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To the teachers and counselors working hard to support students – thank you so much for your hard work! We have the privilege of reading more than 30,000 applications and an integral piece of each student application are the letters of recommendation we review from teachers and counselors. For many files, these letters share valuable insight into how students will interact with one another in our classrooms, dining halls, and other places on campus. With the school year around the corner, I wanted to share advice on creating a strong letter as well as some thoughts we have when reviewing applications.

When our committee reviews an application, we are on the search for two broad categories: academic potential and student experiences/perspectives. Why? Well, we want to see if a student will be set up for success in our rigorous academic programs and we want to get a better understanding of how each student will contribute to the community at Tufts. 

Centering your letter around these two ideas is a starting point. The first pitfall we see is when a recommender doesn’t know what their student is including in their application. Students are required to send in their transcripts and a list of their extracurricular activities. If your letter tells us that a student got As in math and science and that they are a varsity swimmer, that’s probably going to be something we learn somewhere else in the application. 

The recommendation letter is a unique opportunity to show a side of the student that they cannot write about. Instead of rehashing what is already in the application, write about the the context behind the student. 

That A+ Jeremy got in Calculus? He was the only person to do that in his class of 300 students.

Denise is a varsity swimmer? She swims the fastest 100m the school has seen in 7 years.

Samantha may have received a C in AP Spanish, but she commutes 45 minutes to school each way and was the only student in the school who took the exam. She got a 4.

Another way to provide context in your recommendation letter is through anecdotes. It’s the old adage: “Show don’t tell”. Instead of telling us that a student is a hard worker, a leader in the classroom, or a kind friend, show us examples using short anecdotes to highlight moments that we might see if this student is on our campus.

Anecdotes can be short, two to three sentences long that highlight an otherwise standard superlative. We don’t need three pages of growth narrative from their ninth grade year, one solid page is perfect.

“Every day before school, Isaiah arrives early to ask questions about topics that we covered the previous week. He pulls out his folder and the details in his notes are far above that of most students I teach.” 

“Our school receives new students frequently, and during every study hall I see Maria introducing herself and starting conversations with her new peers. She goes out of her way to make them feel welcome, I’ve even had a new student come to me and say that without Maria they would have felt lost.”

At Tufts, we see so many amazing students with different personalities and in our application pool. We like them all! We want a mix of leaders and team-members, extroverted and introverted, students who know exactly what they want to study and those who are excited to figure it out when they get to college. There isn’t one “type” of student that finds success in our review process.

As we review a file, we build an impression of a student through their writing, their activities, and their grades. Your letters are not just a confirmation that our understanding of the student is correct, but can become an expansion of the student’s application. Your letters are what allow us to have a fuller understanding of the impact a student has on their current community, and potentially the community we have at Tufts.

With the Fall semester around the corner, we look forward to receiving and reading your thoughtful letters of recommendation!