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4 Things You Might Not Be Doing In Your Counselor Letters, But You Should

Jesse Carrillo

By Rob Mooring, Contigo Ed Content Expert

I’ll never forget my first interaction with my coworker when I became an Admissions Counselor at my alma mater, Pepperdine University.  It went something like this:

Co-Worker: “Welcome to the office!”

Me: “Thanks!  I’m really excited to work here.”

Co-Worker: “What were you doing before this if you don’t mind me asking?  Did you just graduate?”

Me: “Actually no.  I spent the past five years as a sports anchor at a television station in Texas.”

Co-Worker: “Oh that’s cool!  Wait, how old are you then?”

Me: “I’m 27.”

Co-Worker: “Oh…wow.”


Oh wow.  That was her response.  I had never felt older in my life.  And I was only 27!

It didn’t take me long to realize that this new career I had ventured into was filled with young people.  People who were much younger than I was.  

And the reason that story is important is because, by and large, nothing has changed.  The people evaluating your students’ chances of being admitted to the college of their choice are kids, most of them fresh off the graduation stage and entering their first real, grown-up job.  

And these kids are the same people reading your letters of recommendation.  It’s likely that the writing style that they identify with is closer to the way your students write, than you do.  And I know I don’t need to tell you that grabbing a student's attention is paramount to success in a classroom or college counseling meeting, and the same is true for the young people working in admissions offices.

With that in mind, here are my four tips for writing counselor letters of recommendation that will put your students in the best light possible, which is what they deserve.

Tip #1: Get Great Stories

There’s a trend that I have seen at various conferences that I’ve attended, and within my role as a season admission reader.  More and more counselors are writing the bullet-point format.  

And I get it.  Some of you have caseloads of 500 or 600 students, so writing letters like this makes your lives easier.  So no judgment.  But I hate the bullet-point format for letters of recommendation.  I think it leads you to lean on a kids’ resume and just list their activities (which the colleges already know about), but most of all, it doesn’t encourage you to be a storyteller, and I love telling stories.  So even if it’s just for a few of your students, do your best to be a storyteller.

And the key to being able to do that is to get great stories to tell.  I think a lot of college counseling offices send out surveys to students, which is a good start, but the older people in their lives (parents or guardians), are vastly more important to get input from.  Parents and guardians remember the little things that kids do that most students don’t remember or don’t think are important.  Here are some questions we ask parents/guardians in surveys:

  • If you were asked by an admission officer: Tell me a story about your daughter that captures who she is apart from their credentials and resume - What story would you tell them?

  • Would you like to share a story about your daughter's successes or failures?

  • When you think about your daughter's college application experience, and subsequent college enrollment, what are your biggest hopes?


And when you ask students questions, try and get them to tell stories too.  Here are some we use:

  • Can you tell us about an academic challenge and how you overcame it?

  • Please explain your role in the life of your family. How has your family influenced the person you are today?

  • What is the most important thing you have learned about yourself while a student at St. Agnes?

  • What is something not many people know about you?


In order to tell great stories, you have to get them first.  So check your survey questions and see if you can get them.

Tip #2: Tell Great Stories

There are two things that I constantly remind myself when writing letters of recommendation.  Teacher letters of recommendation speak to the type of student that kid is.  But my letter of recommendation needs to speak to the type of person that student is.

So I don’t spend time in my letter talking about who they are in class or what their academic achievements are.  Colleges know those through teacher letters and transcripts.

Instead, I pretend that I am a journalist for the New York Times, and it’s my job to write a 300 word profile on this student.  And I use stories either from the students, parents, or both, as the vehicle for describing who that student is.

So instead of saying a student is kind and inclusive, I’ll show it by sharing a story about how they invited a kid to their lunch table that was sitting alone.

Instead of saying a student is curious, I’ll show it by sharing a story about how they once bought a book about laminar flow, even though they had no idea what that was.

Show, don’t tell.  Take one story that you found interesting from their survey, and use that as a vehicle to highlight a great part of their personality or spirit.

Tip #3: Beware the Beginning

Admission counselors are in a rush, all the time.  During my time at Pepperdine, in order for me to get through all the apps I needed to in a day, I had to make a decision in five minutes or less.  Five minutes!  I also read letters of recommendation at the very end of the file for each student, and there was something that most counselors did that made my life so much easier.  Here is how they would start their letter:

It is an honor and a privilege to recommend Jane Doe for admission.  She is brilliant, kind, caring, and inclusive, and will make an excellent addition to your incoming class.

This start to a letter was such a gift to the time constrained admissions counselor I was.  But guess how much of the letter I read after these two sentences?

None of it.  Not a single word.

So instead of starting your letter with something the admission rep is expecting, surprise them.  An opening I like to use sometimes is:

Jane Does is not who I thought she was.

Here are some others that I used last year:

Jane Doe rolled her eyes at her Mom.

Jane Doe did something, twice, that I had never heard anyone do before.

With headlines like that, you force the reader to keep going.  And if you tell great stories, from great stories you get from students and parents, they might just read the whole thing.

Tip #4: Short & Sweet

Not long ago I was looking for a video to show me how to change the air filter in my wife’s car.  I put what I needed into the search bar into YouTube, and three videos popped up.  One was 8 minutes long, one was 5 minutes long, and one was a little less than 3 minutes long.

So which one did I click on?

The answer is obvious, right?  We have very little free time on our hands, and we want to know what we need to know instantaneously.  Admission counselors are the same way.  They have zero time, and they just want the answers they need.

So help them out!  Make sure your letters are easy to read.  And the best way to do that is to make paragraphs short and sweet.  And even if you give someone a lot to read (like an almost 1,500 word blog post), make sure paragraphs are no more than 5 or 6 sentences long, preferably shorter.  It helps the story move, and makes the test easier to digest.

To wrap this up, thanks for the work you do.  It makes such a difference in the lives of your students, and it can give admissions reps a glimpse into the kind of human they are potentially getting on their campus.  It’s a daunting task, but we know you are up for the challenge, and I hope these tips help.

Contigo Ed Resources

Are you looking for additional guidance on Letter of Recommendations for teachers or counselors? Check out these resources by Contigo Ed below.