Application Letters Of Recommendation

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FiftyFive

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I'm looking at a Service Academy Admissions Counseling company's menu of Applicant Counseling packages. The company appears to have immaculate bona fides.

One of the features of the company's packages is High School Teacher Letter of Recommendation samples. The Admissions Counseling Company suggests the applicant student delivers a Sample Letter of Recommendation to teachers in focus ... to ease a teacher's job in crafting the letter and to build a recommendation letter that better meets USNA Admissions Office need.

Does the USNA Office of Admissions approve and permit or look down upon or wholly disparage and forbid such "prompting and seeding" Letters Of Recommendation requested from high school teachers?
 
Would they even know if the teacher put it in their own words?

I have never really thought about a consulting company, but DS got some outstanding letters without the help of any sample letters. I wonder if they really help? A competent teacher writing about a passionate and driven candidate shouldn't have to think too hard to put together a great letter. Heck I'll PM you DS's if you are interested in real world samples that apparently worked.

Edit: I'm talking about LOR for Nominations. He did not submit any LORs to Navy, he just did the standard English and Math teacher evaluations.
 
FiftyFive said:
I'm looking at a Service Academy Admissions Counseling company's menu of Applicant Counseling packages. The company appears to have immaculate bona fides.

One of the features of the company's packages is High School Teacher Letter of Recommendation samples. The Admissions Counseling Company suggests the applicant student delivers a Sample Letter of Recommendation to teachers in focus ... to ease a teacher's job in crafting the letter and to build a recommendation letter that better meets USNA Admissions Office need.

Does the USNA Office of Admissions approve and permit or look down upon or wholly disparage and forbid such "prompting and seeding" Letters Of Recommendation requested from high school teachers?
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USNA is looking for people who know you, and can add to you package in a way not already provided in the application process itself. USNA doesn’t require the types of ‘LOR’ you are inquiring about. Your math and science teachers will EVALUATE you via a standard inquiry, online. Which is different than what you are inquiring about.

My *opinion* on ‘seeding’ these letters, especially for USNA (my wheelhouse), is that they don’t necessarily come from the writers heart, and can be sniffed out in a hot minute. So stay away from that idea. You most likely will be providing LOR’s as part of the application process, for your nominating piece, and I would have the same advice there.

Ask somone who knows you well, that can help the reader get to know you better. As a writer, if I was provided unsolicited ‘direction’ from a someone as to how to write my recommendation of you, I personally would roll my eyes.

If you pick the right person, who is a champion of you, they will want to do you right. And will. Now this is different than providing a resume/letter providing what the SA process is, and your accomplishments, for guiadance. Nothing wrong with that as many don’t know what a SA is. Our kids didn’t do this. Their recommenders (for their nomination pieces) knew them well enough.

Good luck!! Be thorough, but also heartfelt. And be yourself!!
 
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Hmmm… Going to throw some “tough truth” your way.

First, USNA doesn’t ask for letters of recommendation. Second, if a letter of recommendation needs to somehow be “prompted” or “seeded,” is it really a letter of recommendation? Pretty sure USNA admissions isn’t looking for a “color by numbers” approach.
 
Curious..can you send a link to this service ? (There are many Google Hits using the various names referred to). I want to know what "immaculate bona fides" is. Unless they have served in USNA Admissions, sat through Admissions Boards, they won't know enough details of the process to give any material advantage. No amount of consulting is going to make a weak candidate strong, or a strong candidate weak (well maybe ?). Seriously, everything you need to know about the USNA Admissions process is online at USNA.edu, and USNA has online sessions to ask questions.

PS - the fact that they are referring to Teacher Recommendations in connection with USNA suggests the bonafides aren't as good as you think. USNA has a teacher evaluation, not "recommendation", and it gets into details like class leadership and capacity for higher education.
 
Here's the thing . . . for those who read lots and lots and lots of evaluations, LORs, performance evaluations, fitreps, etc., it quickly becomes obvious who knows the person and who doesn't -- and also who has so much good to say that they ran out of space and who was finding trite / stock phrases to fill the space.

One of the hallmarks of good evaluations (of any kind) is the use of examples. You can write all day that someone is a "bold, innovative, dynamic leader who sets the standard for her classmates." OK. What in the heck does that mean? Or, you can add, "For example . . . the town's Special Olympics program was foundering. Jane personally galvanized a group of 10 students to take over the effort. They went door to door, covering more than 1000 homes in two weeks and raised $42,000. But she didn't stop there. She identified more than 40 student volunteers to staff the event, created a matrix to ensure each event was covered . . ." You get the picture.

There is NO WAY any stock letter will have the detail and the personalization to be effective. In addition, it will look like . . . a stock letter.

I don't know that USNA has an "official position." But ask yourself . . . do you think USNA wants teacher evaluations crafted by a consulting firm or by the individual teacher?

One final point . . . USNA has been known to call teachers. Usually, this is because they have a question about something that was written. How do you think it would go if they called your teacher and he said, "Yeah, Johnny gave me a form to follow and I just followed it."

The better approach is to talk to your teacher. Tell him / her how much you want to attend a SA and how much weight SAs give teacher evals (which is true). Explain what SAs look for (e.g., leadership, strong STEM background, good character). Offer to provide a resume or list of things you've done to help as reminder, etc. and to be available to answer any questions they may have. Much more productive use of your time and energy.
 
usna1985 said:
The better approach is to talk to your teacher. Tell him / her how much you want to attend a SA and how much weight SAs give teacher evals (which is true). Explain what SAs look for (e.g., leadership, strong STEM background, good character). Offer to provide a resume or list of things you've done to help as reminder, etc. and to be available to answer any questions they may have. Much more productive use of your time and energy.
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^ This --- even better is developing this relationship with the teacher during the course of your high school career. This might be difficult in some of the larger high schools, but I've seen examples many times when I've gone to present Appointments at High School Awards programs. It is pretty obvious when your Appointee has the support of all the teachers. I am really happy when I see my Candidate cross the stage for a variety of awards ranging from academics, athletics and service, and then cap it off with an Appointment to USNA. Build the rapport with your teachers early, so they know your goals and ambitions, and the teacher evaluation is easy !
 
All speedy and informative answers, thank you. I asked here because the sales pitch from the Consulting Company first attracted me, then after a bit of thought, raised a number of the questions you’ve illustrated.

Here's their pitch: "The following is an example of a well written XXX Teacher narrative for a Naval Academy application. This narrative would be done after the teacher completes the numerical rating of the candidate. We recommend that candidates give a sample recommendation narrative to their Teacher in order to maximize their impact."

I'll say again the SA Admissions Company has impeccable bona fides. Hard to imagine they'd broadcast and sell this idea without the very best knowledge, reason and prior success with the practice.

Of course the consulting company is a business, so they're doing it for money though it appears these veterans are in the consulting business as a result of long and productive service to the United States and the US military community and establishment. Though I'm not so quick to post an address because I didn't come here to attack their business, I will say their bona fides do not appear to include USNA Admissions.

Thanks for your thoughts Huursoldaat, justdoit19, MIdcakePa, OldBGO and USNA85. I welcome any other thoughts you may have on the matter.
 
My first question with any SA consulting company: Who are the consultants?

Over the years, I've seen various companies (might be the same under different names), where the claim to fame is "we got into SAs and even graduated," so . . . voila . . . "We are experts on what it takes to earn an appointment." Uh . . . not really.

I would ask any SA consultant the following questions:
  • Have you worked in the admissions department of any SA? If so, when, for how long, and in what position?
  • Have you served as a BGO, ALO or similar position? In what area of the country? How many schools did you cover? How long have you / did you work in this role?
  • Have you served on an MOC nom committee? How long and when?
  • What do you do to remain current on SA admissions processes?
  • Are you involved with the SA you attended (e.g., active in local alumni chapter)?
  • Is consulting your full-time job? If not, what is your FT job (trying to gauge their accessibility)
The fact is that the average SA grad has relatively little knowledge on what it takes to earn an appointment. Just because a certain "resume" worked for him / her doesn't mean it necessarily will work for someone else. Let me put it this way: I recently bought a house. I could tell you what worked and didn't work for me. That doesn't qualify me as a realtor or an expert in home-buying.

However, if you find someone who actually (and recently) worked in Admissions for a particular SA (not just as a BGO but the actual Admissions department or Admissions Board), I would agree they are a good source FOR THAT PARTICULAR SA. As we preach here regularly, the process and what works for USNA may or may not be the same for USMA and USAFA, let alone USCGA and USMMA.

The fact that someone was successful in obtaining an appointment after using a consulting service does not equate to cause and effect. It could well be that the candidate would have obtained an appointment with no help whatsoever. And, as we see on this site every single year, candidates with outstanding packages receive TWEs.

I realize that today's parents want to leave no stone unturned in college admissions. However, before you hand out your hard-earned money, make sure that you are getting something of value from people who actually know what they're doing.
 
In general, I agree what USNA1985 has said. The key thing is the letter of recommendation only works if the recommender has very familiar knowledge of the candidate’s performance. However, I think it can be appropriate for the candidate to either provide inputs or stats, or **draft** a letter of recommendation. A draft should be a starting place for the recommender to work off of…it isn’t a substitute if they don’t know the candidate. As USNA1985 mentioned…if an official receives a phone call and there are crickets after a question is asked, then that sheds bad light.
 
If you reach out to your admissions counselor at USNA (if you have one yet) they can tell you up down left right all the things they want to see in a LOR. Shoutout to my counselor from this past cycle, Lt. Kim. If I remember correctly, in regards to LORs, she said something along the lines of

"We want to learn more about you in these letters. Everyone will say _____ is a great student, hard working, etc. Who knows you well enough to tell us things about you that no one else could? Ask them to write you a letter"

And I will also ante-up the cautions against consulting companies. I have heard great things from some people, and more than questionable things from others.
 
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