An Inside Higher Education article highlights research showing that counselor recommendation letters for students of color, first-generation students and those from low-income backgrounds are often shorter and less detailed about things like intellectual promise and extracurricular activities than those for students at private high schools, when applying to at least one selective institution. The research also found disparities in the content of letters based on socioeconomic indicators, such as use of a Common App fee waiver.
Whereas private school students’ letter writers tended to use the space to highlight academic or extracurricular achievements, letters for fee-waiver recipients were more likely to include information about students’ “personal qualities.” That might mean that counselors used the majority of the space in their letters to describe how the student overcame economic disadvantages or other challenges, Professor Julie J. Park said.
“In some ways, there was a crowding-out effect,” she added. “The letters are focusing on the personal qualities and the contextual circumstances, but they’re less likely to talk about other aspects of the student’s experience.”
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