Dear Mr. Bradshaw,

I am finalizing my college application and I need to ask for teacher recommendations. Who should I ask?

Since teachers and counselors are busy this time of year, I always suggest asking for recommendations at least a month in advance. You should check with your school counselor to see if there are school policies that put limitations on student requests for recommendations and make sure that you meet all timing deadlines.

Depending on the application being used the process varies. Typically, the application services used by colleges are: The Common Application, The Coalition Application, The Universal Application and The Naviance Application. If your school uses Naviance, the counselor’s office typically takes care of recommendations. Some individual colleges may require that you apply directly online.

Regardless of which service you use, I recommend compiling a resume of your academic and extracurricular activities. You may also want to add a letter noting an anecdotal story that will embellish your application content. By doing this, you can be sure that your application will differentiate you in some meaningful way from the thousands that admissions offices receive.

Remember that even if all of the colleges you are applying to accept the Common Application their specific entrance requirements may not be the same! For example, does your target school require certain SAT Subject Tests? You need to gather this information so you can plan your testing schedule.