Is it better to get letters of recommendation from teachers, private instructors or directors outside the educational system? If the student has a relationship with a mentor at another strong MT university, would that be looked upon well by other schools? Or does it matter? I know they should be able to speak about talent, work ethic, and some about personality, but does the “who” matter as much as the “what”?
Honestly, I don’t think LOR matter much in MT admissions.
Perhaps if one is on the cusp and they’re deciding between two people, then they may take a LOR into consideration. Maybe.
But the biggest program admission factor by far is the actual audition.
With that being said, my D had 3 LOR done for her. One by one of her high school teachers, one by her voice teacher (who has a pretty good pedigree) and one by the artistic director of a local community theatre.
It varies from school to school, but some will insist on an actual “teacher,” so just make sure you fulfill the specific school’s requirement.
In terms of an artistic recommendation- I would think someone connected with an MT program at a university would carry the most weight with another university. BUT remember that many schools require at least one (if not 2) recs to be from an academic subject teacher. My D had 2 academic recs and 2 artistic recs (one acting and music) so that she could mix and match based on what the school in question wanted.
Thanks for the quick responses! That all makes sense.
Ditto what others have said – some schools only want academic, some request people that know you artistically. My d had worked with a professor at one program she was applying to and asked her to send a recommendation, but that was on top of her academic recommendation.
I’d argue that letters of rec can carry a lot of weight at some schools. My interviewer from the school I’m going to be attending cried over my letters of rec during my interview and talked extensively about how touched he was by them. (It was a pretty cool moment, actually.) I am VERY confident that they played a large role in my admissions decision there. At some schools, however, I wonder if they had looked at them at all. It’s a toss up.
I think most schools required me to have 2 academic letters, and the rest were free game. I used my AP Lit teacher, my Theatre Literature teacher, my AP US history teacher, and my director from the theatre where I often work in Atlanta. And the Common App required a letter from my high school guidance counselor, too. I’d say use whomever has the strongest personal connection to you for your letters and don’t worry so much about politics. If they’re passionate about you and your talent, that’s what really counts - especially if you find several people who are passionate about you and can write about that eloquently.
D had two academic LORs (from professors from her dual enrollment courses) and two artistic ones (one from a director at a regional/professional theatre, and one from her voice teacher), plus other artistic ones lined up in case they asked. (Those had been written for other programs over the years, and the writers were willing to update them if asked. She didn’t need to.)
A couple programs talked a bit about them during the interview portions of the auditions.