is not there, that may mean the college does not want a recommendation.  
• They choose the referrer they'd like and click Select to begin filling out the Teacher Evaluation request. 
• Once finished, they click Send and are returned to the college page. 
• A banner at the top of the page indicates success. 

Adding a Due Date to a Recommendation Letter Request

Students can opt to add a due date to the request for a Recommendation Letter. This due date will be shown on their Application Checklist, on your Educator Tools under Recommendation Letters, and directly in the letter to the referrer. This gives students greater freedom and control over their own application tracking process. 

How students add a custom due date to a request: 

• From the correct institution, under the Application Checklist, they find Recommendation Letters. 
• To the right, they click the Options dropdown and select Add Due Date. 

Click to enlarge 

• They select the correct date and click Save. 
• The due date will now show in the same line as Recommendation Letters on their Application Checklist, in the letter sent to the referrer, and in your Educator Tools. 

Don't forget to make sure that your resume is on Common App/Xello and or you have your Brag Sheet ready to go when you are asking someone! They may "know you" but they may not know everything, and the more they can brag about, the BETTER!