<p>Do art schools want academic letters of recommendation in addition to the art-related ones? Will they NOT want to receive them? My D. has some very good academic letters & we don't know if we should have them sent.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>It won't hurt, but ask the admissions department. I can only speak for SCAD, but all applicants were assigned a rep to assist them with the application process.</p>
<p>Some application ask for an art teacher rec, and an additional rec. It certainly can't hurt. My D sent 1 art teacher rec and 1 or 2 academic recs (depending on what application asked for), to each school.</p>
<p>I sure hope those art schools want to see academic recs.</p>
<p>They're in a position to judge the candidates' slides but they don't know
anything about the candidate's day-to-day work ethic and approach to processing new ideas, which academics would address. These are relevant
to a productive career for any artist.</p>
<p>I don't know why they'd care about whether or not a kid got a B- or A+
in History or Science, but they should want to take intelligent, hardworking
people and not just be dazzled by the submitted slides, or know only what
an art teacher knows about how they relate to Studio projects.</p>
<p>As well, art is about ideas today. For all these reasons, I would send them even if they're only optional. UNLESS, the academic rec is only about a drone
of a high-mark-achieving student and nothing more. IF they have an anecdote that's a window onto the kid's soul, it should help.</p>
<p>Even if they say the kid is popular, that's relevant. Lots of art schools suffer from attrition of burn-out students, so being well-adjusted means a healthy student who'll stay with the program. It doesn't indicate conformity to say a kid is well-liked, in other words. </p>
<p>Just some thoughts. I had my S get a supplemental rec from his Art (several photography courses up to independent work) teacher because he was applying to a film program as a screenwriter, within a university that only asked for academic recommendations. She was able to
articulate a visual sensitivity that is relevant to writing for film, whereas his academic rec from the APLang/Creative Writing teacher (two different courses) spoke only to the written word. So that came at the same problem from a different direction. HOnestly, I think her letter (supplemental rec, written outside of their forms) was read and if it were me, it'd turn the tide on the decision, which was very competitive. Otherwise, they'd be looking from a
film department at letters from a History and English teacher, who were very literary people but not visual. That's why I had him seek out his Art teacher, who was completely unaccustome3d to being asked to write LOR's for anything other than art schools!</p>
<p>Yes, she has really lovely recommendations from 2 teachers and her GC. So we'll send them. Thanks.</p>
<p>At my daughter's high school it was standard practice to send a GC rec with all transcripts, in addition to any other recs that are required in the application.</p>