Letter of recommendation

[Anonymous]

DC will be attending a new high school for senior year. We're moving states. DC wants to ask current a junior year teacher for a recommendation letter when they apply for college. Is this ok? Also, what is the counselor report or recommendation ? I guess the new school counselor will complete this or the current one?

Thank you

[Anonymous]

While the new school will complete it, it’s totally in bounds for you to ask the current counselor to forward a note to the new one. Most schools ask parents to complete a “brag sheet” about your kid, to help the counselor articulate the greatest hits. The previous counselor could forward something that would be reviewed with the brag sheet. Talk the new counselor but they’d presumably welcome it.

[Anonymous]

He should ask a current teacher now — at least to give a heads up and confirm the best way to connect with them when he’s doing the common app.

Agree with pp that he can also ask his current counselor to connect with the new one if that person knows him pretty well. The new counselor would probably appreciate assistance and insight when writing a letter for a student they’ve only known a few weeks, honestly.

[Anonymous]

I’m a teacher. I wrote a rec for a student who switched high schools. He had to set it up with his new school because they had a slightly different process for using Common App, but after a bit of back and forth we figured it out. I would had written him one had he stayed, so writing one for him during his senior year was no problem. I did check with my administrator first, to be sure there was nothing problematic. Easy peasy and totally fine; it happens more often than you’d think.