Senior Bio Sheet (for Letters of Recommendation)

As part of the admission application process, many colleges and universities will ask you to submit letters of recommendation from teachers, counselors, and administrators. The expectation these schools have is that your letter writers possess a strong working knowledge of who you are. Notably, however, teachers, counselors, and administrators often have only narrowly-defined knowledge of you, based on working with you in specific contexts (e.g. in a single class, periodic counseling meetings, and/or in an extracurricular activity). The Senior Bio is designed to provide a more well-rounded picture of you for those who write letters on your behalf. While you need not invest hours and hours in your responses, my strong encouragement is to invest enough time and effort to help your writers understand a bit more about who you are. Doing so will result in your getting better recommendation letters!  

SPECIAL NOTE: Recommendation letter etiquette calls for two things: 

• Speaking to your letter writer in person to make the letter request, and
• Providing your letter writer at least two weeks notice ahead of when you need the letter. 

Please practice good recommendation letter etiquette! Your letter writers will thank you!