Teacher Recommendation
SAS has developed a system to help teachers write their recommendations. You should answer the questions found on this Teacher Recommendation form. Download this document, complete it, and print a copy to give to your teacher. Your teacher will write and upload their letter to Naviance, the system behind Family Connection.
This form asks you a number of questions about your career plans, what has interested you about the particular subject or class, your activities, your grades, etc. While perhaps not all of this information will be used in a letter of recommendation, it should help a teacher to recall things about you.
Your teacher will write one broad letter or recommendation which will be used for each of your applications. Since we will be sending everything together electronically (i.e., counselor recommendation, transcript and teacher recommendation) , it is not necessary to supply a teacher with a stamped envelope.
You should pick teachers who know you, respect you, and will write positive things about you. If you feel a teacher has little to say about you or even worse, will say something negative, pick someone else. Also, be sure to ask the teacher in a way in which he or she can politely decline. Try to talk to your teacher when he or she has a few minutes to spare and ask if "You would consider writing one of my recommendations." You might add something like, "I don’t want to put you in a spot if you’d really prefer not to do this." Give the teacher a way out. If your teacher says something like, "I’d like to help you but maybe someone else knows you better," take the hint and ask someone else.
Do not ask several teachers to write recommendations and expect your counselor to "choose the best one." Teachers are much too busy to spend time writing recommendations that will never be used. The vast majority of colleges ask you to send one teacher recommendation. Many large public colleges won't accept any and about 50 require two letters. Most SAS students only need one teacher letter. A list of those requiring more than one can be downloaded here.
Letters of recommendation are kept on file in the counseling office for four years. That way if you decide to transfer to another college, another recommendation can be easily sent. Although a copy will be in the counseling office, you will not be allowed to read any of the recommendations kept there. |
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Counselor Recommendation
Over the years, SAS’s counselors have come to know many admission officers. The admission officers put considerable weight on what the counselors say since they know we can’t afford to lose credibility by writing a totally inaccurate recommendation. You can expect your recommendation to be positive, yet honest.
To provide the most helpful recommendation possible, your counselor needs as much information as possible. The more information available about you, the easier it is for your counselor to include anecdotes to support your application. Before your counselor will write your recommendation, you must login to Family Connection and complete the "my counselor rec" survey you will see in the "from my school" section.. This form is only available at the end of the junior year.
Most applications have something called a "Secondary School Report" or "Counselor’s Report." Once you’ve decided for certain that you will be applying to a particular school, you should fill in your name, sign the waiver statement, and give it to your counselor (even if it tells you to give it to the principal). This form usually asks for an assessment of your motivation, academic promise, and integrity. An official copy of your transcript, along with a profile which describes Singapore American School, will also be attached to the report.
If you’ve been involved in a discipline problem at SAS, perhaps you’re worried about whether this will be reported to a college. The SAS counselors use a "don’t ask-don’t tell" policy. In other words, if a college does not ask about suspensions or disciplinary issues, we assume they don’t want to know and do not volunteer the information. If a college does ask, however, we will answer the question honestly. A mistake, even a fairly serious one, can often be seen as a learning experience and may have no negative impact at all on your admission decision. If you are concerned about your past disciplinary record you should certainly discuss it with your counselor. If your counselor will report this kind of information, it is important that you also be honest and up-front about it in your application.
Give your counselor plenty of time to write your recommendation. The earlier in your senior year that you provide the needed forms, the less likely it is that your counselor will be buried in recommendations. Perhaps it shouldn't be this way, but the fact is that recommendations written early in the senior year are usually better than those written in December. If you ask your counselor to write a recommendation one day before the deadline, don't expect a recommendation commenting on how organized you are! |
