A priceless recommendation

How important is the counselor recommendation in determining the admissibility of a candidate?

According to research done by the College Board, the recommendation ranks behind GPA, test scores, curriculum and student essays.

That said, I would posit that letters of recommendation are of great value for students who are clearly admissible and scholarship eligible; marginal; or applying to a highly competitive college or university.

Check the college’s Web site or a college guide to get to know the institution’s academic profile and the college’s acceptance rate. Knowing your student’s niche will help you tailor your recommendation.

Your student should give you a copy of his/her essay, résumé and a list of achievements. If you don’t know a student well, you may want to defer your letter of recommendation to a teacher, or you may weave teacher quotes into your recommendation. However, it is important that you validate the student’s GPA, rank and date of graduation.

Examples of a student’s leadership, strength of curriculum, service and overall achievement are helpful.

Specifically, candor and objectivity are well received. It is a good idea to avoid “cut and paste” commentary.

Insights on strength of curriculum are particularly helpful when recommending high-ability students. These students are going to be compared with the best of the best, so if your high school doesn’t offer many (or any) AP or IB courses, it would be helpful to point this out.

The goal here is to level the playing field for your candidate when it comes to these important admissions and scholarship decisions.

Turning to the marginal admissions candidate, your candor will be appreciated by both the admissions committee and the candidate. After all, the goal is to help the student find a school that’s a good fit academically and socially.

When we review a marginal candidate, we look at all of the typical benchmarks, but we also look at trends on the transcript.

Did the student get off to a poor start but then improve each year?

The recommendation takes on added significance if you know something that has impacted the student’s life: parental divorce, death of a parent or close relative, diagnosis of a learning disability, etc. These are important insights that will be valued by an admissions committee.

Another valued explanation is when a counselor can comment on a disparity between a standardized test score and academic achievement. How does a student with a 17 on the English section of the ACT and a less-than-stellar admissions essay get A’s in English?

If a counselor is not comfortable making a written comment on a recommendation form, admissions representatives are always willing to take an insightful phone call.

The counselor recommendation is a key element in the admissions/scholarship decision.

Garrett Knoth has been in college admissions since 1968 and on the admissions staff at Hope College (Holland, Mich.) since 1991.

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