Episode 8: College Recommendation Letters: Who to Ask, When to Ask, and What Makes a Strong Letter
Podcast Description:
On this week’s episode of Drop In, Josh and Lisa unpack the one piece of the college application students cannot fully control: the letter of recommendation.
Recommendation requirements vary wildly by college. The University of California tells students not to submit letters unless a campus specifically requests them. Major Florida publics including UF and FSU do not use recommendation letters in their regular first-year admission decisions, while UT Austin allows up to two optional letters and specifically encourages students to consider recommenders from outside their high school. That is why one of our favorite phrases comes back yet again: it depends.
And just because a college accepts a recommendation does not mean the letter automatically helps.
Josh and Lisa break down what separates a forgettable letter from one that actually adds something to an application: specific, real moments instead of vague compliments; a teacher who genuinely knows the student instead of simply giving them an A; and a recommendation that adds a new dimension rather than repeating what is already in the essay or activities list.
That last piece connects directly to what we discussed in Episode 5 about supplemental essays: every part of the application needs its own job. Your transcript shows academic performance. Your activities section shows what you have actually done. Your essays reveal your perspective and voice. A recommendation shows what another trusted adult has observed about you.
The episode also gets practical: who should you ask? Why is junior year often the sweet spot? How should you approach a teacher? What context should you give them without basically writing the letter yourself? And why does asking whether someone can write you a strong recommendation matter?
Most importantly, great recommendations begin long before the student asks for one. Being present, asking genuine questions, responding thoughtfully to feedback, and allowing teachers to see how you learn are what create the moments worth writing about. As we have said before, the students who thrive are often the curious ones.
For an even deeper dive, read Your Recommendation Letters Matter More Than You Think.
Want Josh and Lisa to help your student choose recommenders, build a cohesive application story, and stay ahead of everything that comes next? Explore our junior-year college planning, senior application support, or schedule a free initial consultation.
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#CollegeAdmissions #LettersOfRecommendation #CollegeApplications #HighSchoolParents #CollegePlanning #AdmissionsPodcast #DecisionDrop #ParentingTeens #DropInPodcast
Chapters
0:00 Introduction to the importance of recommendation letters
1:02 What makes a recommendation letter strong
2:21 College variation in recommendation requirements
3:54 Understanding the role of recommendation letters in admissions
5:57 Examples of different college policies on recommendations
9:59 Why recommendation letters matter in context
13:01 The power of specific moments and stories
16:18 Building genuine relationships over time
18:14 Who to ask for a recommendation
21:22 Timing and how to ask for a recommendation
25:14 Providing context to recommenders
27:29 Following up and expressing gratitude
28:46 Hot takes and final advice
▼ Read Full Transcript
Josh: Every week we drop the noise.
Lisa: Drop the stress.
Josh: And drop some knowledge.
Lisa: Welcome to Drop In, the College Admissions Podcast by Decision Drop. If you would like to learn more about our services or have Josh and me help your family through this process personally, please head over to decisiondrop.com and check us out. And do not forget to like and subscribe.
Josh: I'm Josh.
Lisa: I'm Lisa. Let's go.
Josh: A little too close to the camera there, Lisa, but okay.
Lisa: Listen, I'm just trying some things out, so mind your business.
Josh: You know, I will. All right. Episode eight. Someone keeps giving us the key to the studio, so we're going to keep using it. Lisa, this week we're talking about one part of the entire application that the student doesn't actually write.
Lisa: Right, the letter of recommendation. I think this is such an important episode because, if you stop and think about it, students control almost everything else in the process, and they can't control this.
Josh: Yeah, exactly. They pick their classes, they write their essays, they build their activity lists, they decide what to submit and what to leave off applications, and the whole application is the student's own story told, hopefully, in their own voice.
Lisa: Hopefully. And then there's this one exception, right? The recommendation letter. If you think about it, it's the only part of the file where someone else speaks for you, and you are not even in the room when they do it.
Josh: Yeah, and admissions officers know that. They know it's the one part that the student didn't create or fully control, which is exactly why they value it so much.
Lisa: Right, so I think today is a great day where we can break it down. We're going to talk about what actually makes a recommendation letter strong and why it matters more than students think. And most importantly, what you can do to actually help someone say something about you that you are not going to write yourself.
Josh: Yeah. All right, so let's get into it.
Lisa: Okay.
Josh: All right. Lisa, before we start talking about how powerful a great recommendation letter can be, we need to add one very important caveat.
Lisa: Ah, you're right. We're at episode eight. You know what we're probably going to say. Our favorite thing.
Josh: Yep. It depends.
Lisa: It depends. It always depends because recommendation requirements are all over the place. You have some colleges that require a counselor rec and one or two teacher recs. Then you have some colleges that require a counselor rec but no teacher rec, or maybe one teacher rec. Then you have some schools that make everything optional. And then you have some schools that will accept your recommendation letter from someone outside of the school.
Josh: Yeah, and some colleges don't even accept any recommendation letters at all.
Lisa: Right. It's not, “Should we send one because probably they won't pay much attention to it?” Or, “I'm just going to send it just in case.” No. The colleges don't want it. They will not read it. Your teacher could write a beautiful letter, and it's still not becoming part of your admissions decision.
Josh: Exactly. And this is yet another reminder that you have to look at every college individually. Don't assume that because there's a recommender section in the Common App that every college on your list wants one.
Lisa: Right. They do not. The Common App is the delivery system. The individual colleges still make their own rules. Even among colleges that consider recommendations, some really don't place them at the top of the admissions hierarchy.
Josh: Yeah, and even looking at some Common Data Sets, only about eleven or twelve percent of colleges said that either counselor or teacher recommendations had considerable importance in their process. About half gave them either moderate or considerable importance. So yes, recommendations matter at many schools, but the colleges themselves are telling us that grades and curriculum still sit much higher on their list.
Lisa: Right, and just a little side note, because I don't think you and I have really talked about Common Data Sets yet in any of our episodes. The Common Data Set, just like the mission statement, is your friend, y'all. Go and look it up.
Let's say University of Washington.
Josh: University of Washington.
Lisa: University of Washington. Go Dawgs. Okay, so University of Washington Common Data Set. Sometimes if you put that into Google, it might give you one from a year or two ago, so maybe it's not the most recent year. But if it's from the past couple of years, look it up.
It's going to have a nice chart. It's going to tell you everything that the college deems important. That's our side note. We'll talk about that, I'm sure, in later episodes. But the Common Data Set is your friend.
Okay, now we're back to what we were talking about. When you look at the Common Data Set, Josh is correct. Only about eleven or twelve percent of colleges said that a counselor or teacher recommendation was of considerable importance. That doesn't mean the letter is meaningless. It just means we need to understand what its actual job is.
Josh: Exactly. A recommendation letter is not dragging a completely unqualified application across the finish line. That's not its job. But at a college that reads recommendations, especially when it's choosing among a lot of academically qualified students, a strong letter can add context, credibility, and also humanize the kid a little bit more.
Lisa: You know what's really worked well in the past two weeks? We've given some school examples. So I think we should keep up with that tradition. How about we come up with some examples where these policies look different?
Josh: Okay, so let's take the University of California system. They tell students not to submit recommendation letters with their applications. A campus or specific program might request a letter as part of supplemental review, but unless you're asked to, you don't need to send one.
Lisa: Right. So here in my home state of Florida, you have UF, FSU, UCF, USF. Recommendation letters for those schools are not required and will not be used in the decision-making process. Florida families, if you are listening right now, please hear this. Do not spend three weeks agonizing over what teacher your student should ask or what they should even say. Put that energy somewhere else where those schools will actually care to see it.
Your grades, your curriculum, your activities, your essay. Those are the things they're actually going to look at, and that's going to go into your application.
Josh: Yeah, and here in Texas, at a school like UT Austin, they handle recommendations a little differently. UT Austin allows students to submit up to two optional recommendation letters. But here's the important part: UT specifically encourages letters from people outside the student's high school.
Lisa: Right. I don't think students are used to hearing that advice, Josh.
Josh: No, not at all. When they recently changed this policy, it confused a lot of families.
Students and parents heard “recommendation letter” and immediately assumed UT wanted the traditional junior-year English teacher or math teacher letter. But UT is actually telling students these letters may come from mentors or other people who know them well. It could be a coach.
And it specifically encourages sources from outside the high school. The goal is to add information or context that is not already sitting somewhere else in that student's application.
Lisa: Right. You could ask a supervisor from your part-time job, someone who oversaw your internship, a mentor who has watched you build something over time, or someone from a community organization where you have taken on a real responsibility.
Josh: Exactly. Someone who can show UT who you are in a setting that your transcript and school résumé can't fully capture.
And I want to be careful about how I say this. UT officially calls these letters optional.
Lisa: Mm-hmm.
Josh: We don't have a secret window into the admissions committee, and I'm not going to pretend there's some hidden formula we can prove.
Lisa: Because you know what? We do not do admissions conspiracy theories on this podcast. Nope, nope, nope.
Josh: No tinfoil hats here. But based on what we've observed during this last application cycle, I wouldn't treat these outside recommendation letters as random or meaningless. We saw how valuable they could be when they added genuine context about a student's work ethic, maturity, initiative, responsibilities, and the impact they had outside the classroom.
Lisa: Right. This probably goes with a lot of things that we say, kind of like “it depends.” If you see the word optional, more times than not, do what it's asking you to do. Pretend to take a pencil or pen and mark out the word optional and really do it. Really send it.
But in this case, “optional” does not mean, “Oh my gosh, let me quickly upload any letter I can find.” That's not what optional means.
Josh: Right. Submit one when the right person can tell UT something important that the rest of your application doesn't already show.
Lisa: And that UT example captures the larger point of this entire segment. Before you choose a recommender, you have to answer three questions. Number one: Does the college accept the letter? Number two: What kind of recommender does it want? And number three: What new information should this person add to my application?
Josh: Exactly. Going back to that giant caveat we talked about a few minutes ago, now that it's firmly in place, let's talk about why a strong recommendation letter can carry real weight at colleges that actually read them.
Lisa: Right, because a recommendation letter gives an admissions officer a view of the student they cannot get from anywhere else in the file. Not the transcript, not the résumé, not the activity list, and not even the essay.
Josh: Yeah. Every other part of the application is either a number, a record of what the student did, or the student's own words about themselves. The recommendation is where a trusted adult who has actually watched the student up close can say, “Here's what it's really like to teach this particular student.”
Lisa: Or what is it like to challenge them? To give the student feedback? To watch them wrestle with something difficult? To see them grow over the course of the semester or even the year? That is something no GPA can tell an admissions officer.
Josh: Right. And here's what a strong letter doesn't do. It doesn't simply recap the transcript.
Lisa: Right. Admissions already sees that you got an A. They do not need a 500-word sequel explaining that the student earned that A.
Josh: If the entire letter says this student earned excellent grades, completed every assignment, and worked really hard, that's a wasted opportunity in my opinion.
Lisa: Yes, one hundred percent. Lovely kiddo, very responsible, apparently owns a pencil. But do we really see anything else new about them? Do we really know them?
Josh: A strong letter shows who the student is as a learner, how they think, how they respond when something is difficult, whether they engage with ideas or simply complete the assignment and move on.
Lisa: Does that student ask a question that changes the direction of the discussion? Do they reconsider their position when something challenges them? Do they keep working after that first strategy fell apart? Do they make the people around them better? That's the good stuff.
Josh: And in my opinion, the letters admissions officers remember are usually the ones grounded in those kinds of real, specific examples and moments.
Lisa: Right, and that's the part a student really needs to hear. The best letters are not built on vague compliments. They're not built on copy and paste. They are built on real moments.
Maybe it's the student who respectfully challenged a teacher's interpretation of a text, came in with evidence, and actually made the teacher stop and reconsider what they were thinking.
Maybe it's the student who completely bombed the first test, swallowed their pride, I know, bananas, and asked for help when they needed to change the way they studied, and slowly fought their way back. That's the stuff teachers remember, and that is the stuff admissions officers will remember too.
Josh: Or the student who noticed that a classmate was lost during a lab and helped them catch up without taking over the assignment.
Those are details that couldn't be written about just any good student. A generic letter could belong to anybody. A great letter could only belong to you. And these moments often feel very small to the student.
Lisa: Like super small. Did you stay after class when you were still thinking about a discussion? Were you asking one more question? Helping somebody understand a concept? Refusing to give up when it was one absolutely brutal assignment? To the student, that was maybe just a Tuesday.
Josh: Right. But to an admissions reader, that Tuesday can reveal intellectual curiosity, resilience, generosity, humility, and an inside peek into that student's character.
Lisa: Because it helps the admissions officer picture how that student will show up on their campus. Not just, “Was that person successful in high school?” but “How will this person be at a 9:00 a.m. seminar when the discussion gets uncomfortable and the professor pushes back?”
Josh: Right. A great recommendation also adds something new to the student's application. This goes back to something we've been saying in pretty much every episode: every part of the application needs its own job.
The transcript shows academic performance. The activity section shows what the student did. The essays show the student's perspective in their own voice. And the recommendation shows what another trusted adult has actually observed about that student.
Lisa: Four jobs, four different angles, with the same person, right? This is the same principle we talked about with supplemental essays back in Episode 5. You know how I like a good circle-back callback, Josh. The strongest applications do not repeat the same accomplishments in five different places.
Josh: Exactly. If your essay, activities list, and recommendation all tell us the exact same story, two of those opportunities have been wasted.
Lisa: Wasted. One thousand percent. The recommendation should confirm and deepen the story, not copy and paste it.
If the essay shows that the student is curious and reflective, the teacher's letter might show what that curiosity looked like in the actual classroom. And if the activity section shows leadership, I don't know, call me bananas, but the letter might reveal how that student supports other people when there is no title, no applause, or a line for it on their résumé.
Josh: And that consistency you just talked about builds credibility for the student. The student controls the overall story, but the recommendation provides outside confirmation that the person on the page is the person who actually walks into the classroom every day.
Lisa: And I think here's where students really start to panic. Because that specific moment, that genuine relationship, and that teacher who truly knows you cannot be manufactured in October of senior year.
And y'all, it is August third. When you know, if we're going back to Episode 1 when we say you are not behind, you aren't behind.
This is where we should already start diving into things that need to get done. It is not October, and it is not a manufactured application or manufactured recommendation letter or anything else that's going to cause even more stress because you waited until October 15th to apply.
Josh: Right. A great recommendation letter is not something you suddenly secure in twelfth grade. It's something you've been building by showing up.
Lisa: Yep. And when you think about building a relationship, please do not decide that tomorrow you need to become the loudest kid in the class or camp out in your teacher's doorway every afternoon and launch a full-scale campaign called “Please Remember Me When Recommendation Season Is Here.”
This is not building a genuine relationship, y'all. That is performing for a future recommendation letter. And trust me, teachers and admissions counselors both know the difference.
Josh: Yeah, what you described is a little creepy, and teachers will definitely notice immediately.
Lisa: I mean, let's be honest. Teenagers are wonderful humans. We would not be doing this job if we didn't think that. But subtle? I would say that's not always one of the things teenagers are best at.
Josh: Yeah, not quite. Building a relationship means being present. It means participating when you genuinely have something to contribute, asking for help when you need it, following up on an idea that honestly interests you.
Lisa: And responding thoughtfully to feedback instead of, I don't know, flipping straight to the grade and ignoring every comment your teacher has written.
Let the teachers see how you learn, not just the final number, but the process. How you think, how you struggle, adjust, and how you come back from something.
Josh: And the students who build the strongest relationships are usually the genuinely curious ones. They ask another question because they actually want to understand, not because they are banking recommendation points for two years from now. Teachers can tell the difference.
Lisa: Great. All right, Josh. So we've covered what a recommendation letter should be and what it should sound like. I think now we should talk about who the student should actually ask.
Josh: That's a very important question. Students should ask the teacher they feel knows them. Not just the teacher who looks most impressive on paper, like a department chair or something along those lines.
This is one of the most common mistakes we see. Students think they need the teacher from the most advanced class, the subject closest to their intended major, or simply the class where they earned the highest grade.
Lisa: Those things do matter, but maybe on a smaller scale. They especially matter if the college or program asks for a particular subject. But in the absence of a specific requirement, the relationship actually matters more than what the teacher is teaching.
Josh: Exactly. A teacher who watched a student struggle, ask for help, improve over time, develop real confidence, and now have much more to say can write a very valuable letter.
Lisa: Right. A student who earned that B but kept showing up, asking questions, taking feedback, and growing may get a much stronger letter than the student who quietly sailed through the class and got an A.
The grade is not what makes the recommendation letter a good one. The relationship does. An A is not the qualification. Being known is the qualification.
Josh: Yes. And when a college accepts two teacher recommendations, choose people who can reveal different sides of you.
Two letters that both say, “Excellent student, works hard, participates in class,” are not giving the admissions reader much more than one letter would. So what's the value of having both?
Lisa: One letter that shows intellectual curiosity and another that reveals collaboration, creativity, or resilience can build a much fuller picture.
Like we mentioned earlier, check the actual requirements. Some programs ask for a teacher in a specific academic area. We just cannot say that enough.
Josh: Exactly. STEM programs, for example, may prefer or require a math or science teacher. Don't assume. Always check.
Lisa: There it is again, Josh. Look at every school individually. I actually love this episode because I really feel like it's one giant “it depends” with examples, and you know how much I love “it depends.”
Josh: Yes, I know how much you love it. Maybe we have some kind of co-branding deal. We'll talk about that off camera.
Colleges also frequently prefer teachers who taught the student in a core academic subject during junior year. Junior-year teachers have usually worked with the student more recently, in more advanced coursework, and at a point where the student is becoming a more mature learner. So that makes junior year a little bit of a sweet spot.
Lisa: During junior year, y'all, pay attention to which teacher actually sees you clearly.
Who understands how you think? Who has watched you respond to a challenge? Who has seen you contribute something beyond just a good grade?
Josh: Be present enough that the people teaching you have something real to remember about you.
Lisa: Okay. Now let's talk about letter timing. When should a student ask a teacher?
Josh: We recommend spring of junior year. Don't wait until fall of senior year when every other student suddenly remembers recommendation letters exist.
Lisa: Right. Popular teachers receive a lot of requests, and some cap the number of letters they're willing to write. Asking in the spring gives the teacher more time and may help the student secure a spot before the teacher's list fills up.
Josh: And students should make the request directly, in person when possible, not through an email from a parent.
Parents, much love, but I'm going to ask you to step away from the keyboard. One of my favorite sports broadcasters, former coach Herman Edwards, always had this advice for athletes when they were posting things they shouldn't on social media: “Don't hit send.” The student should ask.
And when they're doing the asking, there's one specific word that matters.
Lisa: Yes, there is, Josh. It is strong. “Would you feel comfortable writing me a strong college recommendation letter?”
Josh: Right. That one word, strong, is doing a lot of work behind the scenes. It gives the teacher room to be honest if they do not know the student well enough or don't believe they can write a genuinely supportive letter.
Lisa: And if that teacher hesitates or says, “I may not be the best person,” kiddo, do not take it personally. Don't look at it like a rejection. I know that's easier said than done, but that teacher just did you a favor.
And listen, if there are teachers listening to this podcast, I need y'all to hear this too. If you cannot write a letter longer than what could fit on a Post-it note, or you feel you're not going to say anything that could potentially help a kid, just tell them no.
Or tell them you don't have time or that you already have too many students you're writing for.
I wish colleges didn't ask for letters of recommendation because I actually don't think it's equitable, but that is a whole other podcast we could talk about.
Josh: Is that your hot take? Are you preemptively doing a hot take?
Lisa: It should be my hot take. But no, it's true. They're not equitable. But there are still a lot of schools out there that ask for them. So if they are asking, teachers, do a good job.
Kiddos, if that teacher tells you they can't do it or they hesitate, think of it as them doing you a favor.
Josh: Right. And students, remember, we touched on this a few minutes ago: getting a lukewarm letter from an impressive teacher is much worse than getting an enthusiastic letter from the right teacher.
Lisa: Every time.
Josh: Once the teacher says yes, assuming everything goes right with the world, you do everything right, you ask in spring of junior year, you ask for that strong recommendation letter, and the teacher agrees, you as the student need to provide them with some context.
Lisa: One thousand percent. Sometimes your school will give you the context that you need to provide. Some teachers already have a document they want you to fill out, or some college counseling offices will have a document.
Josh and I actually have a document our students fill out that we send back to them, and we help them write an email to their teachers so they can be proactive.
But context does not mean you're going to write the letter for them. Okay? It definitely does not mean handing over a list that says, “Please make sure you mention I'm brilliant, compassionate, innovative, courageous, humble, and while you're here, an absolute joy in the classroom.”
We've all read those. That is not context, kiddo. That is a press release, y'all.
Josh: Maybe the kids have their own marketing firm or something like that.
Lisa: Probably.
Josh: What we mean by context is helping the teacher remember meaningful moments from their class. It could be a project, paper, discussion, academic challenge, or piece of feedback that stayed with the student.
Lisa: They can also share what they learned about themselves or their academic interests, what they hope to pursue in college, and probably give the teacher a college deadline.
For students in the South, we've seen admissions applications being due a lot earlier. If you're applying to schools in the South and they're asking for letters of recommendation, maybe right when school starts, check back in if you've already asked the teacher or if you're asking them for the first time.
Maybe give them a deadline of September 15th, which I know seems early. If it's not a school in the South and has a later deadline, maybe October 15th.
That gives them a few months, especially if you're a senior and they've never taught you before. It gives them time to learn about you, but also be upfront about the deadline. Do not wait until the last minute.
This is not a good look for you, and it does not help your recommender at all.
And again, if I could say, man, this should also be my hot take, but it's not. Or my mic drop, and it's not. But do not give them a résumé, even if they ask for one, unless they are a club sponsor or your coach.
They should know about you through something they've led you in. If they have not, they do not need to regurgitate your résumé. Colleges want to see how they personally know you and how you do in the classroom, not that you were president of student body or did an amazing community service project. Colleges will see that on your résumé.
Josh: Exactly. And this context you're providing teachers, please keep it useful and, most importantly, organized.
Lisa: Mm-hmm.
Josh: A teacher should not have to dig through a 27-page brag sheet to uncover the one meaningful story they're going to use in their letter.
Lisa: Yes. You are jogging their memory, not assigning homework about you. Keep that in mind.
Josh: Exactly. The other thing to keep in mind is once you've done all these things, make sure you're following your school's process.
Complete questionnaires on time. Add the recommender correctly to the application platform. Communicate deadlines clearly, especially if you're applying to a school with an unusually early deadline.
Lisa: And once the teacher says yes, please give them room to actually write your letter. Unless the deadline is getting close and the application still shows that it's missing, do not check every three days asking for an update.
You gave them the deadline. They know it exists. Trust the process and let them work.
Josh: And finally, and probably most importantly, remember to say thank you.
Lisa: Remember to say thank you. Think about this, y'all. Teachers don't have to write the letter. A handwritten note is lovely.
But a sincere email or an in-person thank-you also matters. Teachers usually write these letters outside their regular teaching responsibilities. After school, on weekends, sometimes during the summer if you've asked them at the end of junior year.
They are giving you their time, their memory, and their advocacy. Acknowledge that.
Josh: Exactly. They're investing in your story, and they want to know how the next chapter of your story unfolds.
Lisa: One thousand percent. Okay, I know I've kind of given some mic drops or hard truths, but now this is the part of our podcast where it is truly time for Hot Take or Hard Truth. Josh, you're up.
Josh: My hot take: You can't fake a recommendation letter into existence during senior year.
This is the one part of the application, students, you literally can't cram for. It's not like studying. There's no October strategy, no clever move, no packet you can hand the teacher that manufactures a relationship that didn't exist.
The letter is the receipt for how you showed up over two or three years.
If you're a freshman or sophomore listening to this, this is your reminder that the work you're doing right now, being present and curious in class, is already building your recommendation letters whether you know it or not.
Lisa: Josh, that was a good one. Actually, it was really beautiful.
The best way to get that letter is just to be genuine. Be the kind of student a teacher would love to write about. Good job, Josh.
Okay, let me think. This is my real one.
The teacher who gave you a B might write you a better letter than the teacher who gave you an A. I mean that.
Being known beats being graded well every single time. The teacher who watched you fight through something really hard has a real story to tell. The teacher whose class you just breezed through may have nothing to say beyond, “They're a good student, and they got an A.”
Do not choose your recommender based on your grade. Choose based on who actually saw you.
Josh: Exactly, students. No shortcuts. It's all about being real over time.
Lisa: Right.
Josh: All right, Lisa. Drop the Mic. You've already dropped it a couple of times, so this is actually for real now. Take us home.
Lisa: So for real, for real, this is the real mic drop? Okay.
Here is what I want every family to carry out of this episode: Great recommendation letters are not engineered. They're earned. They grow out of genuine curiosity and actually being present in the classroom.
The goal was never to impress every teacher or turn every class discussion, every office-hour visit, and every homework question into some giant admissions strategy. That sounds exhausting, y'all. And honestly, teachers would see right through it.
The goal is actually much simpler and much better. Become the kind of student the teacher genuinely knows and has real stories to tell about, where they have a real connection.
Show up. Ask questions. Take feedback seriously. Let your teacher see how you think, how you grow, how you treat the people around you, and what you do when the work gets hard.
Do that, and when the time comes, you will not be scrambling to find someone to vouch for you. You will simply be deciding which of the people who truly know you can tell the best story about you.
Josh: Pretty good.
Lisa: Thank you.
Josh: My final thought for students this week, especially younger students: We've touched on this before. The recommendation letter you may need two years from now is already being written.
It's not on paper yet. It's not in a document your teacher has started saving somewhere, although depending on the teacher, it might be. But it's being written in the memory of every teacher who is watching how you learn right now.
Those teachers are noticing whether you stay engaged when the material gets difficult, whether you ask thoughtful questions, whether you respond to feedback, whether you help the people around you, and whether you keep trying when the first approach does not work.
None of that means you need to perform for your teachers or turn every class into a two-year campaign for a recommendation letter.
It simply means that how you show up matters. I think we've said that before.
The strongest letters come from a collection of small, honest moments repeated over time. So students, be curious. Be present. Let your teachers see the real process of how you think, grow, struggle, and improve.
Because when the time comes for someone to tell your story, you want them to have a story worth telling.
Lisa: Right. Start now. Be present now. And the letters are going to take care of themselves.
Josh: Bingo.
Lisa: Sorry, I just felt like that needed a little something.
Josh: It did. Again, are you saying that we need sound effects?
Lisa: I'm not saying that, Joshua.
Josh: Well, I think you are saying that. You said it without saying it. Anyway, I'm going to take it as a win, and we need to invest in some sound effects. Would have been really helpful here.
All right, Lisa. Next week, provided again we still get the keys to this place, we're tackling the thing that quietly derails more strong applications than almost anything: deadlines, organization, and the application timeline.
Lisa: Oh my gosh. I just had to take a big breath before you even said the word deadlines because it's giving me heart palpitations.
Deadlines. We have Early Decision, Early Action, Restrictive Early Action, Regular Decision, and how you build a system so nothing slips through the cracks when you're juggling ten applications at once.
Josh: Yeah, because one of the most heartbreaking things in this whole process is a great student who missed a deadline. Especially when it's completely preventable.
Lisa: So no missed deadlines, no last-minute panic. We're going to show you how. Bring your calendar, maybe a snack. We're getting organized, y'all, which you know my color-coded brain loves.
Josh: Same time and same place next week.
Lisa: We are Decision Drop, making your college journey collaborative, simple, and most importantly, yours.
The best letters come from being genuinely known. And so does the best guidance.
If you would like us to help your kiddo build the kind of relationships that lead to powerful recommendation letters, choose the right recommenders, and make sure every part of the application tells one authentic story, head to decisiondrop.com and check us out.
Josh: Thanks for dropping in. And remember, like and subscribe. See y'all next week.
Lisa: Bye.
