Loadof Letters
While the night stretches on, teachers are hunched over their desks, crafting numerous letters of recommendation. Fueled by coffee and a commitment to their students’ success, they’re working late to ensure every student is able to achieve their dreams.
As the deadline for college applications looms, many high school teachers have been spending long afternoons and nights writing letters of recommendation. These letters are a critical part of a student’s application and can significantly influence their chances of admission. For some teachers, this process is particularly intense, with dozens of letters to complete in a short window of time.
“This year I had 38 due by November 1st and will have completed 44 total by the end of this year,” Math teacher Thomas Palsa said.
This process of writing letters of recommendation comes with an extensive time commitment.
“This year I wrote 41 total letters which is almost the amount of time in a full work week,” History teacher David Keller said.
For many educators, the number of letters they write can vary significantly from year to year.
“This year I only had about 10, but usually I have about 25 when I teach Anatomy,” Chemistry teacher John Savage said. “ Usually a lot of the people who ask me for letters arestudents I’ve had for two years in both Chemistry and Anatomy and so last year I mainly just taught sophomores who aren’t applying yet which is why my numbers are lower than usual.”
History teacher Allison Cota limits the number of letters she writes due to the amount of time it takes to write each letter.
“I always cap it at 20 and it takes an hour per student, for each letter, but also to do all the forms and to upload it,” Cota said.
According to a survey run by TPH, it takes 66% of teachers over an hour to write their letters of recommendation.
Teachers often have different methods of crafting their letters and a survey is common tool used by teachers to highlight aspects of a student that might not be seen within the classroom including extracurriculars, hobbies, or awards, as well as moments a student thought they succeeded as an anecdote to include in the letter of recommendation.
“I ask students to complete a survey to highlight specific moments that they enjoyed in my class,” Adams said. “I just write from my heart, and I try to match the kids and include anecdotes of them as a student or sometimes I will even include a snippet of an email or funny thing they said to me.”
Savage said he usually meets with a student for 15 to 20 minutes to learn more about them and why they chose him to write their letter of rec, which overall takes a little less than an hour per kid.
Due to the volume of requests many teachers receive, some have additional methods that allow them to manage the requests effectively and efficiently.
“I do a special thing because I teach so many different things, as well as coach flag football. If I’ve had you for two or more things you can ask me in the Spring, but I reserve spots for students in the context of having these students in mind, and knowing they’re gonna ask,” Adams said.“And then I usually have about 20 spots open for kids to ask in the fall.”
While many teachers agree to write as many letters as they feasibly can, they also have to consider the circumstances under which they might decline a request.
“In some instances I may not know the student as well or if the student has cheated in my class or there is a reason where I would not be able write a great letter of recommendation, I recommend they ask another teacher who might know them better and be able to write a stronger recommendation” Keller said.
While some teachers may want to typically say yes to most student’s requests, there are instances where educators may be forced to draw a line and decline a student’s request due to the volume of Early Action letter of recommendation requests.
Adams said there have been rare and specific instances where she says no to a student due to lack of time, and the saddest part is when there are kids who she adores and loves so much, who asked too late. And she has to say she can write a letter of recommendation for the Regular Decision deadline but not Early Action or Decisions. This means she is usually able to add kids because they are applying with the regular decision deadline.
With the high number of Early Action letter of recommendation requests, the process of writing the letters can be very time consuming.
“Normally it’s pretty stressful to write this many letters because I don’t want to miss a deadline and I never want to let a student down,” Keller said.
Other teachers share this perspective.
“I regretted how many I did, because it’s hard, exhausting and just that process for me is really difficult,” Palsa said.
Impact on Teachers
This challenge is compounded by the fact writing recommendation letters often comes at the expense of other responsibilities.
“It’s just there’s only so much time. We write letters of recommendation as a courtesy for students that ask us to help support them in the college admissions process, and that just doesn’t minimize any of our other work. We have to do it all in the evenings and the weekends, and it’s a substantial drain,” Cota said.
Savage said, it’s hard right now especially with his responsibilities of grading, coaching water polo, teaching, and getting all the letters in.
This dedication, while important, inevitably impacts other aspects of teaching, forcing educators to balance their responsibilities in ways that may sometimes be overwhelming.
“Every person I know is compromising their sleep, their family time, their friends, because they just fit it all in. There’s only so much time in a day. And we’re still planning for our classes, we’re still delivering content, we’re still doing assessments,” Cota said.
This sense of balance becomes even more challenging when students’ requests are passed along to other teachers, especially when teachers feel unable to say “no” to students.
“I think it’s a disservice to kids when we don’t make that commitment, because the teachers who often say no to kids, it puts the burden on other teachers. I want to be somebody who can say, ‘I’m only going to take 20 kids,’ but it’s really hard when the kids that you love come to you and they’re like, please, please, please, because somebody said no, especially,” Adams said. “And I feel like I just can’t, I can’t do that to my students.”
This mounting pressure is further exacerbated by the growing demands of college applications deadlines.
“So many people applied early that even on November 1 that I was literally writing letters until 6:30. And I didn’t get to spend any time with my friends and family for Halloween. I made my house dark and sat in the back hiding so I didn’t have tricks or treaters as I was writing letters of rec. It’s just not really sustainable,” Cota said.
Palsa said now that more colleges have transitioned to doing Early Action as well as early decision, it has definitely put more pressure on teachers to get them in by this date.
Cota said applications used to be more spread out through the fall, with a lot of students turning in applications on January 1, which gave teachers a lot more bandwidth. Many teachers she knows have even gotten sick right around the dates of Early Application deadlines because they were all pushing so hard and don’t have enough built in support.
Teacher investments in Students
Despite these challenges, the emotional fulfillment of writing these letters remains strong for many educators.
“It’s an honor to write kids letters in many ways. There’s a trust with the process that I really adore, and I do love writing letters of recommendation. I don’t see them as a burden, I see them as just a part of my job. It’s like my grieving process with them,” Adams said. “I sit down, I think about a kid for one hour. Everything I know about them. And so then when I’m done, it’s like, goodbye, I love you. It’s just so wonderful and it’s such a reward to write to them, to see their growth, to have that kind of process.”
The quality of a recommendation letter is significantly improved when teachers have a deep understanding of their students.
“Any student that I’ve worked a lot with, and I know well, just makes the quality of the description greater that I can give in a recommendation like the examples of the work and other examples are just way more rich. But it always pays to try to speak up in class, and, you know, be that participant,” Keller said.
This depth of understanding not only enhances the letter’s content but also allows for a more creative and compelling narrative. By weaving in personal insights and creative storytelling, a recommendation letter can better capture a student’s unique qualities and make a lasting impact.
Even daily interactions with students can provide teachers more detailed, personal insights that make these letters more meaningful.
“I have my room open for lunch every day, so I see who kids hang out with, who they study with, the silly things that they do here. All those little anecdotes go into a letter, even the way you write your name, sometimes you’re handwriting, so I can always find something,” Adams said.
These opportunities to connect allow for a relationship of mutual respect and understanding between teachers and students. For this reason, it is especially meaningful when students recognize the extra effort the teacher put into this process.
“Students used to be really appreciative and truly understand that teachers are doing extra work voluntarily on their behalf as their advocate, because we care for them. And now we see a little less of that, I think it really means alot when students treat it like that by acting polite, respectful, they got us information on time, they circled back, they told us where they were going and really just saying thank you,” Cota said.
