The academic teachers that know me best and would give me the best recommendations are without a doubt my English teachers. I’ve already asked my English teacher from my junior year to write me a recommendation, and I would like to ask my sophomore year English teacher to write the other one. Would this raise any red flags or be a bad idea?
Also, I don’t know if this makes a difference, but I’ve asked the teacher of my Acting electives to write me a recommendation, and I’m planning on asking the teacher from a summer program for creative writing I went to to write me one as well for the optional recommendations.
I’m applying as an english or creative writing major.
I’d try to get a rec from a teacher from a very different discipline, like math or science. Might one write about how you approached something that didn’t come easily or that didn’t interest you? If you can’t do that, I would still try to broaden the perspective a bit.
“Is it bad if both of your recommendations are from English teachers?”
Yes. The 2nd would likelyaddnothing new. Best to choose from another department.
I also have a question relating to recommendations. I got one from my APUSH teacher from sophomore year. I know they usually come from junior year teachers, but I felt closer with him and also I barely had a whole year with my junior year teachers. We had a month off from teacher strikes and then we ended early because of corona, so is a sophomore year teacher okay?
Start a new thread. It’s considered rude to hijack another person’s thread.
Back to the OP’s question…I agree with the others and would not get recommendations from two teachers in the same disciple. Consider a STEM teacher or perhaps a foreign language teacher.
I would also not send more than one supplemental LOR so ask either the acting teacher OR the creative writing teacher.
@sunsetstructure, my daughter is majoring in a humanities area and received one recommendation from her English teacher and one from her foreign language teacher. Both provided comprehensive yet different insights. Good luck!
As other posters on this thread have listed, don’t send both letters from an English teacher, unless you are able to send more than 2 letters and at least one is in a non-English field. I go to Brown, and when I applied last-year I sent 4 letters: 2 from my AP English teachers, 1 from an AP Science teacher, and 1 supplemental letter from a staff member who I knew well. However, most of my other college choices (Vanderbilt, USC etc.) only allowed students to submit 2 letters and sometimes a supplemental letter, so in those cases I chose to submit one of the 2 english letters and my science teacher’s letter, and the supplemental letter if allowed.
Regarding choosing between 2 potential supplemental recommenders, I recommend choosing the teacher who you have spent more time learning with and knows you well (ask yourself if the creative writing teacher understands you and your goals better than your acting teacher, and if they only write form letters filled w/ meaningless platitudes like “this student’s great/regurgitates your resume in the letter” or a personalized letter that will help increase your chances of admission.)
Hope that helps! Good luck with admissions!
@sunsetstructure Also note that some schools like Harvard REQUIRE recommendations from teachers in 2 different subjects, while others (like Penn) RECOMMEND that they come from different academic subjects. To be on the safe side, ask another teacher outside of the english department so that you will have the letter if you need it. 