In Need of Advice - Letters of Rec

Applying to College
1

Hi! I’m applying to college this fall and I have a concern.

I need two teacher recommendations for most of my schools. I definitely want my English teacher to write me one because I feel she understands me. She is the only teacher that really knows my personality and character. I adore her and she helped me through so much last year. And I know she respects me and thinks highly of me. (However, I have a feeling she will be writing a lot of letters of recommendations).

Given I will already have a humanities recommendation, I know I should get a math or science one. Although, I loved my Calculus teacher, he will not write me one because I made the decision to not take his Math HL class next year. He has made it known that only those few students get his recommendation.

I never felt particularly connected with my Biology teacher. I had her for two years, but she never singled me out and I was a little scared of her. I do like her and learned a lot, but I don’t feel so sure about asking her.

I had one teacher for both Chemistry and Physics, but she’s not my favorite. She is probably the most disrespected teacher on campus actually. :frowning: I did very well in her class at first, but then I ended up really struggling after missing a lot of school. (I still got a good grade overall, but I had some poor moments.) I have no clue what she thinks of me. She’s a little crazy, too.

So I would love to not ask either of those two teachers…

Here’s the thing, my psychology teacher loved me. She goes to my church and I know she believes I can achieve great things. I actually want to major in neuroscience or some other cognitive science. Specifically, I was in her psych research methods class. We each wrote a 20 page paper on a social experiment we replicated/conducted at our school. She made me her teacher’s assistant, so she would have me teach and look over my peers’ papers. But psychology is a social science and I think I need an actual science rec.

I don’t know what to do. Should I choose my Biology, Chemistry/Physics, or Psychology teacher for my 2nd letter?

Also, one of my schools will only allow one recommendation. It might be odd sending my English one when I want to major in a science. Thoughts?

Please give me some advice!! Anything would be appreciated!

2

From your description, it sounds like your Psychology teacher is a great choice to write your second rec letter. The goal is that your letters provide additional context to your application and you want someone who will wholeheartedly support you. Make sure that you provide both letter writers with information that will help them, like a list of any noteworthy moments for you in their class.

3

Not all schools require you to have a humanities and a math/science letter of rec. You should choose the teachers who know you the best- in your case, that would be the English and Psychology teachers.

4

Thanks for the advice! I agree with you guys. I don’t plan on applying to many Top Tier universities, but would they care if I had 2 humanities?