<p>I am having a massive dilemma over who to ask for my rec letters.</p>
<p>Okay so for math/sci, I'm pretty much completely set. My AP Bio and AP Calc teachers are both willing to write letters, and I trust them both to do a fantastic job. So I'm planning to split my schools between the two of them.</p>
<p>But as for my humanities, I am in quite a terrible plight. Both my AP Lit and APUSH teachers from last year are gone, one got fired for questionable relations with a student and is now in Tibet training to become a Buddhist monk (haha), plus he hated me anyway b/c I never paid attention in his class and still got a 5 on the AP test. The other is going to medical school (haha go figure) and has not replied to the two emails I sent to him (one in August, one last week), asking if he might write a letter. I figure he must be busy with med school and everything and doesn't have the heart to say no (last year he was really into writing letters for kids and is one of those teachers who feels bad not putting their very best effort into everything student-related which is probably why he'd rather not respond than disappoint me.)</p>
<p>And surprise-surprise, my sophomore year AP World teacher got fired for being "too-easy" even though he loved me, and I haven't maintained contact with him. </p>
<p>So now I have very few choices. For two of my early apps, I've already asked my sophomore year AP Lang teacher who has also been my Journalism advisor for the past two years (I am editor in chief). But this teacher has a really bad reputation of writing really generalized recs, regardless of how much she likes the student, and as a result, a lot of kids who ask her for letters end up rejected from their top choices. I think it's because she has a really cynical view of the world and couldn't care less where her students end up going to college. The editor-in-chief last year ended up at Tufts even though he clearly had the stats/EC's to make it to an Ivy and something makes me feel that it is because of a bad letter he got from our Journalism advisor. This happend to our val too, she asked her for a letter and ended up at WUSTL after being rejected from Yale SCEA and all other 7 ivy schools plus Williams. </p>
<p>to be specific, the guy at Tufts actually saw his letter from our journalism advisor, and to quote parts of it, it said things like "Justin displays the leadership qualities that many students possess", "he will be a good addition to any college campus like many of his peers", and "throughout his four years of high school, justin was involved with A, B, C. He got a 3.9....(and other redundant info that's already on other parts of your app)."</p>
<p>When I went to ask this teacher for a letter on Friday, she did not seem excited or interested at all. She just took my folder of stuff and turned away and I had to keep trying to get her attention so I could tell her all the details about deadlines and college-specific info and stuff.</p>
<p>So I'm really scared that this letter won't turn out decent at all. Should I have both my AP Calc and AP Bio teachers send letters to supplement the potentially bad letter from my AP Lang teacher?</p>
<p>Alternately I could ask my Spanish teacher from last year for a rec, but not all schools accept foreign language as humanities. Plus, I slept in his class everyday last year, the only reason he'll hug me when he sees me in the hallway now is b/c I got a 5, along with very few other students, the only reason he's been able to hold onto his job despite being incredibly incompetent. </p>
<p>I do have my senior year English and AP Gov teachers. I've actually had quite a few conversations about writing and literature with my English teacher but she's really close to my Journalism advisor and I don't want it to seem like I'm going behind my Journalism advisor's back to ask other teachers. I haven't really had all that great of a chance to interact with my AP Gov teacher, we're just getting to know each other since our school's been open for less than two months. But a guy from our school who was the only one to be accepted to Penn asked this gov teacher for a letter after only having him for the first time senior year, but I don't know if they'd already developed a closer relationship by this point. Plus if I start sucking up now only to ask for a letter in a week or two, it looks really transparent.</p>
<p>So yes, sorry for a long post, but I felt like I had to get all the details out for any responders to understand my situation better. Should I supplement my journalism advisor's potentially horrible letters to the two EA colleges with another math/sci rec or maybe another humanities rec? or a letter from someone who knows me outside of school through my community service work?</p>
<p>And then for the rest of my schools, which teachers should I ask to do the humanities letter? A senior year teacher, my Spanish teacher from last year, or should I stick with the Journalism advisor who might jeopardize my chances?</p>
<p>Thank you SOOO much for any feedback!!!</p>