<p>I'm planning on applying to an intensive Arabic program this summer and it asks for 2 professor recommendations - one from an Arabic professor and one from some other professor. I'm a freshman so all I have to choose from are my current instructors. The letters are due in mid-November so I feel like I should ask about them fairly soon. The teacher who I feel knows me best at this point would be my TA for my government class, but I wasn't sure if letters of recommendation from TAs are as valued as those from official professors or if they're even accepted. If they're not, I could ask my English professor, who knows me ok but more as a writer than a student so I don't know how great that would be, or I could start going to office hours for my government professor so that he gets to know me more (it's a lecture class so he wouldn't really know me right now). When you're asked for a letter of recommendation, does it have to be from a professor or would a TA be ok?
Thanks for sharing any thoughts you have :)</p>
<p>I think it depends, but in general I’m not really sure if TA rec letters are really allowed (or encouraged) for applications to specific programs. Almost all internships/organizations for which I’ve applied have asked for professor recs, and I’m not even sure they’d accept TA recs anyway, unless you specifically ask them or something.</p>
<p>But yeah, if I were you I would go with the professor recs. I’m not entirely sure, but I think their reasoning is that TA’s don’t teach a significant portion of the course - they might just teach a lab, or a discussion, so I’m not sure how valid the rec letter would be. The professor is the head instructor and teaches the bulk of the material (and is obviously superior to the TA) so I think that’s why professor recs are always required. If you really think that your best letters would come from TA’s, then you should definitely ask the people in charge of the program if you can do that, but in general I think you should stick with the professor recs.</p>
<p>Actually i have 2 classes where the TA teaches more than the professor, not by design but by how bad the profs are, even though yeah it’s like 3:1 ratio in the time they get. One of the profs just regurgitates the textbook, and the other decided that instead of lecture, 90% of the time is spent in small group “team application exercises” which is half of the class grade…</p>
<p>There is no opportunity or point to speak up in either lecture, so even if I wanted a rec from those profs, would be quite difficult. Nonetheless, i work at a grad department office and can tell you that TA recs are not taken into consideration at all here. Maybe ask the TA to get the prof to do it. Profs are considered “expert” in the field, even if they suck terribly at teaching, or like my Soc prof argues that there’s no point to lecture since we’re smarter than he is (seriously).</p>
<p>Ask a full professor.</p>