I have a couple of questions regarding my processes for some of my college apps. Please bear with me! I have a few.
Who should I get a humanities rec letter from? I have two candidates: my freshman lit and junior lit teacher (first come first serve basis, ~9 people per class get a rec letter, she likes me because I had her for two [non consecutive] years) OR my APUSH teacher (I did get a B first semester, but she likes me and admires my improvement, lottery basis held on third week of school, only 30 people get rec letters)
During my sophomore year, my dad and my brother constantly fought into near midnight hours right outside my room over my brother's academics. This did deprive me of some sleep. Should I put this in the "additional info" section? I faced a lot of trouble my sophomore year already, including depression from the death of a family member.
Should I put music as one of my ECs? I played music for 10 years, but only for fun and the experience. I played three instruments, and I played cello in the school's orchestra (I was last chair, but I don't need to mention that).
Should I put sports as one of my ECs? 3-4 years back, I did do some sports, and I played tennis and I ran distance. Unfortunately, I can't run or hit a ball now to save my life. I was on both JV teams 10th and 9th grade respectively, but I quit track due to an open wound on my knee, and I cleared off tennis for school.
I've never gotten any awards for grades because my school doesn't have honor roll or anything like that. However, I am an AP Scholar with Honor. I also won 4 Science Olympiad awards. Which should I list as "academic awards" and which should I list as "other"?
Thanks for reading! All responses are appreciated.
My vote goes for the one you’ve had 2 years. But go with whoever you think will write a stronger letter. (Side note: I don’t think any of our teachers have any such limitations or “lotteries” — I find that fascinating…)
I was leaning towards it could be included until I saw this argument:
So now I think I’m convinced that shouldn’t be listed as an EC, as far as your activities list goes, but it’s certainly something that could be included in your essay (if appropriate).
You played on a team…sure. Of course, you should be listing your most important (important to you, not someone else) activities. If you think it’s important, list it.
5)We listed the AP Scholar awards under academic awards.
@ClaremontMom Thanks for your response! I was leaning towards my lit teacher as well, but I think both of them will write me equally good letters. However, I am applying to 19 schools, and I know my Chem teacher will send letters to ALL schools that need them. and so will my lit teacher. Again, my APUSH teacher has limitations (we are a big school, a lot of kids were in her classes and wanting letters) and will only send letters to 10 schools, and will only write 18 people (out of the 30, first come first serve) early letters.
I find this even more fascinating since once a letter is written it doesn’t really take any more time to send it to another school. (Thank goodness too between schools and scholarships we did need them to submit their letters several times.)
My kids were at a big HS too, and certain teachers wrote a lot of letters. They may have had an “unadvertised” limit (i.e “I just can’t do one more…gotta start saying no now…”), but as far as I know they didn’t have any “advertised” limit.
@ucbalumnus yeah ik, the rec letter thing was more for common app in general.
Yeah, I love my APUSH teacher, but she has really weird rec letter policies because of what happened prior years. Around 5 years back, it was on a first come first serve basis. So many people wanted her rec letters, the night before she began taking requests, some kids just brought their homework and CAMPED OUT IN FRONT OF HER ROOM. They brought their sleeping bags and food and everything. She thought it was wayyy too ridiculous for kids to do this, and put restrictions on everything.
I don’t get why your history teacher has a 10 college limit for each student, since she can write you one letter and send it to all of the colleges with no or minimal additional work.
But if your literature teacher can write you a good recommendation, why not get a letter from her? Or do you somehow know that your history teacher writes exceptionally good recommendations compared to other teachers like your literature teacher?
The second one because she admires you, but the rule of thumb is to find the teacher that knows you best (that may not be the nicest teacher)
This is really iffy, but if I were you, I would ask the counselor to see if she could write it in her recommendation letter. I think the additional info stuff is more meant for objective hardships such as a disease or injury as it is kind of obvious how much it affected you. Your circumstance, it's very difficult to gauge how affected you were by the circumstance if it comes from you.
Yes, mention it, but if you have other more important EC's, put them first. I agree that it would make for a much better essay topic, but adding them at the very end of the list certainly couldn't hurt.
Mention it if you have space as sports are a big time commitment, but make sure to list it below the other more important EC's. The wounded knee you may be able to mention in the additional info to explain why there was a disconnect.
@rdeng2614 Thanks! My GC for 9-10 grade left, unfortunately, and the new one refuses to even acknowledge my existence. Sports were a big time commitment (~10 hours per week) and I am writing one of my essays on music.
Given the issues at your school about getting counselor and teacher recommendations, be glad that UCs require neither (assuming that you are a California resident – they are very expensive for non-residents).