The student’s application already contains grades, activities, and essays. Your task is to supply a credible outside perspective on how the student learns, grows, and contributes.
Stay in your strongest lane
Teachers should emphasize intellectual and classroom observation. Counselors can integrate the student’s broader trajectory and institutional context. Either writer may describe character, but the evidence should arise from the relationship actually held.
Choose scenes, not labels
Instead of calling a student curious, describe the question that extended a unit. Instead of calling them resilient, show the revision, new strategy, or changed behavior after difficulty.
- Situation or assignment
- Student action
- Result or change
- What the moment revealed
- Why it matters for college
Add context with care
Explain course rigor, school opportunities, family or work responsibilities, or an unusual trajectory only when relevant and appropriate to share. Avoid turning context into speculation or disclosing sensitive information without permission.
Make the closing do real work
Connect the supported qualities to the way the student is likely to contribute in college. State the level of recommendation clearly and submit through the Common App recommender system.
A distinctive Common App letter contributes a viewpoint the rest of the application cannot: firsthand stories interpreted by a trusted educator.
Keep the common app requirements in view.
Common App guidance says counselor and teacher recommendations reveal a student’s personality and strengths from different viewpoints. Applicants must invite recommenders before they can create the related account, while recommenders use the system to organize requests and submit forms.
Return to the Common App cluster →