<p>Can a teacher write you a recommendation letter even if you've never had that teacher in a core class? My elective teacher for news magazine teaches Language Arts, but she's never actually had me in any of her classes except news magazine.</p>
<p>Yes, you can. However, it is usually preferred that you get letters of recommendation from teachers who taught your core classes. Some colleges specifically request the letter is from a core class teacher. An admissions officer would rather read a positive letter from an AP Bio teacher than, let’s say, Introduction to Knitting class.</p>
<p>That would be up to the college’s requirement. In general, most schools would ask for core subject teachers.</p>
<p>@billcsho, she is a core subject teacher, but not my core subject teacher. Could you explain the requirement again?</p>
<p>It really depends on the college. Usually, the college would ask for your core subject teachers as recommender. Some schools even require core teacher from junior or above, or from advanced level courses. So you should check for the recommender requirement of each college you are going to apply. </p>
<p>IMO, I would use it as an extra recommendation, but not a teacher recommendation since that person can speak to your involvement in a school magazine and not in a classroom. It is OK to send one extra recommendation that talks to a non-academic side of you, but you should still also have the required number or recommendations from core subject teachers.</p>
<p>@billcscho Would it be advisable to do it over the common app? Doesn’t the common app recommendation get sent to all colleges if she does the LoR that way? Lol sorry for all the dumb questions…</p>
<p>As @happy1 said, that teacher can be an extra recommender if the school does allow that.
@97percent If the school is on CommonApp, you have to apply through there. Even you invite a teacher to write LOR for you on CommonApp, you don’t need to assign the same teacher to all schools on CommonApp. You still may and need to assign recommenders according to the school’s requirement.</p>
<p>@billcsho Ahh…so for example I want to apply to College A, and I can have my math teacher and her write it, but for College B I can choose to have my science teacher and my history teacher write a LoR since they might have different requirements?</p>
<p>@happy1 @billcsho Electives are not ECs. They are classes. It seems like news magazine is a course. In that case, if you really contributed in class and performed fairly well, go ahead and have her submit it. For example, if a student wants to be an art major, they should get a LoR from an art teacher despite the fact that art isn’t a core subject. If a student wants to be an econ major, they should get a LoR from their Macro/Micro teacher.</p>
<p>@AnnieBeats What is most important is the schools’ requirement. See Stanford as an example:
<a href=“Page Not Found : Stanford University”>Page Not Found : Stanford University;
<p>
</p>
<p>Different schools have different requirement. Not that you can pick any teacher you want, or that may hurt your chance.</p>
<p>@billcsho That was a reccomendation, not a requirement from Stanford.
. Although I am very aware that it varies from school to school. </p>
<p>Feel free to ignore the recommendation of competitive schools. LOL.</p>
<p>Vandy also asks for 2 core subject teachers’ recommendation letters.
<a href=“http://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/vandybloggers/2010/09/letters-of-recommendation/”>http://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/vandybloggers/2010/09/letters-of-recommendation/</a></p>
<p>Again, it is important to follow the schools’ requirement. It would be a safe bet if you ask two core subject teachers for recommendation as that would satisfy most schools’ requirement…</p>
<p>Make it safer with 2 core subject teachers from junior or senior year (if taught you before).</p>
<p>I understand that in your school it is a class, (in my HS the newspaper is a class so I know how it works) but I still think colleges will consider a news magazine class to be more of an activity than a core subject (English, Math, Science, Social Studies, Foreign Language). I stand by my original opinion of getting two core subject teachers and the teacher for the magazine class as a third. But you can of course do whatever you choose.</p>
<p>MIT has an invaluable guide to help teacher’s write recommendations. The questions posed are applicable to what all colleges are looking for in a LoR. If your teachers can answer these questions, then I think you’re covered: <a href=“How to write good letters of recommendation | MIT Admissions”>http://mitadmissions.org/apply/prepare/writingrecs</a></p>
<p>
</p></li>
</ul>
<p>@billcsho A recommendation is not a requirement whether it is Stanford or UNLV. There are schools that recommend subject tests, but admit students without them. </p>
<p>Yes, 5% of the admitted students at Stanford did not submit SAT2 scores. You want to be in the 5% or the 95%. LOL.</p>
<p>clearly if little billy forgot to take subject tests and was admitted despite them because he singlehandedly made up both their football and baseball teams, it’s okay for us all! thank you AnnieBeats, I now see the light!</p>
<p>I’m still a bit confused…so if it’s a class, I’m allowed to add her as my teacher recommendation because she’s an English teacher, right? News Magazine is a class under the language arts electives. She is a core teacher, just not mine.</p>