<p>He's a ninth grade teacher so that's about 3 years ago.</p>
<p>At a Yale info session, the rep said to avoid 9th grade teacher recs unless you’ve subsequently taken another course with that instructor. The reasoning is that recent teachers can better portray you as an academician and classroom participant.</p>
<p>Well, he was my coach for this academic challenge club this year, but we’ve only met two class periods a week for only two weeks</p>
<p>My child was told at many college info sessions that, unless an additional teacher has something very specific and new and wonderful to say about you that is markedly different from your other teacher recs, more is not better. Many colleges apparently consider it a bad sign if you can’t find a junior or senior year teacher (ideally from a higher-level course more close to what you’ll experience academically in college) to write recommendations. They discouraged even 10th grade teacher requests (unless it’s a teacher you have again in junior/senior year).</p>