<p>Hi, I'm a senior applying to colleges and I have some questions on letters of reccomendations.. </p>
<p>I don't know what to do. I can get awwwesome recommendations from a Creative Writing teacher who I had twice freshman and junoir year (2 classes freshman year, 1 junoir) and from a history teacher who I had sophomore year for Honors US History... both of these teachers know me extremely well in and out of the classroom and I know are great writers and will write great recommendations but probably focused more on me as a person than as a student.
Then I have an AP Literature teacher who I had only Junoir year, she will write me a very good recommendation, but it probably won't be as well written as the other two and it will be more about me as a student than as a person.
Finally, I am enrolled in a class at Yale in which I currently have an A in. The teacher for this course agreed me to write a recommendation as well and I know he is confident as my abilities as a student, however, I have only know him since September. </p>
<p>Ok, my question is which recommendations should I use? Can I submit two teacher recommendations and the Yale one as a supplementary one, or is it wise to only use two total? If so, which two?
Yale, Harvard, UPenn, UChicago are my top schools I am applying to. </p>
<p>Any advice would be extremely appreciated! </p>
<p>Sounds like you’d like to go with the first two and that’s fine. A Jr year teacher is likely a better choice though, for an assessment of your academics as a Jr, which is the point. I don’t think you should ask the Yale prof. I don’t understand how you are taking a class there, but I bet he can only say you did well in class and they will see that from the transcript. Doesn’t add much.</p>
<p>High school students in the New Haven school district are allowed to take courses at Yale free if their PSAT scores and GPA are high enough…
So, you don’t think that the weight of a Professor at Yale will work in my favor? The class I take is small (about 15 students) and I stay often for office hours so the professor knows me and can say more than I just well in his class, however, I don’t know how much weight his recommendation will have because he’s only known me for a couple of months.</p>
<p>Recommendations are not judged by the qualifications of the writer but rather by what they reveal about the subject. If the Yale prof can’t write as extensively and personally about you as can your other recommenders, I’d stick with the typical teachers.</p>
<p>The advantage of the Yale professor is that, unlike your hs students. he or she has seen you perform in the context of very elite students and can compare you with the kinds of kids who go to Yale, Penn, etc. Since the class is small, s/he must have some sense of your personality and ability. If I were you, I’d go with the creative writing teacher and the Yale prof–especially for your Yale application! Or you could simply submit three letters of recommendation.</p>
<p>Don’t worry that the Yale prof doesn’t know you as well. College professors write letters of recommendation all the time for students they’ve only had in one class. They generally don’t see students as often, or in as many different contexts, as high school teachers do.</p>
<p>In the fall of his high school senior year, my son got an A+ in an upper-level class in computer science, his intended major, at the university he wanted to attend. The professor’s letter of recommendation was, I suspect, a key factor in his acceptance there.</p>