I am going to get my recommendations from one teacher I had junior year and one teacher I had sophomore. Both teachers taught me in an AP class that I did very well in, but Yale asks for recommendations from Junior/Senior year teacher. Do you think this would hurt my chances?
Are you the same person TODAY that you were as a sophomore? Hopefully not. Hopefully, you’ve matured and grown both personally and in the classroom. Hopefully, over the past two years you’ve earned a bit more respect from your peers and teachers because your writing and cognitive skills are more polished and a bit closer to college level. So, I would follow Yale’s instructions and find a junior or senior year teacher to write your recommendations. Yale asks for a junior/senior year teachers because those teachers can write about who you are TODAY, not the you of two years ago.
If you absolutely cannot find a junior/senior year teacher who will extoll your virtues, then I guess a sophomore year teacher will suffice. But, I would imagine that Admissions might give your other recommendation writer – the one from your junior or senior year – more weight, as they have recently taught you in the classroom. So it’s NOT a win-win situation asking a sophomore year teacher for a recommendation, even if you think they will give you a good recommendation. And, without reading both the sophomore year teacher’s recommendation and the junior year teacher’s recommendation and noting any similarities and differences between what they say about you, it’s too difficult to predict how it might affect your chances. Let’s just say it’s not ideal, and it demonstrates that you’ve ignored Yale’s very clear instructions. Do you like to be ignored? I don’t imagine AO’s like it either!
^Same.
I took an AP class filled with seniors in my sophomore year, but my letter writers for Yale (and the other universities to which I applied) were only teachers whom I had junior and/or senior year.
Thanks for much for the amazing advice!