Letter of Rec Requests

It's not hard, but it does feel overwhelming for sure. DS ended up with a 6 foot whiteboard in his room. He laid out each school he was applying to, and NROTC. Then he added the MOCs. Critical dates and deliverables were added.

Following my suggestion, he had a spiral notebook with 'subject' and each subject was an application. He kept track of usernames, points of contact, test scores sent/requested to send, and he noted each phone call he had with a name and date. Pretty much a 'bible' of his application process. Without all of that, I'm not sure he could have kept straight what he had sent to whom, what was due, what letter or eval had been requested.

Also, some MOC offices are not that ship shape. During DS cycle, his local MOC rep ended up seeking help in rehab. The office staff was a shambles and documents that were sent and received then had to be sent again. The night before his interview a staff member called to ask for his personal statement, which he had submitted months before hand, and had an email confirming receipt. Being able to document those things is key.

Bear in mind, for most kids, junior year is a heavy lift so being organized is key.
 
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When my son was a junior (right about this time of year, as soon as he received a candidate number), he met with his hs guidance counselor and they developed a spreadsheet schedule to complete his application. Most counselors are willing to bend over backwards to help a motivated and organized student through the process but the candidate has to own it.
 
LOR requests will come directly to their inbox.

It is a very confusing process for the letter writers. Lots of requests from different people, different offices, different ways of submitting. Once people have agreed to write a LOR, I would first get their preferred email to receive a request and their preferred phone number. The next day I would hand-deliver and once home from school, email a short "Thank you for agreeing to help" letter with a very brief explanation of the different SAs to which you are applying---like full name and city where the SA is based, your bullet-point reason/s for wishing to attend, and your resume with accomplishments. Make it as easy as possible for them to help you.

If going for an ROTC scholarship, let them know that is different. Many people do not know the course of getting into a SA nor the difference betwixt SA, ROTC, enlistment. Also, let them each know that it will be a LOR from the MOC and a scholastic aptitude type of evaluation from the SAs, and each one is different.

My experience was requests went in this order
2 Senators
1 District Congressional Rep
SAs based on which application filled out first
NROTC
and non-SA scholarships went in order applied

So, no matter if you are applying to ROTC program and all of the SAs or just one SA, you are asking a lot of them. There are LsOR going to State Senators, local Congressman, and filling out evaluations of scholastic aptitude. All have their own evaluation forms.

My school district uses an on-line repository (ours is called "Naviance"). Students can choose whether to request a viewable or non-viewable to student LOR. An email request for LOR is initiated from there and students can later choose to send completed LOR to other scholarships.

Once all deadlines have passed, follow up with a "thank you for all you did to help me" handwritten note, and keep them posted as you find out your status.
 
There is debate as to whether or not additional LoRs are needed/a good idea/not considered, etc. (i.e. letters beyond teacher recs). For nominations, my son had a terrific LoR from his former Scoutmaster who went to law school with our Congressman and was a personal friend of both of our senators (although we didn't know any of that at the time). It put into context and amplified by son's four years of NYLT leadership experience for his nominations. We wanted to get that letter into the hands of Admissions in December so my son had it submitted through his high school guidance counselor as a pdf. We have no idea if that carried any water or whether they even looked at it.
 
I can't thank everyone enough for the helpful responses and couldn't agree more with letting DS work through this himself. When he asked about the LOR's, I'll admit I was confused as well. Thank you again to everyone who took the time to help. The answers and resources are invaluable to a family like ours who is new to all of this.
 
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