Asking senior year teachers for recommendations

Applying to College
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<p>I was just wondering what you guys' opinions were on asking senior year teachers for recommendations. I'm unsure how these recommendations would come across to admissions officers: will they get a bad feeling because doing so implies that you didn't make enough/good connections with your teachers junior year, or are recs from senior year teachers perfectly and equally acceptable? Or does it depend on the college? Thanks for any input!</p>

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<p>I have the exact same question…</p>

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<p>Senior recs hold the same weight as junior ones. It’s all about getting recs from teachers who know who as a good student AND as a person, as long as you have that, it doesn’t matter whether they taught you last yr or this yr.</p>

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<p>Well for me, I really want my upcoming AP Lit/Creative Writing teacher to sign a Rec for me (he is a published author and has sold over 3 books so far). I already asked my World History teacher (from sophomore year) to write a Rec and he said he’d love to (he is an Air Force Counter Intelligence Veteran Officer).</p>

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<p>^he’s only sold 3 books? how sad…
hahahaha jk =]</p>

<p>thanks for your input!</p>

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<p>Haha, I think he has only wrote 3… I just kind of threw a number on the top of my head, either 3 or more. But I think he’d be a great Rec!!! Haha, and this will be my first time having him as a teacher (and I’ll have him for 2 classes) so I hope he will write a good one!</p>

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<p>haha i meant like, selling only three books in total as opposed to writing three books and selling a bunch =]</p>

<p>good luck with your recommendation!!</p>

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<p>It seems that you want your World History teacher to write your recommendation, but I have to say that schools really do prefer to see recommendations from teachers who taught you as an upperclassman. A lot can change between who you are as a freshman/sophomore and who you are when you’re applying to colleges. </p>

<p>NOTE: what your teacher has accomplished has VERY LITTLE BEARING on how powerful the recommendation is. If a teacher knows you better than the published author by the time application season rolls around, his/her recommendation would be worth way more than the author’s. It’s totally about what kind of relationship you have with your teacher, not about how much they’ve accomplished or what you perceive their word to be “worth.”</p>

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<p>I am very unfortunate in my position. My school is very small - average class size for me is 6. That being said, due to the extremely small class size, my favorite teacher, who knows me very very very well, is actually my Language teacher, my Literature teacher, my Drama teacher, my Community Service supervisor, and my Guidance Counselor.</p>

<p>It would be very very very strange for a college to see all school forms completed by the same person lol xD</p>

<p>(I don’t intend to do this, obviously :D)</p>

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<p>Choosing rec’s also depends on how well of a writer the person is, and how well they can “manipulate” facts about you to make you look good.
Some of my most favorite teachers have written pretty basic reps that dont sound so good… like "Sam’s grades show his determination and motivation blah blah
Yet my guidance counselor who I hardly talk to wrote this amazing rec that made it look like we knew eachother since forever and that i was amazing and stood out.</p>

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<p>Worth repeating. OP, it is fine to ask a senior teacher if you feel confident they will know you well enough to write a rec early in the year. But their accomplishments should not be the guiding force in your decision to ask that teacher.</p>

12

<p>While most places tell you to get junior year teachers for recs, I used a sophomore year teacher and a senior year teacher. Even though I had only had my senior year teacher for a month, I knew he would write a really good recommendation for me.
I ended up being really happy with my admissions in the spring, so I’d say just go with whoever will write the best recommendation.</p>

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<p>The most important thing is how well your teacher knows you and can tell a story about you. </p>

<p>Here are some more thoughts: [Your</a> Education. Your GuruFinder. Some Thoughts on Getting Strong Letters of Recommendation](<a href=“http://blog.■■■■■■■■■■/?p=38]Your”>http://blog.■■■■■■■■■■/?p=38)</p>

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<p>I’m not surprised. Some teachers don’t understand how to write rec letters and think that emphasizing work ethic is a good thing, (personality, maturity, and character are better). GC are obviously more familiar with colleges and know how to write letters. I think all GC’s should check over each teacher’s rec letter to make sure its good (not for content per se, but punctuation and focus).</p>

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<p>Meh, I have to somewhat disagree. I think adcoms will give more weight to a ROL from a teacher that has had the student in class for a longer period of time.</p>

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<p>Would it be totally weird to have one rec from a teacher of 6 years and the other of 1 lol? xD</p>

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<p>I have another question:
How good is a rec from the CEO of a company where i did an internship over the summer as compared to my teachers?</p>

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<p>A quote from Stanford’s website regarding its view on additional recs (which I think accurately represents most colleges’ view of additional recommendations):</p>

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<p>Source: <a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/dept/uga/site/faq/index.html#faq_1_3[/url]”>http://www.stanford.edu/dept/uga/site/faq/index.html#faq_1_3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;