What makes a compelling letter of recommendation? Learn more about the differences between high school counselors secondary school reports and letters of recommendations from teachers. Here is some advice from various colleges:

• MIT—tips
• Trevor Rusert, Chris Reeves, Michelle Rasich, and John McLaughlin explore a different approach to writing letters in RECS THAT CHANGE LIVES: USING THE ORGANIZED NARRATIVE View and download two sample letters.
• More on the Structured Narrative
• Harvey Mudd has an excellent slide deck highlighting key aspects of both counselor and teacher recommendations.
• Tips for Effective Recommendations from Wellesley
• Words matter from Hamilton

Vanderbilt offers sage advice from teachers and counselors

 For Teachers

• Ethan Sawyer, the CollegeEssay Guy, put together a great resource for helping teachers write great recommendations — it includes samples.
• The Collegeboard provides a very useful set of resources on letters for teachers.  There are some sample letters of recommendation for teachers available here and here.
• HOW TO MINIMIZE GENDER AND RACIAL BIAS IN LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION

For the USA

College Admission Teacher Recommendations Writing Compelling Letters

For the UK

• If you doubted the value of your report, you need not worry–they are read, often twice. Collegeboard offers great insight. They even have an outline. (current version here)
• Ethan Sawyer, the CollegeEssay Guy, also created a fantastic resource for school counselors–it includes samples.

Compelling Counselor Letters: Recommendation Basics During the Pandemic and Beyond

Advice you should share with your students

• Collegeboard has a good article to share with your your students on getting powerful letters of recommendation.
• Ethan Sawyer offers up this great guide to asking for a letter of recommendation

Other great sources:

• Getting great recs from NACAC Step’s to college
• Getting to know your counselor from NACAC Step’s to college
• Princeton Review on letters of recommendation.