Question about Teacher Recs

Colleges and Universities A-Z Barnard College
1

<p>Hello! I’m currently a senior in high school who will be applying RD to Barnard in January. </p>

<p>I had a question about teacher recs that I was hoping some students, alumni, parents, etc. could answer. Everyone on this forum seems really nice and helpful! Anyway, here it is:</p>

<p>During my junior year college conference with my guidance counselor at the end of last year, I was told that teacher recommendations should be from academic teachers that I had during my sophomore or junior years of high school. My guidance counselor’s reasoning was that freshman year was too long ago and senior year teachers don’t know students well enough. So in June, I asked my sophomore year English teacher (I had her for Honors English, was one of her favorite students, and she is the teacher advisor for my school’s Model U.N. club, which I co-founded during my sophomore year and am currently a co-president of) and my junior year APUSH teacher. Recently, however, after reading through college websites more carefully and looking through forums on here, I have learned that sophomore year teacher recs are supposedly “frowned upon” and Barnard (and many other schools) prefer (or require? I’m not completely sure) that students get recommendations from teachers they had during the last two years of high school. So now I am kind of freaking out. I’m pretty sure it’s too late to change anything, and I realize that it is my own mistake for not researching about this more last year, but I just have to know, how bad is this? The English teacher that is currently writing my rec is probably the most influential teacher I’ve had throughout high school. Along with being the teacher advisor for MUN, which is one of my most important ECs, she introduced me to creative writing, which has since become a really serious passion of mine that I definitely want to continue later on in life. How much does Barnard weigh recommendations, and, from your experience, how much of a negative do you think this will be?</p>

<p>Thanks! And sorry, I know this is long…</p>

2

<p>I’m not sure what Barnard says now, but back when my daughter applied 7 years ago, they were very clear that they wanted the recommendation to be from an 11th or 12th grade English teacher.</p>

<p>My daughter submitted a LOR from her 10th grade English teacher, which was awesome. I’m very sure that letter was a big reason that my daughter got admitted to many colleges, including Barnard.</p>

<p>Sometimes the “rules” don’t fit. </p>

<p>Do whatever makes YOU feel happy with your overall application package.</p>

3

<p>It’s not too late. Recommendations are part of Common App. You can get more than two teachers to submit and then choose which ones you want to go where. I don’t think teachers can tell which you used where. On the other hand, if the soph year teacher knows you well, I wouldn’t assume you should drop it. It wouldn’t hurt to find out who your region’s admissions officer is and pose the question to her. I think recommendations are pretty important.</p>