Essentially, I’m debating who to pick to write my letters of recommendation.
I’m conflicted between two teachers in particular.
I’ve already decided on one, I think: my APUSH teacher who had great respect for my writing and even mentioned that I was the best writer he’d seen in 20+ years of teaching. I think that one’s kind of a no-brainer.
So I’ve heard you should have one humanities and one science/math recommendation, but I haven’t really had any science teachers with whom I’ve had any kind of real connection with during my HS experience. Which would be okay, except biology will be my declared major and will even be the topic of my personal statement (if the one currently in the works turns out to my satisfaction).
A possible contender is my AP Bio teacher. I did really well in her class, I was like the only student who made 100s on the practice exams and did a lot of studying outside of the class. She said it herself that she really respects me and even came to me asking for advice as to how to structure the class, because that (last spring) was her first year teaching AP Bio.
However, as nice as she is, I’m not confident that she’ll be able to write like a really epic recommendation. She’s not a super experienced teacher, so I’m just totally clueless to how her letter would look.
The other option is my AP Lang teacher, who I’ve had for two semesters and had some great discussions with. I think she could write a really nice letter, but my history teacher will probably already be writing about my writing skills, so maybe it would be redundant?
Some schools allow you to submit more than 2 letters, and IMO, it’s always safe to ask for at least 3 recommendations just-in-case one falls through. I would recommend asking all three teachers, and then submitting in the following arrangements:
For schools only allowing one letter, only submit your AP Bio teacher's recommendation, as you are applying for Biology.
For schools allowing 2 letters, submit your AP Bio teacher's recommendation and one of the two humanities recommendations (pick whichever one you want.)
You're able to submit all 3 letters.
Some schools have strict requirements (ex: Harvard,) on who and in what subject areas they want letters from, so make sure to read through the admissions requirements of the schools you’re interested in.
That does help! The only thing is I was considering asking my chorus teacher for a recommendation, too, to stick on the “other recommender” section of the common app or whatever, just to add a different perspective to an interest I have. But I guess I should ask my Bio teacher no matter what.
No problem! Some schools have strict requirements on who qualifies as an “other recommender,” so make sure to look at each school’s admissions websites/Common Application page for more information. Also, some (like Brown,) will accept supplemental letters of recommendation but not via the Common Application (by email or mail IIRC) so keep this in mind when asking for letters.
