I’m a first year college freshman trying to transfer to a couple of universities over the CommonApp, one of which is CalTech. I just noticed that CalTech requires 2 academic evaluators. The instructions state that “for the purposes of Academic Evaluator recommendations, you may choose to invite a college instructor or academic advisor”. Does this mean that high school teachers aren’t allowed to be recommenders. I just changed majors from environmental studies to physics, so none of my professors in the first quarter are remotely related to physics. On the other hand, I had a physics teacher in high school who I believe had a fond opinion of me. Finally, I’m also a bit worried that my first quarter professors would be repulsed by my switching to another major after taking their class. I’d like to here what all of you’re thoughts are.
I would think “college instructor or academic advisor” means someone from your college. In any case, I think it is always better to have a college professor/TA/advisor write recommendations. They had contact with you more recently, see how you’ve worked in a college classroom, etc. It shouldn’t matter to them that you changed majors.
One more question: There’s one class that I participated in more than the others. Would it be weird if I get a Letter of Recommendation from both the professor and the TA of that class, or should I look to a different class? Keep in mind that I had a section led by the TA for that class as well.
I think it would be better to have your letters for two separate classes.