I’ve seen that some school require that the letters of reccomendation come from major or core academic courses; I was wondering if AP Seminar would qualify? Additionally, would a debate coach’s letter qualify for the teacher reccomendation, because I had him in Debate 1 and 2? ALSO is a foreign language course considered a core or major academic course?
Letters of recommendations from “non-core courses” (e.g. math, english, physics) won’t de-quality you, per se, from admission. However, admissions officers may take the source of the letter into account when contemplating the trustworthiness and value of a letter’s contents. I tell my advisees, especially in situations like this, that at least one letter should come from a core class if possible, unless you think doing so would hurt your chances of admission because you have a bad relationship with them.
In my experience as someone accepted to Harvard, keep in mind that many schools allow an extra recommender for “third-party” sources – a coach, research advisor, etc. would fit well in this category. Good luck!
Cheers,
Ethan from AimIvy
If Debate 1 and 2 were courses on your transcript, then that person would be a teacher (may also be a coach if there’s a club) and would qualify. As would AP Seminar.
But my take is that neither of these would be strong recommendation sources. If you can get a good recommendation from an English/Math/Social Studies/Science teacher, I think that would be better.