<p>D will be a hs senior next year and making her college applications. In getting her LORs when she returns to school, we are not sure who to ask. She can get great letters from math and science teachers, but is running into a problem with humanities (even though she did well in those subjects.) Her english teacher last year quite frankly didn't like her. Sadly, her history teacher probably could not write a decent letter if he tried. Should she ask one of these two anyway? Other choices might be to get a social sciences teacher from last year, or to get an english or foreign language teacher from freshman or sophomore year. Yet another option might be a music teacher that has known her for 7 years. Any ideas on who might be the best option?</p>
<p>Would her guidance counselor be able to write a recommendation in lieu of a teacher? He knows what a great kid she is and also understands how she struggled with her father's death last year. Maybe he would be a good choice? </p>
<p>Thanks for any suggestions!</p>
<p>At most she’ll need two teacher recommendations and one counselor recommendation (accompanying the school report). Unless she is planning to major in the humanities, stick with the math and science teachers.</p>
<p>In general, colleges prefer recommendations from academic core (math, science, english, social studies) teachers who have taught the student in either the junior or senior year. If however, an applicant intends to major in something other than a core subject (music, art, foreign language, etc), then one of those teachers should write a recommendation also.</p>
<p>Would it be awkward to ask a senior year teacher who has not known her for very long?</p>
<p>My son has a similar problem. He could get a strong rec from his junior year Math teacher. At a recent school event, she told me my S is the best student ever in her teaching life (she is a kind of senior) and recommended me to let him get in a selective college where her daughter majored Math. But the problem is from whom to get the second one. My S did not so well in other subjects especially humanities. Some of his desired schools want one from Math or Science teacher and one from humanities side. My tentative thought is to get one from the English teacher who did not give him a great score but recognizes his progress in Junior year. If he meet another good English teacher in Fall, he could get one from the teacher instead.
I think most of schools require teachers’ rec from Junior year or Senior year. So you could wait and see who come to your D’s classes in Fall.</p>
<p>We never found a good solution for this problem. DD wanted to major in Biochemistry, but took the halves (Biology and Chemistry) as HS freshman and sophomore, respectively.</p>