<p>This is a two-sided question. First, I just read this on Stanford's site:</p>
<p>"The evaluations for freshman applicants should be from teachers who taught you in the 11th or 12th grades in one of the core academic subjects (English, math, foreign language, social studies or science)—though we will certainly accept evaluations from earlier grades in unusual circumstances."</p>
<p>I'm concerned because one of my recommendations is from a teacher I had in grades 9 and 10—she knew me quite well and liked me as a student. How important is it that a teacher's recommendation comes from grades 11 and 12? </p>
<p>If it's super important, would I be able to get another letter of recommendation from one of my more recent teachers and submit it post-application deadline? </p>
<p>@howtocollege. You are fine. If your best recommendations come from one of your earlier school teachers in a rigorous course (preferably AP/honors level)…it will be more than adequate. Both our kids who got into S, H, and others had one teacher from 10th grade because they loved the AP class and the teacher who taught it…</p>
<p>@gravitas2 Yeah, both math courses were honors courses and 1-2 years ahead of a “normal” student my age (H Algebra 2 and H Pre-Calc in 9/10 respectively). </p>
<p>Also, I applied Biology/Bioengineering/English, with recommendations from that math teacher and my english teacher of 3 years. Does it matter that I don’t have a recommendation from my bio teacher (I don’t have Bio ECs because the course is a junior year course at my school. I do have good bio/math subject test scores, however)?</p>
<p>In the big picture it really should not matter…on the other hand, it would have been nice to have one from a biology teacher if you had only indicated “biology” as a major…but, since you indicated English as well…it should be okay. For future applicants reading this…there is nothing wrong with marking down “undecided” on your application…if you are uncertain what you really want to study.</p>