Freshman Teacher Rec Letter

Hi Everyone,

I posted this in the Stanford thread, but I haven’t gotten many replies, I’m going to be applying Stanford early action.

Just coming in for a quick question about rec letters.

I can get my Junior/Sophomore Physics and Junior year English teacher to write my recommendation letters, and I know that they would write a pretty amazing recommendation.

But I would really like to ask my Freshman English teacher. Here’s why:

He was my teacher freshman year, but over the years he’s evolved into much more than that. I’ve spent alot of time going to him for advice, with ecs, and my future. I ate lunch in his room most of the year with my friends and he would basically spend alot of that time chatting with us and alot of the times just me. We’ve had some pretty amazing discussions on basically everything, and he’s a teacher I really respect and consider a close friend. We have a very personal relationship, and he knows alot about my personality, dreams, and just life at the moment.

I KNOW he would write the most amazing recommendation that would blow the pants off my app if I could submit it. I mean just absolutely fantastic. He’s called me the hardest working student/most charismatic/a bunch of other things he’s ever met. He’s known for writing some pretty great letters in the past.

But the Stanford website says the following:

"

We recommend selecting grade 11 or 12 teachers in two of the following subject areas:

English
Mathematics
Science
Foreign language
History/social studies

You may submit a letter from a teacher who taught you in grade 10 if the coursework was advanced (e.g., Honors, AP, IB). If your school does not offer such designations, use your discretion when asking a teacher from grade 10. We will accept a maximum of two letters of recommendation from teachers.

"

I had him for English 1 Pre-AP (Honors).

I’m hesitant to ask because I don’t want the admission committee to look down upon it because It was a freshman req. He’s made it clear that I should absolutely ask him if I want to.

Thoughts?

Given the very specific recommendation, I would not use your freshman year teacher. Treat a recommendation as a requirement. Stanford has an under 5% acceptance rate. You can be certain that most applicants (including more qualified applicants than there is room to accept) will follow the school’s recommendations regarding teacher LORs. The intent of teacher recommendations is to give the college insight into your recent classroom performance, not a personal relationship.

It may not work for Stanford, but for other schools it may be allowed.
I submitted a 10th grade teacher as my LOR for many schools, just not for Stanford (I have my IR and my East Asian/APUSH teacher writing for me there) because she knew me so well