<p>D is junior trying to decide which teachers to ask to write recommendations. She thinks her CalculusBC teacher whom she's had twice, and her Latin teacher who she's had for three years know her the best and would be able to write outstanding recommendations.</p>
<p>The problem is that her current top choice is UChicago, which she'll apply Early Action and they require the recommendation of an English or Social Studies teacher. She's had much more in depth discussions with her sophomore English teacher than she's had with her current English teacher, although she's done well in both. She thinks that the sophomore teacher could write a better rec. Same is true for Social Studies, where she took AP Euro as a sophomore, and is taking Honors US as a junior. I know colleges like to see recs from junior or senior teachers. </p>
<p>I'm thinking the best approach is to use Math and Latin recs for those colleges that don't specify which teachers, and to use Math and Sophomore English for UChicago and any others like that. </p>
<p>Do people think that makes sense?</p>
<p>I just read UChicago’s LOR requirements, I didn’t know they were so specific! Yes, it sounds good to go with Math and Latin for less restrictive schools and Math and soph English for UChicago. I think that a soph teacher is usually better than a sr teacher as LORs need to be written by the end of Dec at the latest (earlier for rolling or early admissions), and that doesn’t give the student much time to interact with the teacher.</p>
<p>S went with French and AP Bio for EA, and added an English teacher for U of C RD. IIRC, he went ahead and sent all three recs to his RD schools, plus another one from a music teacher. (Having learned from classmate who was accepted at EA school and sent 4 recs that all of that “the thicker the file” stuff was BS and it was foolish to only send two recs.)</p>
<p>Well, I’m not sure if this will help, but here goes:</p>
<p>I spent my freshman and sophomore years at a (terrible) public school. I am spending my junior and senior years at a distance learning school. I don’t know the teachers at the distance learning school very well. However, colleges want recent recommendations. That said, I will submit one teacher recommendation from my distance learning school and one or two from my old school.</p>