Each fall many teachers like Jennifer Lee spend dozens of hours at their computers doing a low-profile and essential part of the college application process: writing letters of recommendation on behalf of seniors they’ve had as students.
Lee, who teaches physics and biology, said she spends between one to two hours on each letter, depending on the person, while English teacher Marcos Cortez estimates his letters take 40 to 45 minutes.
Particularly hard hit in the letter writing crunch each year are teachers who teach junior level classes. As College Board, among other application platforms, recommends students to request letters from either their junior or senior year teachers, Lee said she has written up to 35 recommendation letters some years. In contrast, after teaching only freshmen during the 2023-24 school year, she is writing a modest five letters this fall.
Even Cortez — who has taught mainly sophomores for the past two years — has written as many as 20 letters for a single year. For the Class of 2025, Saratoga staff members wrote 483 letters, according to College and Career adviser Sierra Ward. English teacher Natasha Ritchie wrote 32 letters and science teacher Kristen Thomson wrote 31.
Since they have time to write only a certain number of recommendations, many teachers who teach only junior and senior year classes — such as AP Chemistry teacher Janny Cahatol and math teacher PJ Yim — put a cap on how many they are able to write. Some teachers have a lottery system for the letters while others do a first-come, first-served system.
Before the writing process begins, teachers sometimes must navigate sensitive conversations with students about whether they’re the right person to write a recommendation. Lee emphasizes the importance of having these conversations early in the process.
“I always tell students: ‘The reason I want you to ask me first is that I want to be honest with you if I’m not the right person to write for you,” Lee said. “Maybe I haven’t seen enough of you in the context that we work together or maybe there’s been an issue, and I don’t want someone to get a bad letter if I’m not the right teacher for them.”
However, for Lee, these situations are rare, occurring only once every several years. She notes that in previous teaching positions, she has had to decline letter requests due to academic integrity violations or other deal-breaking issues that would make it difficult to write a strong recommendation.
“Luckily for me, it hasn’t come up very often where I’ve had to have that conversation, because most of the time, I have things that I can say about my students and things that I could highlight about them. Everyone here is generally pretty great,” Lee said.
Each teacher has a different process, but both Cortez and Lee use a Google Form where students self-assess their engagement in the class, strengths, areas of growth and any memorable moments in class that would make for a unique letter of recommendation. Afterwards, both start drafting and finalizing their letter.
For Lee, the summer provides a crucial window for letter-writing: “I can block out some thoughts, outline things and write some ideas down. That way, I’m not scrambling to write full letters in the fall,” she said. “Also, in the summer, stuff is still fresh in my mind about how that last school year went with those students, and that helps a little bit.”
However, it’s important to note that while the PTSO supports this approach by compensating teachers for their time, teachers writing recommendation letters is not a requirement of their job requirements with the district.
In fact, most teachers put in hours to write these letters with little to no compensation. The PTSO offers compensation for teachers who write 15-19 letters for one paid summer work day, and those who write more than 20 for two days.
Each paid summer work day is an extra duty pay — a flat rate of around $325 — for the past few years, principal Greg Louie said.
Guidance counselors like Brian Safine also do significant writing on behalf of their seniors. This fall, Safine wrote more than 70 reports on his students’ behalf.
In addition to college letters, additional requests for summer programs come to teachers from freshmen, sophomores and juniors who ask for letters or other feedback to summer programs — again requiring time outside of the school day to complete the tasks.
Although Lee works over the summer to start brainstorming, for both her and Cortez, most letters of recommendations are drafted and written in the fall (early action school applications are due on Nov 1.), as they scramble to get the school year on track.
“[Writing college recommendation letters] affects my work level. They require me to work more on weekends, evenings and extra early mornings,” Cortez said.
The recommendation letter process raises complex questions about their impact and effectiveness. Despite years of writing these letters, some teachers are still uncertain about their true influence on college decisions.
“I honestly have no idea if it makes a difference or not. I have never really heard from any college counselors that these make a difference,” Cortez said. “I am working under the assumption that it does make a difference, and therefore I am putting in my best effort to really make each student shine as an individual.”
The subjectivity of recommendation letters adds another layer of complexity to the process. Teachers have to navigate the balance between maintaining their authentic voice while ensuring the student’s qualities shine through. However, some teachers think colleges could pursue alternate ways of getting the same information.
“I think colleges should consider interviewing students, as opposed to letters of recommendation,” Cortez said. ”While I’m assuming all teachers have integrity and are trying to support their students in professional, authentic and honest ways, I don’t know if that’s always the case.”
Whether or not these letters make an impact on a student’s college application process, teachers will continue to dedicate their time and effort into these letters.
