My daughter just went on to submit her essays/project and it asks for an optional teacher rec. Of course, we didn’t read about that anywhere else. Did your child ask for yet another teacher rec or two?
@MrsABC -Your daughter should only submit the optional extra teacher rec if she has another teacher whom she didn’t already use for her Common App recs and whom she thinks might show another side of her that the Common App teachers didn’t. Some students can barely come up with one teacher whom they feel will write the best possible reference while others have several teachers that they need to decide among. So if your daughter falls into that latter camp, then she can submit the extra reference. But if she feels as if she’s hard pressed to select another teacher, then the lack of the optional reference will not hurt her PTA/DHS bid.
I commonly encounter students who say something like, “My music teacher really knows me well because she’s also my soccer coach, but I didn’t feel that music was a strong academic subject (and I plan to major in bio) and thus didn’t ask her to write on my behalf.” So NOW could be the time to ask the music teacher to send the optional rec since she may have helpful new information to contribute about the candidate as a leader, team member, etc. as well as a musician.
Thanks so much. That is exactly what we did. She more felt bad asking someone to do it in a week (despite tons of research we didn’t know they could submit another rec). Both her admission recs were academic and in subjects pertaining to her desired major, so she asked her health teacher, who is her advisor for the mental health advocacy/help-line club she started (she will be some combo of bio/psych/pre-health so also relevant).
@MrsABC -Sounds like the perfect choice.
Good luck with the scholarship!