Letters of Recommendation

J1317

5-Year Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2016
Messages
39
Hi all,

Hopefully I'm not asking a dumb question, but it seems to me that there is no spot on the West Point portal to submit letters of recommendation. Does USMA not require them? And if I wanted to submit one, would I just send it physically to the office of admissions?

Thanks.
 
Hi all,

Hopefully I'm not asking a dumb question, but it seems to me that there is no spot on the West Point portal to submit letters of recommendation. Does USMA not require them? And if I wanted to submit one, would I just send it physically to the office of admissions?

Thanks.

My Field Force Rep told me that they accept letters of rec, but it really doesn't do much for your app. The teacher evaluations in the portal serve as their "letters of rec" although in the file upload area, you can upload letters of rec - but as I said before, my Rep told me it really doesn't do much and it's optional so its up to you.
 
USMA, and the other academies, require "teacher evaluations" from certain teachers (math, English and science), but those are submitted electronically by the teachers, who receive an email from USMA, based on information provided by the candidate through the portal. The evaluation is like an online survey, and the candidate should let each of those teachers know to expect it, and to respond promptly. My son emphasized the importance of the evaluations.

Traditional "letters of recommendation" are permitted, but not required; and in fact my son was somewhat discouraged to have any submitted. On the other hand, if the letters provide some information which may actually be assessed in the WCS analysis, then it should be sent. (there may be a limit of two letters, if I recall correctly). My son played three years of varsity baseball, and was going to be named as a captain for his senior year, but baseball season is a spring sport, so the school would not be able to verify the "captain" status (which gets points for WCS) until after the appointments would be determined by WP. Thus, his coach, who is also one of his former teachers, wrote a letter confirming that my son would be a captain on the baseball team. He also added lots of other kind things in the letter while he was at it. Son's RC at WP told him to get the letter so they could use that in the analysis; but my son ended up getting his appointment before the letter was received by WP admissions.

In short, probably only send a traditional letter of rec if it has substantive information, or if your RC recomends it.
 
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