Letters of Recommendation: A Necessity or No?

There are many essential components to a college application, and one of these essential components is a letter of recommendation. Letters of recommendation are just one of several components of a college application, and it takes a certain type of letter in order to do the trick.

Who to Ask?

It is important to ask the right person to fill out your letter of recommendation for you. Many schools have a questionnaire that they would like filled out by the person in question, whereas most schools prefer that letters be submitted in order to best gauge the person's personal reaction to the student in question.

Ask anybody who you feel can give a good impression of how you are as a student and what your future holds. Old mentors, bosses, your first grade teacher that you still keep in contact with-these will all help you to have a strong letter of recommendation that mattes to college entrance officials.

Don't ask someone who you should have to coach on what to say; they should already know what it is about you that make you such a good candidate, and that will come through in their letter.

What Should it Say?

A college recommendation letter should never be full of a bunch of lies, or unnecessary information. Yale does not care whether or not people liked you or not, or whether or not you played football in high school. They care about your leadership qualities, dedication, and your promising (or not so promising) future in academics. Your letter of recommendation should reflect this to its fullest, and not other extraneous information that nobody wants to hear. It can only hurt your case.

Keep it short and sweet. Who you are, what you stand for, what makes you a good candidate, and other relevant information is all that is necessary to have on a professional letter will suffice.

Keep in Mind

Keep in mind that even colleges that do not request letters of recommendation will usually accept them. Don't send a letter from everybody you know; just one or two professionals or close mentors who realize your potential and would like to aid in your college admissions process will be quite enough.

College applications are not complete without a letter of recommendation. They can really make or break your application, so be sure to do them right the firs time and they can greatly help your chances of getting into the school of your choice.