A Teacher's Survival Guide for Writing College Recommendations

Are you a high school teacher facing a pile of college recommendations? Do you find the process frustrating? Then this booklet might be just what you need.

Bill Hiatt, who taught high school (and wrote recommendations) for thirty-six years, explains how you can take a potentially unmanageable situation and make it work for you. He discusses in detail the writing process itself, but more than half the booklet is devoted to developing a system that gives you enough time and enough good information to do the job effectively without making yourself crazy.

This booklet was written with teachers in mind, particularly those who have less experience with the process and haven't yet found a way of approaching it that works well for them. However, a student or parent trying to understand the process from a teacher's point of view might also benefit from reading this booklet, if only to understand how to interact with teachers who may be asked to write recommendations later on.

This booklet is written based on the author's experience with the educational system in the United States and may not be applicable in other countries.