Letters of Recommendation

Colleges and Universities A-Z Brown University
1

<p>Hi all! I’m a Brown applicant planning on applying under regular decision. I’m very undecided on my major but I put down chem as a possible major. But my letters of recommendation come from my IB Art History/10th grade history teacher and my IB English/TOK teachers. I chose this because my chemistry teacher is very impersonal and although I have performed well in his class I don’t think he’s the type to give the same glowing review and effort that the other teachers did (or claimed they did, I didn’t read the recs). My history teacher has known me since 6th grade and my ToK teacher is well connected and respected among admissions officers (he’s sort of Slughorn-esque for you Potter fans out there). But I’m having second thoughts. Since I’m applying under RD I still have time to ask my chem teacher for a rec, should I replace on of the humanities teachers with a rec from him? I have had him twice now.</p>

<p>Math teachers are out of the question by the way. My teacher last year is incredibly lazy and is known not to put much effort in, and my teacher this year hasn’t had enough time to really get to know me like the two teachers who already wrote recs.</p>

<p>Thoughts? I figure asking the chem teacher next monday would give plenty of notice…I’m just not sure because I don’t know if he would give the same sort of personal, glowing reviews the other teachers did.</p>

2

<p>Hopefully this can be a guide for you</p>

<p>[MIT</a> Admissions | Info For Schools & Counselors: Writing Evaluations](<a href=“http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/schools/writing_evaluations/index.shtml]MIT”>http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/schools/writing_evaluations/index.shtml)</p>

3

<p>The most important thing is to get teachers who know you well to write recommendations. But it can be good to have recommendations from teachers from different disciplines. I don’t necessarily think you need a recommendation from a chemistry teacher, but as someone thinking about majoring in the sciences, you might want to get a recommendation from a science teacher – biology, physics, earth science.</p>

4

<p>I’ve only taken chemistry my junior and senior year due to the structure of the IB program at my school. I took bio as a freshman but I doubt that teacher remembers me</p>

<p>the whole IB scheduling issue is outlined by my GC so the schools I’m applying to should understand why I’m so chem heavy.</p>

<p>And if the most important thing is to get recs from teachers who know me well, then I’ll probably just stick with the two teachers I’ve got already :)</p>

5

<p>I’d stick with the teachers you already have. I applied as a Bio major and happened to have my AP Bio teacher write me a rec, but that was just because it was my favorite class of high school. The major that you apply as honestly has no importance except in them knowing a bit more about what you’re thinking right now.</p>