Contents in Letter of Recommendation—HELP!

Lee2015

USMA & USNA Mom
5-Year Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2010
Messages
342
When asking for letters of recommendation, either for a nomination or service academy application, what should the person writing the letter include?

I was looking at VP Biden’s online application and he is asking for 5 letters of recommendation, but does not indicate what the recommender should address in the letter.

Any thoughts or suggestions? :rolleyes:

Thanks!
 
That is actually a great question........this is completely new. This is a significant change in how things were done in the VP'S office in the past.
 
The academy wants recommendations from the math and english teachers. A letter from your athletic coach and a science teacher would help as well. If you have done an enormous amount of community service, perhaps a letter from the person in charge would be one to send. Whomever you get to write you a letter, you want the focus to be on participation and leadership.
 
To sum it all up...

When asking for letters of recommendation, either for a nomination or service academy application, what should the person writing the letter include?

I was looking at VP Biden’s online application and he is asking for 5 letters of recommendation, but does not indicate what the recommender should address in the letter.

Any thoughts or suggestions? :rolleyes:

Thanks!

The recommender would essentially describe an event or quality that he/she has witnessed 1st hand that impressed them the most about you and hopefully they would word that incident in such a manner as to say..."He/She is better than sliced bread because...", you get the picture!
:yay:
 
This is wonderful information. Thanks so much for taking the time to post!!

Cheers!:wave:
 
Normally if you tell your teachers to write you a reccomendation letter they will know what to write and will usually sweeten it up a little bit, and some include details relating to your resume. Thats pretty weird that there you are required to send in 5 letters, that is alot of letters, even for the academy, when I applied for VP nomination all I did was send in a form with standard info on it.
 
Normally if you tell your teachers to write you a reccomendation letter they will know what to write and will usually sweeten it up a little bit, and some include details relating to your resume. Thats pretty weird that there you are required to send in 5 letters, that is alot of letters, even for the academy, when I applied for VP nomination all I did was send in a form with standard info on it.

Only one is required. But you can put in up to 5.
 
So how exactly should we obtain the letters?

Should we get the teacher/coach to email it to us or should we just save it onto a flash drive and then upload it?
 
Many ways to go ...

The nomination packet will usually tell you how they prefer to receive the letters: forwarded directly from the writer; posted on-line; but most Congressional Nominating Authorities prefer you to include them in your nomination package.

Some letter writers will seal in envelope with signatures across the seal; most will just give them to you in a folder.

Hints:
* Plan ahead and request letters for all nominating authorities and or academies from a given letter writer at the same time. It's easier to sign your name 4 or five times than it is to have to write 4 or 5 letters weeks or months apart. They aren't going to think less of you if you go back later, but they might think more of you that you planned ahead and were considerate of their time and effort.

* Include a 'resume' of what you've accomplished to your letter writer featuring what you would like them to focus on. They may just know you from class or the ball field, introduce them to the whole person.

* Don't be afraid to ask them to stress certain events or facets of your life and experiences. If they agreed to write the letter, they want to help you. Just be humble and couch them as suggestions, not demands.

* If you know someone with a military background, consider having them write a letter for you...especially for the Academy letters. They speak the language and can emphasize features and characteristics that civilians may not recognize.

* Lastly, you may want to get some extra copies, too. Things do get lost during the process.

Good luck!
 
One more tip we found out the hard way. Our MOC's required all letters to be accumulated and mailed together. My son had asked for several copies from one of his recommendations and didn't realize that although he had signed the first one, and had them all on school letterhead, that he didn't sign the others. He was contacted by both senators and told the letter had to be signed. Had those redone and also got one for the congressman at the same time. Just something to think about when people do everything on the computer.
 
Back
Top