LOR Content

[FutureCadet123]

Hello all,

My congressional and senatorial nomination processes are open. I’m about to ask my chosen people for my letters of recommendation, but I’m not sure what kind of specific things/categories I should ask them to talk about for me? Obviously academics, athletics, and leadership skills, but I’m looking for a more specific direction to point my LORs in.

Thank you!

 

[smokey%]

Is it proper to tell a teacher what to put in an LOR? I just told my teachers that I was applying to the service academies and applying for nominations from my Congressman and Senators and needed a LOR from them and they wrote one for me. The student is not allowed to see their LOR or know what their LOR says.

I think if you just tell your teachers about you applying to the academies and nominations they will write a good LOR for you.

 

[Academician]

Ideally, if you can suggest some of the 'content,' ask for specific, concrete examples. The SAs and MoCs will have your transcripts and activities so repeating those sets of data are not useful. As I tell my students, we would like recommenders to dive below the 'surface' to support their kind words with examples and specific details. It is a challenge, so I often provide guidance directly to teachers for my students. I hope that helps!

 

[usmausmausmausma]

Preferably include a resume with your request highlighting ECs that showcase your leadership.

 

[TexasApplicant]

I guess I'll add to the questions...

Can I ask the people who wrote me last year's letters to just change the date on them and re-submit them for this year?

 

[basketball2squid]

I guess I'll add to the questions...

Can I ask the people who wrote me last year's letters to just change the date on them and re-submit them for this year?

You may want to fact-check this, but I think USNA has access to your previous files and can view the previous LORs. Therefore, it probably wouldn't look good to have the exact same letter of recs as the year prior.

 

[OldRetSWO]

You may want to fact-check this, but I think USNA has access to your previous files and can view the previous LORs. Therefore, it probably wouldn't look good to have the exact same letter of recs as the year prior.

USNA does NOT have access to the files of your MOCs which is where the Letters of Recommendation would go. The USNA required teacher assessments are not Letters of Rec and would need to be filled out for the reapplication. LORs that the academy might get are not "big hitters" for WPM points and I doubt that the admissions personnel who record/enter the letters into the files are going to compare them to a prior year.
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This may be overthought a bit though. I've served on Senatorial and Congressional Service Academy selection panels for many years not and have read many many LORs in that time and they really do not have much of an impact on any board that I've been associated with.

 

[texasjzw]

Is it proper to tell a teacher what to put in an LOR? I just told my teachers that I was applying to the service academies and applying for nominations from my Congressman and Senators and needed a LOR from them and they wrote one for me. The student is not allowed to see their LOR or know what their LOR says.

I think if you just tell your teachers about you applying to the academies and nominations they will write a good LOR for you.

I provided some context about the Service Academies. My teachers wrote a separate LoR for my SA applications vs. civilian colleges which I think is super helpful in making sure the SAs are getting a letter tailored specifically to what they are looking for.