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is going about the secret to winning college recommendation letters so we've been getting this a lot uh especially if you are uh possibly in the maybe list and you were requested to send additional information one of those information could be a college recommendation letter also uh if you are private applying to private schools then this is also probably really important because they typically require that upfront if you're applying to some Public Schools they might not request it upfront they would only request it if you were put on that kind of maybe a pile there where they'll ask you for additional essays and also the the letter Rex so let's dig into it uh what we're going to cover today is a little bit about why these recommendation letters matter we're going to talk about how to ask for a recommendation letter and also what are the key elements to know that if the letter is strong also we'll talk about the common mistakes and how to avoid them and lastly we'll end it with some Q&A so uh quick background for myself is that I used to be a former UC Berkeley admissions Outreach coordinator and instructor where I taught classes on how to get into graduate school I went to different high schools across California to teach about how to get into college and so know that for myself I was trained in the admissions office with coach Tony which is actually where we met secondly uh fun fact is that I was a full R scholar for UC Berkle for undergrad and graduate school if you missed it uh last week I did this training or was it two weeks ago two weeks ago I did a training about how I got a full ride scholarship so definitely um check out the Replay for that and also by way of background in terms of my own training I used to work in K through2 education policy worked in attech and also was an adiss and now currently an admissions adviser and uh quick housekeeping if uh if you don't mind just share your high school graduation year in the chat just so I know who I'm talking to in this room and throughout the entire time you're with me you can just drop the questions in the Q&A box uh lastly replay and notes will be available in 40 hours and so you can always text our team to be able to get access to that all right so let's go ahead and get started on first off why recommendation letters matter so uh P though first off always doing this warm-up question any idea about our letters of recommendations always reviewed when submitted yes or no does anyone have any ideas on that do you think that they're always re they're always reviewed or are they not once you receive them any thoughts or ideas here from the group we might have a little bit of a small group SL group here yes question mark any other thoughts or ideas all right so the answer to this is actually yes okay so remember that when it comes to college missions they do something called a comprehensive review process and this comprehensive review process what it means is that they have to review everything that is submitted meaning that if they um if you submit your activities you submit your academics whatever it is they're going to review it and that means that there's no like particular threshold or like cut off for GPA for example that tends to be the kind of uh typical myth that people think that oh I need to be a certain GPA in order to get in well that's not the case in in reality they do look at everything so that uh in case there is something else aside from the academics that might matter so same goes for letter Rex they'll always look at the letter Rex if they are submitted so remember that in terms of what the admissions officers are looking for right they're looking for particular key attributes that you might fit into or your student might fit into and the goal right is that for yourself you want to connect the dots for them you want to make it easy and accessible and understandable that they uh that you are the profile that they're looking for within their school and this not only applies to just uh College admissions but remember this might apply to scholarships this might apply to summer programs or anything else that might request an essay a letter wreck or anything of that sort so the goal is for you to understand what exactly are they looking for and typically we always know from the admission side they want to understand your leadership experience they want to understand that your academics can you handle the college rigor they want to understand are you driven do you actually know what is it that you want to do later on in the future and that do you can you actually explain and articulate why is it that you want to go down this path so the goal is right for you to show that you are this well-rounded applicant who understands why you want to apply to college what you want to major in and how are you able to know that based off what you're currently doing and that's showing the initiative so the letter Rex right are important in this because they complete that particular picture in general right I always see like asking for letter Rex is a good thing um some students might react negatively when they see like oh I need to submit also letters of wre and another essay that just means that they need more information on you that they just didn't get enough on so that is a sign that they are interested in you but you just didn't do a good job enough to really connect the dots for them so when you see the letter Rec requirement or the recommend there that just means that you um just needed to uh depict a part that maybe you weren't able to clearly articulate enough so the way to think about it right if you know what they're looking for and you submitted an application but you were requested to send additional information then the question becomes why did they do that why did they ask me to submit another letter of recommendation and it's possible that you're missing something or they just need to validate whether the things that you saying is something that is uh very is actually true and so in terms of the letter recommendations they're really made to help externally validate whether do you have the right character the work ethic the leadership potential to really be able to uh be admitted to this University so they're asking for this additional information because they didn't get this sense from you when they were reading your resume for the first time or your activities or your academic uh grades so for example if you know for certain that your grades weren't the best or you didn't have the best classes or whatever that the case and you got requested to submit a letter wreck well in that case then it's kind of a probably an easy thing to guess or assume that you just didn't have the enough academic rigor to really get through to the final yes right away and in that case right the external validation is to be able to understand do you have the academic rigor to successfully graduate from this University it's not just about being able to get in but can you actually graduate on time it's possible that you have amazing academics and you just didn't have enough like activities in your uh application and you should be able to know that based off of like what you submitted if you were to like kind of review and think about what is it that like happened um with your own application and what you sent over you might be able to guess like oh I know that for sure that I didn't have any leadership experiences on my resume or my activities and I kind of could have probably done a better job to articulate that so for this letter recommendation I'm going to focus on the validation that I do have leadership potential so those are the things that you want to think about right you want to imagine you're in the admission seat and you're trying to evaluate your own application if you were to be super critical about yourself or super critical about your student what is it that you would say that is your weakest opport your weakest area or what is your biggest opportunity for growth and that's what you want to double down on you want to be able to cover the gaps that you think that you don't necessarily have in your what's already covered in your application covered in your academics or your activities okay second thing is the differentiation from other students what's nice about the letter Rex right is that it's going uh it's coming from a place where um people uh other adults are able to Advocate on your behalf and in this case like not a lot of other students are going to get that same adult so that being said right um being able to differentiate yourself from other students you might want to think about who are the particular uh adults in my life that could be able to refer to that no one no other students can possibly be able to do so for example like what if you were one of the few people that got a letter wck from your principal from your superintendent from your vice principal or something of that sort that will give you a Competitive Edge because no one else can be able to really get that same one if you notice that there is other students that are like all the students are asking for a letter Rec from the same person usually we see this like from one counselor or something of that sort and that might not be the best person to get it from potentially because even though they might be really good at writing it it's possible that you're not going to be able to differentiate yourself because it's likely that if a uh if a counselor is writing for multiple people or adult is writing for multiple people then in that case it might sound generic and that's something that we'll talk about in terms of the common mistakes that we typically see when people ask for a letter wreck and lastly the important thing is the more control over narrative meaning because it's more additional information you're able to have more substance about you meaning that letter rexs are really great because they provide more context more depth about you as an applicant and so if you to work with the work with somebody that can help you develop that narrative then that becomes even more powerful like for example let's just say that you have a lot of leadership experiences but you uh notice that you might be lacking a little bit more about the specific subject matter so so let's say you have a lot of leadership experiences but you are lacking um you're applying to engineering and you don't have enough like engineering experiences or activities then like can you ask your internship supervisor or an engineering teacher or like a um uh engineering like supervisor like someone that um is like the supervisor of a of a of a club at the high school for engineering that might be somebody that you can rely on to help you control your narrative and close that Gap that I talked about because they can be able to speak directly to that specific thing that you want to improve on for your entire entirety of your application so all of this right in a sense your letters Rec is a way for you to be strategic and so you don't want to just ask for any letter wreck you want to be mindful and be very um intentional about who you're requesting a letter wreck from so um but before we go into letter Rec though there is a there's a few things that we need to to make sure that we do um first off diagnosing your Gap so this is what what I was mentioning earlier which is what is the gap that you're trying to cover is it that you're lacking academic rigor do you have low grades that you need to explain do you have some type of um did you not take enough AP courses uh did you have like a missing area within your academics where like one semester you did very poorly what is the gap that you think that you can be able to address in this particular part the second part is the leadership right is it that maybe you've been involved uh with your clubs generally but you just don't have a very specific like leadership experience that you can talk to so maybe the person that's writing a letter W can talk about how you were able to um play a pivotal or a huge contribution towards a community or club or something of that sort or is it like the related field as I was telling you about about the engineering example right what if you don't have enough particular experiences within that field that you're applying to and remember that for the admissions officers for us we wanted to understand like if you're really interested in applying to this particular um major how do you know that right and also if uh not only do you you think that you want to study this but do do others also think that you're a good fit can someone actually speak to the matter of like the good fit that you are to this major and maybe that could be a really great thing imagine if you were to get an internship and and you're able to um get an internship within I know the medical field it would be really amazing for like a doctor or somebody of a medical field to say like oh I worked with this person very closely I've seen their potential and I think that they'll be a huge contribution to the medical field if they were given the opportunity to study more about it that would be an amazing kind of uh connection or being strategic about like who it is that you can talk to secondly timing matters meaning that you uh you don't want to ask for someone for a letter wreck like the weeks before it's due sometimes it might be a rush because if you're requested to send a letter recommendation sometimes they might give you like two three months turnaround time which is very like short notice and so in that way right you want to try to get it like as soon as possible you want to ask as as soon as you can and also you want to Prime them right meaning that you don't want to just all of a sudden think about who to ask when it comes to you but keep in mind to yourself who are the individual people that you think that would be a good fit for you to let a letter a recommendation and just keep that in mind for yourself right you don't have to ask them right away when you think about them but just keep like a mental list of who are the right individuals and then you could be able to uh reach out to them when the time comes and if you know that you're applying to private schools right then uh you know that you would have to do it for the beginning of the application season so try to prime it as early as the beginning of this year even right now is a good time if you are a junior and you are currently going to apply this upcoming November it might be a good idea to start asking people right now or asking teachers or your adults to see if they would be comfortable to do that and we'll talk about how to request it in in just a bit but when you're choosing the right recomend uh recommender you want a few things to um criteria they want that they should fulfill one experience with you they should have be able to have deep relationship with you and and and depth is like really important here you don't want just somebody just because they have a great fancy title like a principal or a vice principal or something of that sort you want someone who can really show that they have a good knowledge about you about your experiences about your background and like what makes you like a strong candidate you want to be able to have someone that can talk at the level of death that nobody else can in the room so like like a kind of lim Miss test is if you were to think about all the teachers all the adults in your school who is that one person that would advocate for you or advocate for your child and that person is probably the one that would be the best fit for you in this case right because they are the one that has a true understanding of your potential second is writing capability this is something that not a lot of people really realize or think about and when I mean writing capability I mean have you seen their writing before I know this is kind of hard to hard to kind of understand like English teachers typically like you know that they'll be okay to write but like the ones that I would be very careful about is like for example Sports coaches is uh is one of them uh again there's nothing wrong about sports coaches and they're they're all great uh folks especially but the thing is like um you haven't necessarily been able to see any like writing documents or things that come out of like their uh of them of their like effort and so you kind of usually see it with English teachers because they have to produce papers they I mean they're teaching you how to write stuff and they would probably know how to articulate these things but like if you were to ask like a and it doesn't have to be a PE like coach or teacher or whatever but also take consideration of like the Math teachers and the science teachers and so forth like do they uh have you like even seen like how they write because and this this might be a very uncomfortable question to be because you don't want to just ask them like hey can you can you write well but more so like do you feel confident in their ability to articulate these ideas right do you feel confident that they can be a strong advocate for you so this doesn't just have to be a writing right but can they speak to you in a way that feels very thoughtful and thought-provoking can they be able to articulate their ideas in a very concise and very compelling way those are things that you want to look out for when they speak about other things or other people and in ways right really you're being able to try to understand what is can they be a strong advocate in writing and lastly is relationship right this goes to uh show I mean this is kind of one of those no-brainer obvious kind of things but you want to make sure that you have a relationship with them and that you are nurturing the relationship throughout this whole entire time that they are someone that you can trust if you feel like someone can speak poorly about you then don't choose them of course right you want to feel like you can trust this person to be able to go back and forth with them that you feel comfortable to let them know that hey this is something I want you to talk about and do you feel comfortable about talking about that with about me if you can have a two-way conversation with that person then that's a good lus test that that is probably a good relationship to have but if it's like a one-way relationship where like you feel kind of uncomfortable or discomfort just trying to talk to this person then that probably doesn't make sense to have that person to write the Rel recommendation so just be very um mindful in terms of like what does that relationship feel like to you and do you trust them to be able to write good things about you because there has been instances where letter Rex we might sometimes see like oh this person actually did not really recommend this person or they just did a very poor job so just be careful about who you're asking all right so let's go into the next part which is the temperature check okay uh so when you make a request don't just clearly go up to them and be like hey can you write my letter of recommendation right you want to get a temperature check and what I mean by temperature check is you want to like test the waters it's kind of like when you dip your foot in the in the pool and you want to see how cold or hot it is right you don't want to just plunge yourself in uh and so the kind of way that you might want a frame it is hey like would you feel comfortable writing me a strong that a recommendation for my college applications I really valid your class and I believe that you can highlight XYZ in a way that could stand out to admissions officers the way that this is like kind of framed here right it's asking if there would be comfortable right because if you ask them like will you write me a letter wreck you will either just get a yes or a no and you know it's possible that that no uh usually you might get more nose like right off the bat because they are not even sure if they can even write about you just yet and you're asking for the level of comfort because you want to understand if they're not comfortable or they they feel comfortable but they need you or but not entirely comfortable then what is it that you need to give them or to support them in order to get to that level of comfort generally speaking right with the adults that I imagine that you're asking letters of record from they would support you they want to support you but do they actually feel comfortable to write about it right that's two different issues uh yes they will be down to support you but are they really feeling comfortable to write about it and that's where we go into this part about creating a brag sheet which is super important a brag sheet is a pretty much a sheet where you can list down your accomplishments your leadership roles and your college or career goals I forgot to put College there but essentially with this um brag sheet it's a think of it as like a cheat sheet for your letter recom recommender to write about you because you want to have them highlight certain things about you and again this goes back to the whole idea of uh about being able to manage your narrative or control your narrative if you create a bra sheet that has very specific points about what your Gap is and what you want them to be able to talk about then that's great that gives them more information to intentional about what is it that they should be focusing on so again the more information that you give them the more successful that they will be to be able to write about you and so don't forget to create this Brad sheet or give it to them and they they're not going to ask for it okay like if you were to even ask them like hey would it be helpful if I gave you this that be like oh yeah know it's fine not a big deal whatever don't don't fall into that trap okay because if you just let them write about anything that they think then how are you going to know what are they going to actually write about and will they write about the things that are part of that Gap that we told you about right remember that there's attributes they're looking for are you able to speak to all these attributes and is this person that is writing for you are they like reinforcing that particular attribute so creating break sheeet is going to be a super important step so uh going to an example letter okay uh this is I'll read this out loud and then we can oh I think I skipped this slide oh now this one's the slide okay let's read this example letter here which is uh to whom am may concern I am pleased to recommend John Smith for ad missions to your college John was a student in my English class and he did well in his coursework he was always on time turning his assignments and got good grades he was a quiet student but respectful and responsible John is a hard worker and I believe he will do well in college if you have any questions feel free to reach out sincerely Mr Johnson all right we love to hear from the group uh now that our group got a bit bigger what are folks' reactions to this particular letter any ideas here any ideas about how folks might react to this completely average I love I love that very generic okay nice okay so far yes completely average very generic very basic no detail all right and I see some folks writing in the chat for the hosted panelist but it' be good for everyone else to see as well so yes everything what everyone said is right uh uh not so detailed not no examples yes exactly so uh let me go into the uh like what what uh we see here is like yes the one is is that's too generic there's no specific details about John skills or personalities there's a lack of enthusiasm here it just feels like it's kind of forced right please to recommend is lukewarm of best no personal connection it feels like a template right it's not like there's a real example here about like how did it actually talk to uh John and also it doesn't really showcase the impact either right um they're just kind of speaking generically about how he made a difference but not really anything specific here so let's read another letter here uh actually not not before going to letter let's assume that you gave a bra sheet right to the uh to your letter recommender so um this is what you might provide them right you talk about how you contributed to the course you talked about how you were a top performer you developed an independent research paper about social justice movements you conducted interviews about with local activists and also uh your work was selected in the uh publication for schools of literacy and also you demonstrate that you participate a lot some other things that you might let them know like hey and this is a good reminder that teachers don't always know what you're involved in you can't assume that they actually understand what you want to study what you want to do in your career or what you want yeah or what you're involved in at school and so you might want to remind them like hey by the way I'm also involved in many different things I'm the editor and chief in the school newspaper uh this is my impact I also was part of a speech and debate team member uh this I actually won a tournament and also I was a creative writing Club president which I've helped many different students some other information I might tell them is like hey uh here's my personal strengths and work ethic that I think I have as a critical thinker strong communicator and so forth and also I'm very passionate about um like storytelling journalism media advocacy and my future goals is to go and study journalism or English and uh potentially maybe go down a career of being a journalist or editor uh and also what's nice here as well which I think is like extremely important is why did I choose you for this letter right and uh a part of a brsh sheet also is to be like bragging also about the teacher that you decided to choose as well right you wanted to show like hey I feel like I have a deep relationship with you I feel like I really care about you and this is the reason why I feel like we have a strong relationship it's because your class really helped me change uh or challenge me deeply about how storytelling and its impact you really encourage me to push beyond the basics in research and writing and also you see my grow you see my growth firsthand and you can speak to my work ethic and Leadership you're pretty much not just bragging yourself you're bragging them you're bragging like why they are like your most trusted adult and it is a privilege and an honor to be able to like uh to be asked to write my letter wreck and when you make it personal when you make this information like um feel like you're the only person who I can ask at this school they have such a larger like kind of determination to do even better for you so don't just go out and just like ask anybody but make the person that you're asking feel like they're the only person that can write about this by doing that you can really uh develop a more indepth kind of uh engagement throughout this entire time so uh here's a new letter okay imagine that you got that brag sheet and uh we were able to rewrite the letter it is my pleasure to strongly recommend John Smith for the admission to your University as his English teacher for two years I've had the privilege of watching John grow into an exceptional student and leader both in and outside of the classroom what makes John stand out is his ability to think critically and creatively during our class independent research project John chose to explore impact of Storytelling on social justice movements not only did he write compelling analyses but he also took the initiative to interview local activists weaving in in weaving their insights into his paper in a way that demonstrated maturity Beyond his years his work was later selected for publication in our school's liter literary journal a rare honor reserved for the top 2% of students Beyond academics John is a natural leader as the editor of our school newspaper he revitalized the publication by introducing a digital Edition increasing leaders leadership by 40% his ability to collaborate with pier and Mentor uh Young Writers uh speaks to his strong communication skills and dedication to ex Excellence John is a kind student who not only excels individually but also elevates those around him his intellectual curiosity resilience and Leadership will become an asset to your University I give them my highest recommendation without hesitation please feel free to contact me if you require any further information okay all right thoughts reactions what do you folks think about this particular letter here what are some noticings do folks like this more is it better than the first one numbers and metrics yes wow lots of great examples okay okay very specific yep definitely the case there all right uh using yep yep that's definitely all the great things there so uh definitely this is definitely a stronger case here and the things that we kind of observed was it shows enthusiasm right uh it my pleasure to strong uh strongly recommend it shows that this person is like much more engaged provides specific examples of the research project activism leash your role in the newspaper highlights personal qualities as well it's not just about the accomplishments that they uh were able to produce they also demonstrated like the characteristics of that person and connects to show the impact there is much more to it than just grades right uh the whole point of college admissions isn't just about academics remember the whole point of understanding the fit to a university is not that you are the best student ever but it's the fact that you will contribute towards the culture of the University so again when you're thinking about the person that can write your letter a wreck it's about thinking about that person who can speak to that character that can speak to how you could be a cultural fit for that University uh uh and felt it was sincere and yeah that was definitely the case there great great comments everyone and so what makes the letter powerful okay uh so one is that there should be a lot of more specific examples not just like hey this person is a great student but he led a project that improved our schools recycling program by 50% okay and of course actually Define what the 50% means but again you're not writing the letter recommendation right you're uh just trying to be able to understand who can speak to these specifics okay if you uh don't think your adults or the people in your uh in your school can speak to the specifics then you got to give it to them you got to spoon feed them on the brag sheet what exactly can they highlight second thing a personal touch admission officers want to see real insights into your personality so it's not just a matter of like you're a robot you can get all A's you're doing a whole bunch of activities but being able to see like who are you more than just a number right what is the kind of impact that the insights that someone can say about you and lastly alignment with your application your letter should reinforce restraints and not just repeat your resume so remember going back to the very first slides about do they actually read your letter Rex yes they always read it and the thing is it's a comprehensive review meaning that if they read your letter wreck they're read They're reading the whole entire application so for those who don't know if you are requested to send a letter of recommendation again uh you're going to be they're going to be reviewing everything with it again so you don't want to restate anything that's new you want to say new information so that being said you want to make sure that um your uh letter recommendation isn't just like uh repeating everything right uh that you've already listed but to be able to share a new light about you because again they're asking for a letter wreck because you didn't share enough information about a particular thing so uh to guide your uh letter recommender right uh you obviously can't reach out you can't write your own letter some might say like oh just write a letter wreck and then I'll sign off on it I that's technically unethical there I don't think that's really the right thing to do but some people might say that like hey I'll just sign off whatever letter wreck that you want me to do uh some adults might say that they might do that um and so that's up to you if you want to follow that along but uh generally speaking you're not going to be the one to write it uh second um you want to uh make sure that you frame it to them about what exactly are the college is looking for in terms of characteristics but also what's the Gap that you're trying to close for them so if you already know that colleges are looking for leadership intellectual curiosity resilience teamwork and all these other things what do you want them to be able to uh talk about specifically so for example if you're applying for engineering program a math teacher should talk about your problem solving skills not just your test scores it's not about like someone boasting about how you got A's in their class because they already see that from your transcript they want to see about how did you get to those A's okay what are the characteristics of qualities that helped you get that high score so remember that don't emphasize on just the um the particular outcome that you've already displayed in your activities or in your uh grades but display the kind of character and processes that you've conducted yourself or that you demonstrated uh that is a good fit towards the university so uh quick common sticks here right in terms of what we typically see as an issue for a lot of these letter recommendations is one the biggest one is the lack of guidance to recommender so many students don't give enough information to the adults in the room and I know firsthand like when I get asked to be a letter recommender uh it's like one of those things of like a I only know so much about you we've only talked about like six times maybe or like we only had like so many Communications with each other and you want me to write this really big letter of recommendation like like I don't think I even feel that confident to write about you right and it's one of those things where if you were to give me more things to write about then that would be super much easier and uh I've also been asked to like be a um uh what's it called like one of those a referral like sometimes people would ask me to like be a referral for them when they apply to a job and they want me to speak on their character well the thing is I don't know what job they're applying to I don't know what particular like things they're trying to talk about for themselves or what they want me to highlight and I have no clue like what like how should I be responding what is what is it that like if I I want to support you but I don't know what what say so again give give the recommenders something to work off of second is choosing the wrong person okay when it comes to choosing the wrong person usually the typical mistakes is that you're choosing someone who can't really articulate well about you either because they don't have a strong foundation for writing and or also they just don't feel that connected to you and that can sometimes be an issue you want to make sure that someone is taking this seriously and so maybe a good another good litmus test right is do they understand how important it is for you to get into college right so that is something that you should have conversations with them on a regular basis to make sure that they are truly on the same page as you and that goes in the last part about not fostering relationship with adults too many high school students go through high school without even really trying to communicate or like get to know the other teachers uh or adults on the campus and that can backfire on you especially once you get to junior year or senior year and next you know you realize that you need a letter of recommendation and you don't even have anyone to rely on so get to know the adults in the in the building get to know the adults that can potentially support you in long-term future because you want everyone on your side and so the kinds of people that you might want to think about who are the teachers who are the counselors who are the principles or assistant principles that you could talk to on your campus and don't just think about on campus think off campus too if you're working aart time job if you're working for an internship if you're working for a nonprofit there's a lot of other people that can speak to you uh I get this question sometimes like can parents or uncles and aunts like be the ones who write it I don't really recommend it but I mean you could but again like you want them you want to see if there's someone that can speak to you speak about you on in unbiased like kind of perspective right so it'd be kind of awkward to all of a sudden get a letter of recommendation from your mom or dad you know it's kind of like one of those things like a course they're going to speak about all these highly good things have someone that you actually worked with professionally or academically all right so uh next we're going to go into the resources and next steps I hope that was helpful for everyone and after I do the resources next steps then we can go into Q&A so first off uh if you want the notes in the replay right and folks feel like this was helpful uh text notes and replay to 949 775 0865 and uh this notes and replays will be available in 48 hours so uh please be patient as we upload it onto our website so that way people can be able to access it second thing is we do have a freebie of a brag sheet resource so the brag sheet is what can help you not only just uh give this to the letter recommenders but this is also good for your um activities list as well so if you're a freshman or sophomore or and you're prepping your application or even a junior when you're about to start really start writing your application now uh take advantage of this brag sheeet to start documenting everything that you've done because that way by the time you start writing an application it's going to be so easy for you to be able to just plug and play everything that you've done so use the spreadsheet use it as a way to be able to share it with your letter recommenders and also use it for your own completion of your application second thing Juniors 2026 uh uh Juniors right now we are starting our College app intensive very soon in April which is next month so if you haven't already uh first off if you're in our family programs or coaching programs be sure to uh message Us in Discord if you haven't reserved a spot and we will be able to get you like um RSVP if you are not a part of our coaching family then check out collegea intensive.com or text intensive for more information about this this is where students can come in learn about how to write a strong personal statement or personal Insight questions at the very beginning so that way they're not lost throughout the summer and then by the end of the uh summer we're going to have accelerator which is where you can join us in person or virtually where you'll have your completed finy drafts by then so definitely uh come through and be able to take advantage of this resource because we because you shouldn't be working on your applications and in 12th grade when you're starting school you want to get this done during the summer time ALS Al if you are new to uh our webinars and this is your first time attending welcome and uh uh so we always offer free 15-minute assessment coaching calls for every single family that is new to the community this is totally free nothing's for sale you can't buy anything on the call if you really wanted to and the goal is just to be able to figure out where exactly are you in your journey and also to provide you recommendations on what you can do to raise your chances to get into the colleges of your dreams so definitely take advantage of that and also so we have our newsletter if you haven't uh registered for it just yet go to College admission secrets. or text news to the same number right and this is where we share weekly information about something uh useful resources maybe scholarships maybe opportunities like one we talked about the musty steps for college success this spring we talked about uh what helped a uh family get into USC and Northeastern or summer programs like definitely take advantage of this this will be in your inbox and plus what's great about email inboxes it'll just stay in there so you can be able to just refer to it when you need to so again this is a recap of the things that you can text for the free resources so definitely take advantage of that all right okay now let's go into the Q&A I see a lot that has built up okay questions um most colleges want two core academic letters my child's best leadership is in band and if they ask for two academic letters is it okay to send two core letters Plus the band recommend uh recommendation [Music] uh I would say it's if they're saying academic letters then that means that they want to understand will the student be able to handle the amount of college rigor at a university so that being said uh unless this person unless your child is actually studying for music in some way then I might try to look at the other CL classes that actually relate more to the um this the particular field they're interested in studying so if they're more of like a stem field then I would go more into the stem area of course you know no letter wreck is better than a letter than having a letter wreck is better than no letter wreck and also if this person is like really the best person to be able to like to request from then it doesn't hurt to still have it so it's a little bit of a Nuance answerer ideally I would say like try to go into like whatever the fields that they are studying in if they are requesting for academic letters okay don't letters of recck have to come from core subject teachers I.E Not Elected teachers not or not robotics coach who isn't a teacher uh no it doesn't actually uh quite matter who it is again it's about what are they asking for what are they like trying to learn more about is the subject or the substance so it doesn't necessarily need to always come from one particular core subject or teacher even with the last question right I'm only saying that it's about the content that they're able to produce if they can speak to the academic rigor or like what they've learned and how did they how well they did in those courses then those are the things that we would want them to um uh who to rely on next question if we want to major in computer science or engineering and need a letter recommendation in a related class there's a limited choices of teachers since really just since really need to be junior year teacher so what is more important teacher that can write well or subject being physics or math if we want okay there's a limited number of teachers what matters more teachers that can write well or subject being physics or math I mean it's kind of like one of those things like you kind of ideally want both in a way where like you want them to be the ones that speak to the uh the subject that you are going to study in in the future and also that could write well uh so in ways that's where the trade-off is right at the end of the day it's whoever that could speak the best about you so I would prioritize the teacher who can write better rather than just the physics or math teacher because they think of this way is that if you think that your physics or math teacher can't write too well about you or can't go in depth then that rela wreck might just be useless right because it doesn't add any substance just because you get a letter wck that is from a physics teacher doesn't mean that it's better it's only good based off the content that they're able to speak about you so again like really focus on who can go in depth with you is the most important thing okay some other questions here should letters of uh recommendation be written differently for summer programs versus college applications would you highlight different information on bra sheet or is it essentially the same uh it depends on the prompt right usually for summer programs they're asking for something very specific so uh try to understand what the requirements are remember that one slide I was sharing there's certain attributes they're looking for so just make sure that there are those particular attributes are understood and heard and then make sure that the letter re speak to those particular attributes that that the summer program might be looking for typically the bra sheeet is majority majority probably the same anyways there probably isn't going to be a major difference in the bra sheet itself unless you are trying to be very specific in what is it that you want to communicate okay uh next question is a brag sheeet the same as a resume uh yes or no right a resume is like here are certain experiences and here is like what I did during those professional or volunteer experiences the bra sheet also might talk about what is it that you want me to talk about uh what why is it that I'm choosing you as a uh using you as a as a as a reader or sorry as a letter recommender or it might even talk about the specific characteristics that uh that I have so the characteristics is the other addition that is different from what is typical from a resume should Juniors begin requesting letters in Spring then follow up with the Brack sheeet in senior year fall yes they should uh you want to get a good temperature check early on you don't want to be ending up like uh starting the new school year and Senior year and then you ask for the letter wreck and the next you know you're like oh no like I got to find and rush to has somebody and the goal isn't to ask them to write a letter right right right away but it's to get a temperature check about hey um I'm probably going to be lighting writing needing a letter recommendation in like half a year just kind of curious like do you think you'd feel comfortable to write about that all right and um in terms of uh uh we have a family here asking to register their child as we are part of the program uh please uh message us on Discord uh again this is a webinar so I can't really like be able to follow up on that so if you are part of our program uh message us in our your Discord Channel if you need to register for the college app intensive okay all right any other final questions from this group going once going twice all right so thank you everyone for uh participating in today's webinar I hope you all found it useful and looking forward to seeing youall next week all right take care and have a great night bye