I'm a professor in a STEM field, I teach one of the required sequence courses in the major, and I'm an advisor. As a result, I write 50-100 letters of recommendation each year. These are mostly for students who wish to go to graduate school, but also for scholarships, internships, and honors society memberships. The numbers of mistakes these students make in just requesting the letters from me makes me wonder what other skills they are missing.
My daughter has her eye on a few summer camps that require applications that include teacher recommendations. She got her first lesson today on how to make the request.
A few thoughts on requesting letters:
*Requests come from the student, not the parent. If the request comes by email, it needs to come from the child's email address. The email request MUST be written as a formal letter.
*Ask if the teacher has the time and is willing to write the letter.
*Provide the teacher with sufficient information on the camp, internship, or program so that he or she can appropriately tailor the comments. Including a web link in the request is appropriate.
*Never, ever, wait until the last minute. Teachers need at least a week for a simple letter (~1 paragraph) and more like a month for more extended letters particularly if it's a time of year they are writing many letters for multiple students.
*Ask what other information they need from you. Do they need a copy of test scores or grades? Do they want to see your essays for the application?
For example,
Dear Ms. Teacher,
I'd like to go to this camp next summer (here's a link). The application requires a recommendation form from a teacher. Are you willing to write this recommendation for me, and do you have time? It's due January 31.
If you are able to write me this recommendation for me, I'll bring you the form in class tomorrow. Please let me know if you need to know anything more.
Thank you,
Student Name
5th period science