Advice on recommendations...

<p>Well, I already know one of the teachers that I want to get to write my recommendation & he has already agreed. But for my second rec I am trying to decide between getting a teacher that I talked to personally several times and who has said really wonderful things while I talked to him (I am confident it would be as good written down) or a professor who happened to graduate from the University I am applying to. The thing is I took the latter's class hoping to do stellar but I later found out that my prof doesn't believe in giving A's and that actually ended up the lowest grade on my transcript. I am thinking that if I get him to write a recommendation he could perhaps explain that his class tends to be harder than most & it could give me a little leeway. However, I don't know him as personally as the former prof so I am really wondering if a probably awesome rec outweighs a rec from an alum that can <em>maybe</em> explain why that is the lowest grade. Any help/thoughts would be greatly appreciated! :-P</p>

<p>any advice would be appreciated! ^.^</p>

<p>you should def go with the professor who knows you better...that will have more weight than an alum who doesnt know you that well.</p>

<p>agreed. schools really don't care if an alum writes a good letter for you... it's a mistake to think that one random alum will have any pull at all in terms of admissions. furthermore, using a letter of recommendation to explain one grade in one class in high school seems kind of silly.</p>

<p>thanks mgrace and umrunner for the comments-- i definitely see where you guys are coming from. oh btw i am actually a transfer applicant so it was to explain last semester! :-P both prof actually liked me & i talked to both of them i am just more confident the first one would have good things to say because he was a more verbal person. does that make any difference? umrunner, do u still think it wouldn't be helpful to explain or still state i was one of the strongest students in the class? thanks again for the input!</p>

<p>essence, how low of a grade are we talking here? I would say anything a B- or above doesnt merit explaining if the rest of your grades are good. anything lower than that, maybe.</p>

<p>really? oh it was a B+/3.33..is that not considered on the bad side? I don't really know..</p>

<p>a B+? Its not perfect but one B+ amongst a bunch of As in college is not bad at all...def nothing you have to explain</p>

<p>Yes, if it's a B+ don't worry about it at all. If it was in the C range I would have suggested you to consider having it mentioned in a letter.</p>