Unit
Make your college application shine
College Admission Counselor
- 15 years of experience helping students get into top universities around the country including Harvard, UC Berkley, UCLA, Stanford, and Brown
- UCLA, Stanford University
- Owner & managing direct
To unlock all 5,300 videos, start your free trial.
College Admission Counselor
- 15 years of experience helping students get into top universities around the country including Harvard, UC Berkley, UCLA, Stanford, and Brown
- UCLA, Stanford University
- Owner & managing direct
How many letters of recommendation do you actually need? Public colleges need between 0 and 2 recommendations. You’ll also need 0-1 counselor recommendations. For example, Universities of California don’t want any letters of recommendation. University of Michigan accepts 1 letter of recommendation. Private colleges are different, however. They will accept up to 4 recommendations, 1 counselor recommendation, and up to 3 optional recommendations. In general, you want to ask teachers that you’ve had in 11th and 12th grade. You want to avoid asking teachers that you had in 9th or 10th grade who might not remember you that well. Make sure that whoever you ask knows who you are and what you’ve been up to. Liking you as a person is not enough. If you’re applying to STEM majors, it’s important that you get at least one recommendation from a teacher in that field. Your final grade in a class is not always the most important thing to consider when looking for a teacher to write you a letter of recommendation. A deep understanding of who you are and how passionate you are about learning is a lot easier for your teacher to write about than just your grade.
Transcript Coming Soon!