Rec Letter Decision

Applying to College
1

Hi!

I need advice. I have four teachers whom I’m considering asking to write my rec letters. I’m planning on applying SCEA to Harvard. In parentheses are the years I have had these teachers.

Teacher 1: Science Teacher
Classes had: Honors Physical Science (freshman), Honors Biology (sophomore)
Clubs I did with teacher as leader: none
Already have seen letter, very generic.

Teacher 2: Engineering Teacher
Classes had: Principles of Engineering (sophomore), Digital Electronics (junior), Engineering Design and Development (senior), IB Design Technology HL (junior and senior)
Clubs I did with teacher as leader: Robotics (junior and senior)

Involvement in club: President of Marketing Team (got over 15k in grant money, sponsorships, etc.)

Teacher 3: English Teacher
Classes had: Honors English I (freshman)
Clubs I did with teacher as leader: Student Council (Freshmen-Senior)
Involvement in club: I am student body president. We work together almost daily on all things pertaining to student council. We do many things to help the school and we do many charity events.

Teacher 4: English Teacher
Classes had: Honors English II (sophomore)
Clubs I did with teacher as leader: none
This teacher is a great writer, notorious for good rec letters.

In general, I’m trying to steer clear of generic letters.

I’m trying to have one humanities letter and one math/science letter. What do you guys think? Who should I pick? Thanks!

2

Teacher 2 and another teacher that had you as a student junior or senior year.

3

Of these 4. As of now I don’t think I have any other options.

4

I’d go with Teacher 2 and an English or SS teacher you had junior year. If you can’t come up with anyone, I’d ask the soph. year English teacher (#4). Steer clear of freshman teachers for sure – hopefully you have shown enough growth since freshman year that comments on your freshman academic strengths/weaknesses are no longer terribly relevant – remember these are academic recommendations so the EC stuff might be a nice aside but it isn’t the primary goal of the recommendations.