Juniors Should Work To Establish Great Relationships With Teachers and Counselors

With the high school spring semester underway, juniors should continue to work on establishing respectful, hard-working relationships with the teachers and counselors they will ask for recommendations next year. This is very important because whether students like if or not, teachers and counselors are crucial to their success for admission to college. Teachers and counselors must get to know the student and their work well enough to write great letters of recommendation on their behalf in fall 2010. Letters of recommendation are an important part of college application materials and excellent recommendations are a part of every successful student’s application.

The high school counselor plays an especially important role in student success for college admission. Virtually all private colleges and most public colleges REQUIRE high school counselor recommendations (often called Secondary School Reports). College-bound students need to get to know and impress their counselor as much as possible. I advise occasional visits with counselors during the junior year to build a positive relationship and to share college plans.

Students should become well-acquainted with their favorite teachers and make sure the teachers become familiar with student’s quality of school work and involvement with extracurricular activities. Juniors should do extraordinary on final exams this semester and earn top grades – no teacher will write a favorable recommendation for a student who does poorly (or displays a poor attitude).

Also, students with a part-time job, an internship, or voluntary work position should work hard and give their strongest effort. Job/position supervisors and advisors may be people to ask for letters of recommendation next year . . . but only if the student does an excellent job for them.

For more information visit MyCollegeCalendar.org.