I am thinking of asking my 10th Grade AP Bio teacher who loves me to write me a teacher rec.
I was just curious if there are any Cons to asking a teacher not 11th or 12th grade. I’m just worried he won’t remember why he loved me by next year and not write as strong of a letter.
Thanks!
Edit: I forgot to mention the other rec would be from a teacher I’ve known for a couple of years and sponsors quite a few clubs I’m hold leadership in. As for the 10th Grade Teacher, I haven’t really talked to him much this year and he doesn’t sponsor any clubs I’m a part of.
Ask how he would feel about writing you a rec. Sometimes you can gauge by their expression and enthusiasm if they’d write a good recommendation. IMO, 11th grade is the best, and then 10th grade if not available. Senior year is too short for them to get to know you as well. If he loved you as much as you say, I am sure he would be willing to write you a recommendation. And if not, you could provide him with a resume or a “cheat sheet” of what you are like, things you did in school, and fondest moment in his class
My D asked a 10th grade teacher but he was also an adviser of hers in a program at school. I think one 10th grade teacher is fine but have the other one from an 11th grade teacher. Typically 12th grade teachers don’t write recommendations as teachers don’t know students that well by the time recommendations need to be written plus many kids line up teacher recommendations by the end of junior year.
I agree that it would be best to ask the teacher directly whether he feels like he would be able to write you a good rec after that much time has passed. The way you phrased your post made it sound like you’re in 11th grade now, so maybe if you mentioned it to him this year he’d at least have it on his mind. If you’re worried about him forgetting you, you could make sure you stop by his room every once in a while to chat about what you’ve been up to.
When I was applying to college, after some deliberation I decided to get recs from my 10th grade English teacher, who absolutely LOVED me (she’s an extremely passionate, theatrical person and I was one of her favorite students in the class - she made that kind of thing very obvious - so I knew whatever she wrote would be glowing), and my 11th and 12th grade math teacher, who I had for honors trigonometry and BC calc. The math teacher was a no-brainer, since I was lucky enough to have him for two years so he knew me fairly well, I’d done well in his classes, and it’s always a good idea to have one from either math or science and one from the humanities. But for my other rec, I also considered asking my Latin teacher, who’d had me for 10th, 11th AND 12th grade. I did very well in all of her classes and she certainly liked me well enough, but the absolute unrestrained passion (there’s really no other word for it, so excuse the melodrama) that my 10th grade English teacher had for me as a student felt sort of unparalleled. My gut said her, so I went with my gut. I’d advise you to do the same. But I guess the point of this whole story is that there’s nothing wrong with having one of your recs be from a 10th grade teacher if that is the teacher you think knows you best and would write the most positive recommendation. Good luck!
I agree that it shouldn’t matter as long as you’re confident that the teacher will write you one of the most positive recommendations.
My close friends didn’t like that I asked my Marketing teacher (10th grade) for one of the recommendation letters. They just couldn’t understand why I chose this teacher over all other AP/Honors teachers. I chose her because she just favored me all the time. I never studied for that class, didn’t even do well on the exam, but somehow ended up with a 4.0. I joined DECA because of her and did win awards but this is after she excused me from almost everything I did wrong.
My point here is----pick someone who can say the best about you.
I don’t regret my decision at all. She wrote me the best recommendation letter a person could get. I didn’t know she had connections but she did, which probably helped me. She gave me a copy before sending it and in the letter, she briefly mentioned her membership/associations while introducing herself, then proceeded to describe me as the ONE student she would recommend for so and so reasons.
The conventional wisdom is that you should pick a teacher from junior or senior year, because admissions offices will wonder why you had to reach back further to find a recommendation. I recommend holding off a bit. You might find that your relationships with current teachers evolve this spring, or that you are assigned to teachers next fall who will have better insight into who you are now, instead of who you were as a sophomore. If you sincerely believe, six or seven months from now, that this 10th-grade teacher can provide the best recommendation, then ask her, by all means.
I recently had one of my 10th grade teachers write one for me (currently a senior) and it turned out quite nicely. Actually it was a lot more thorough and detailed than I expected. I would go to anyone you believe would interpret you honestly and elegantly in written form.
FWIW, I used a 10th grade science teacher recommendation for an Ivy League school that recommends recs from junior and senior year teachers, and I was accepted EA. If the rationale is there, I see no reason not to.