Letters of Recommendation

I’m sure this can be posted in another discussion topic area, but does anyone have advice on organizing and obtaining ALL of the letters of recommendation (LOR) that are needed during this process??
I’m sure my son is like most young people going through this process. He is applying for the USNA, the USAFA, the USMA, the USCGA, and of course the various ROTC Scholarships that run along these service branches. To complete the application process you will be filling out applications for all the service academies, applications for nominations to your congressman, your senators, and Vice President, you will then have applications to each branch ROTC.
EVERY single of of these applications require multiple, 3 and sometimes 4 letters of recommendation to be completed by persons close to that individual. If my son is like most that will be the same half dozen or so individuals. This process requires well over 30 different Letters of Recommendation to be completed.
Is there any information or advice to streamline this process, or organizing, collected, asking these individuals to complete multiple, multiple and then more LOR? Is there a way to make this less daunting? Is there a bullet list or spread sheet that has all the required LOR’s and an easier way to ask and complete all of these ?

I can't really say for sure, but I don't think it has to come from different people, and I believe can be the same LOA, so if your son has an English teacher he's fond of, I think you could use the same LOA for multiple applications. Good luck, 4 SAs and ROTC Apps, is gonna be a lot of work so stay focused, make your deadlines, but make sure to enjoy the hectic experience.

Ok first sit down with your son and go over the candidate information. As an candidate my sled right now by reading my own father ( an officer) has let me do about 80% of this my self. The 20% was all either double checking work I already did or detail you only gain from being in the military. The reason I say this ( hopefully not coming across as rude) is the Academies want to see your son and all of his awesomeness. They want to see how he takes charge in every aspect.

Ok that out of the way, you can use more than one recommendation letter for more than one application, unless specifically told other wise. I have used 4 letter for all of my nomination/ academy source (usafa). The only thing you can't do for USAFA ( not sure on navy sorry) is have you evaluation person be your LOR for the two Academy LOR. Example: I had my principal and SASI for my recommendation to the academy but my evaluatiors are math and English. I could not use either my principal or SASI for the last evaluator.

I recommend writing the letters for the people. Most applicates avoid this as they're worried they'll over due it. So far I have written each one and two of them have either used it or adjusted it then use it. At the very least it makes a teachers job easier knowing what you want in the letter. Along with the letter give them important information about your son ( grades, leadership, awards, specific cases where he's done something in their class/ club to make him stand out). Teachers write alot of theses letters they really love help and will likely give a better letter.

Give them two weeks or more to write the letter. If your due date is coming up and they haven't turn fit in politely remind them and ask if there's anything they need to help get it in.

Hope this helps!

My DS and DD also applied to multiple academies. Number one suggestion is to start early. Most teachers want to help, but waiting until the last minute is rude and will result in a less than glowing recommendation. Second, make it easy for them to write the letters. Two things you can do here are to provide a good resume for them to work off of and to let them know what particular qualities you would like them to emphasize. My kids met with each potential recommender in person, gave them a resume plus a brief note with the academies listed, due dates (these were dates selected by my kids way in advance of the actual due date, but giving recommenders a month to complete), and a short list of what they felt the academies were looking for in a candidate. The teachers were very appreciative of all the help. You can make a worksheet for yourself to keep track of all requirements and check them off as they are complete. It is good practice for later tasks. My DD (USMMA 2021) is applying for graduate school right now with lots of different requirements for schools and national scholarships. Piece of cake compared to applying to multiple academies!

Hope to be Navy dad said:

I’m sure this can be posted in another discussion topic area, but does anyone have advice on organizing and obtaining ALL of the letters of recommendation (LOR) that are needed during this process??
I’m sure my son is like most young people going through this process. He is applying for the USNA, the USAFA, the USMA, the USCGA, and of course the various ROTC Scholarships that run along these service branches. To complete the application process you will be filling out applications for all the service academies, applications for nominations to your congressman, your senators, and Vice President, you will then have applications to each branch ROTC.
EVERY single of of these applications require multiple, 3 and sometimes 4 letters of recommendation to be completed by persons close to that individual. If my son is like most that will be the same half dozen or so individuals. This process requires well over 30 different Letters of Recommendation to be completed.
Is there any information or advice to streamline this process, or organizing, collected, asking these individuals to complete multiple, multiple and then more LOR? Is there a way to make this less daunting? Is there a bullet list or spread sheet that has all the required LOR’s and an easier way to ask and complete all of these ?

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I'd recommend asking those who do a LOR to write the salutation letterhead in a more generalized way. I asked mine to please write "To Whom it May Concern" that way you can have on LOR that can be addressed to any of the service academies. Instead of asking to write the LOR to be written specifically to a service academy, it's easier to address it in a generalized way! Just helpful advice I wanted to share!

In terms of the 'evaluations' that have to be completed by specific instructors (Math, English, Physics, etc), you need your kiddo to enlist the instructors in the process. Our son applied to USNA, USMA, USMMA, USAFA, and NROTC. That was a lot of evaluations for those teachers to do. He enlisted them early in the cycle (think, May) and he provided them a resume.

Even though it was a very small school, several teachers were surprised by some of his extracurriculars; they didn't know everything he was involved in. It gave them another way to see how he had managed his time with everything on his plate. It also gave them his GPA, class rank, etc., which made it easier for them to draft a LOR for nominations.

He provided them with stamped pre-addressed envelopes if the instructions required a snail mail LOR. He let them know how important this was to him and how much he appreciated their completing the evaluations.

For MOC nominations, he got hard copy letters (per instructions) and made multiple copies of each on good quality paper. Those he then submitted as instructed.