Letters of Recommendation / Chances?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Reed College
1

<p>I did a fantastic interview with Reed last Friday and excitedly looked around on the school's website some more to learn that I may have made an error with my letter of recommendation. The site says that the letters have to be from teachers in different academic disciplines, but mine are technically both from English classes (World Literature and Philosophy in Literature). I emailed someone from the school and they said that I can still send another by March 1st, but the fact is that I don't think any of the non-English teachers I've had over the past two years would be appropriate (4 out of my 10 academic classes over the past two years have been in English). I either dislike, am disliked, or don't really know the rest of my teachers. Does anyone know how important the different subject letters are? I might be able to get a third letter, but I'm afraid that it wouldn't be great and could be worse than not having one at all.</p>

<p>Besides that:</p>

<p>GPA: 3.85-ish UW, something like a 4.6 weighted
SAT: 730 Critical Reading, 780 Math, 690 Writing
SAT 2: 760 Math 2, 760 Literature, 780 French
ACT: 35
Extracurriculars:
Writing/Playing/Recording my music seriously for the past 6 years
Volunteer for the Chicago Independent Radio Project over the past year or so, writing for the website, DJing, tabling at events, etc.
Amnesty international member for 4 years
Co-president of Bibliophiles Anonymous (a book club at my school)
and others...</p>

<p>Recommendations: Excellent, probably.</p>

<p>I think Reed is perfect for me because of my love of learning for its own sake, disdain for standard quantitative evaluation methods, and my own "quirkiness" among many other reasons.</p>

<p>Both my common app and why reed essays are strong and express well the reasons why I think I would fit at Reed. </p>

<p>And as I said, my interview was fantastic. I think I really connected with my interviewer and gave her a good idea of who I am and why Reed is for me. </p>

<p>Anyone? What do you think of my recommendation situation and my chances of getting in to what is easily my #1 choice school?</p>

2

<p>Oh, and I'm currently taking 3 AP classes: Statistics, Literature, and Psychology.
My APs last year were: French (5), Composition (4), Physics B (4), and Calculus BC (4, 5 AB subscore)</p>

3

<p>I think that even with a mediocre, generic recommendation from a math or science teacher you would still have an excellent chance.
Don't sweat it. If your other 2 recs are great, you wrote passionate, well written essays, then you have an excellent shot, in my opinion. Your grades and scores are great.</p>

4

<p>With a 780 on the math section of the SAT, surely none of your math teachers can say you don't have the talent. You can't have done too shabby on the science section of the ACT's either (granted, it's reading, but it counts for something). Just pick a neutral teacher, I'd say, and explain the situation. Get them to focus on your achievements (what they know) rather than personal qualities, which I assume are covered.</p>