Letters of Recommendation

For my letters of recommendation I’ve been told that I need two letters. I have three choices but I know which two will be the best letters and the issue is they are the same subject. My best two letters would be from my English teachers from sophomore and junior year. My sophomore year english teacher absolutely loved me and has begged me to let him write me a letter so I know this will be a good letter. My second best choice is my junior year english teacher who really liked me and will write the best letter out of my junior teachers. My other option would be my sophomore year ap world teacher who likes me and was also my debate teacher for first semester of junior year and my mock trial coach for sophomore and junior years. Would it be okay to have two letters from the same subject or should I do one of the English teachers and the AP world teacher and why? Thank you.

It might be good to get a letter from two subjects. It’ll help the colleges see that you are well-rounded.

Also check if any of the schools you are applying for need both a STEM and a humanities rec letter.

I personally would choose the first teacher and the AP world teacher because of their involvement in your ECs. Are you sure that you won’t need a third letter anyways? Many schools allow 3 or more letters.

A few comments:

–Check requirements/recommendations of any school you apply to – see how many letters the school will accept, if the school wants a STEM teacher recommendation etc.

–Definitely no more than 2 teacher recommendations. If you get a third recommendation (which is not needed) it should be from someone who knows you outside of school and can speak to non-academic attributes (ex. boss, clergy etc.)

–I would not use 2 English teachers, you want to show some breadth of accomplishment.

– I’d try to get one junior year teacher and not use two sophomore year teachers if possible.

@happy1 off the top of my head, I can remember that Brown and NYU can take up to 4 Teacher only recommendations on the common app. While they only require 2, if OP couldn’t decide between the teachers and felt like they’d all give stellar letters, then for schools that allow more letters it could be beneficial to have that letter prewritten.

Thank you all! @witurner @happy1 @syrix @wildesfeuer

@Syrxis NYU has recently stated on their admissions blog that they will only read the first three letters of recommendation on an application, and that applicants should carefully select which three to submit (two, actually, because if I remember correctly, the number includes the guidance counselor’s rec.) because the first three letters the admissions officer reads may not be the strongest letters that the applicant wanted the officers to read. Not sure why they’ve been letting people submit more than two teacher’s recs if they don’t want/allow/need more than that but just an fyi.

I know for ours we had to have one teacher, one school counselor and one employer. They didn’t want any others so definitely check where you are applying to and their requirements.