I'm stuck in an ugly letter of rec situation?

Applying to College
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<p>So I wanted to get a letter of rec from my 10th grade english teacher and my other letter from my 11-12th grade spanish teacher but my spanish teacher just told me today that she's going on vacation and is unable to write the letter for me. (Keep in mind I asked her for the letter WEEKS ago....)</p>

<p>Anyway, now I kind of have no clue who to ask. I wanted to ask my 12th grade ap english teacher but a lot of me warned against it. However, his class has only 6-7 people in it so we all know each other pretty well despite only being a semester in. Also, I think that out of all of highschool, I've been performing the best in this class. </p>

<p>What should I do?</p>

<p>Should I just get the letter from this teacher which could be pretty good even though both of my letters would be from english teachers and him being a 12th grade teacher.</p>

<p>Or should I just get a mediocre letter from some other teacher?</p>

<p>aghhh. I wanna major in business and minor in psychology if it helps.</p>

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<p>“WEEKS ago”? lol. You only have yourself to blame, to be honest. My school made us ask for teacher recommendations by the end of junior year, and told us we wouldn’t have any right to complain if we tried to secure them later and failed.</p>

<p>Anyway. My advice is to go with your English teacher.</p>

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<p>I honestly don’t think it’s really fair to say it’s entirely my fault when my teacher already said “yes” but then procrastinated and last minute had to tell a number of people she couldn’t write the letters. Of course, I take partial blame though.</p>

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<p>What schools is this for? Many won’t take two from English teachers.</p>

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<p>Harvard, Stanford, Upenn, Columbia, U Chicago, USC, etc.</p>

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<p>Which schools don’t accept letters from the same subject teacher? I don’t remember seeing any of those schools say anything against it…</p>

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<p>Why is this happening to me? :’’’’’’’(</p>

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<p>i think they will all accept them but it just isn’t recommended to have two recs from teachers in the same subject</p>

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<p>Your best bet is probably to get a mediocre recommendation from a teacher in another subject. I don’t think it would <em>hurt</em> you, it just wouldn’t help, whereas the recommendation from another English teacher might look bad for you.</p>

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<p>If you’re applying to such heavyweight schools, you need to do the homework. Here’s what Stanford says:</p>

<p>[Teacher</a> Evaluations : Stanford University](<a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/dept/uga/application/freshman/evals.html]Teacher”>http://www.stanford.edu/dept/uga/application/freshman/evals.html)</p>

<p>Whether schools require 2 different subjects or not, it will greatly help you to submit recs from teachers in 2 different areas. At my last school we did not allow students to choose teachers from 2 different subjects for any college. We also did not allow 10th grade teaches, almost all colleges urge 11th and 12th.</p>

<p>I have a couple of things to say here. First, are you sure you’re a viable
candidate for these schools? It’s shocking that you dont know this late in the process that USC is the only school you name with a business major. And typically the kind of student that will get in is revered at their high school as an off the charts top student who every teacher is prepared to write a rec for saying they are one of the very top students they’ve encountered in their career. That your choices are so thin speaks to something.</p>

<p>Second, if you really gave the teacher adequate notice, what she did is reprehensible. Who that teaches goes on vacations that are not school vacations? And what teacher does not understand the importance of college evaluations? Frankly, I really doubt you were going to get a good rec there.</p>

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<p>From Stanford’s website:</p>

<p>Teacher Evaluations</p>

<p>Both evaluation letters must be from teachers in two different subject areas from the following:</p>

<pre><code>English
Mathematics
Science
Foreign Language
History/Social Sciences
</code></pre>

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<p>It is common to use 12th grade teachers for letters often written earlier in the semester than right now. Schools that do comment on teacher selection often request that you not use anyone before junior year. If you think your 12th grade teacher will write a superb letter, then ask for that one and a third one from an unrelated discipline. If you don’t think this 12th grade teacher will write something that adds to your other two letters, then just go with those. Sometimes a teacher will bow out of writing a letter because he/she thinks about it and decides they have nothing to say that will help you. It would have been nice, however for your teacher to decline the request weeks ago. As Ghostt reported, asking for letters mid-November was a bit late. Good luck.</p>

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<p>Of course, be sure to ask another teacher very politely and humbly!! Tell them you realize you’ve waited too long, but hope they can understand and help you out.</p>

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<p>

Yes. I’m more than sure.</p>

<p>

I meant to say pursue rather than major.

That’s not true at all. I’m an excellent student but I just happen to know that certain teachers can write me better letters than others can. My school already has 4 kids going to Stanford, 1 to Caltech, etc. and the ED decisions haven’t even finished coming out–it’s difficult to say that I need to be the best student that a teacher’s ever had when each teacher has a minimum of 5 amazing students a year.</p>

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<p>I gave her more than adequate notice. I even asked her if she was fine with the time that she had left, which was almost 2 months, and she said sure. I’m still a bit shocked at the whole thing and I will talk to my counselor about it to give me some advice on what to do.</p>

<p>Thanks everyone else for the advice. I might consider getting 2 additional letters of rec and hoping the colleges accept it.</p>