<p>My HS limits the number of teachers we can contact for letters of rec. I originally had three chosen, so I have to cut one out. My APUSH/AP Euro/CA History teacher told me he'd have been insulted if I hadn't chosen him, so he was kind of a mandatory.</p>
<p>So now I only have one slot left, and I can't decide between two teachers:
One is the foreign language department head, who tested me in 9th grade to skip into AP Spanish 4, had me for AP Spanish 5 in 10th grade, and I TA'd for her in 11th grade. The problem is, she doesn't know much else about me. She still calls me by my Spanish name, for example, and the only question she asks me besides how I'm doing is if I'm still dating so-and-so. She's not a strong writer.
The other is my school's AP Lit teacher. She's seen as a rebel in her department, the only English teacher vocal about our school board's book banning policy. She had me for Creative Writing last year, and now for AP Lit, in which I'm one of the top two or three highest scorers in the course. I'm also best friends with her daughter, and I've been over for countless dinners and sleepovers. She knows me very well, and we often laugh that the we both face/faced same obstacles she went through with her immigrant parents. She's a fairly strong writer.</p>
<p>Their only overlap is that they're both UC Berkeley alumni, and the UCs don't even accept letters of rec.</p>
<p>Your English teacher is definitely the better option. I don’t see why you’re even unsure; there isn’t really any reason to pick the Spanish teacher.</p>
<p>It sounds like your History teacher kind of blackmailed you into writing the rec, which is somewhat strange.</p>
<p>One thing to remember is that some schools require a rec from one math/science teacher and one humanities, so you would need to find a third teacher for those schools anyway.</p>
<p>I think that since your AP Lit teacher know you as a person better, she’d be better off writing your rec. She would be able to place more anecdotes in your rec letter about how you were such a great student/did x and y in her class/stood out from everyone else. Since she’s a better writer than your dept. head, I think your lit teacher could probably convey those points to adcoms than your dept. head. Being friendly with her on a personal level is also a great plus.</p>
<p>No; for one, I’m not even sure if she would mention that, two, I don’t think it matters at all, and three, even if it did matter, the AP Lit teacher sounds like she would write a vastly better recommendation.</p>
<p>The title of Dept head is practically meaningless. It’s not who writes the essay. The question is does the essay convey information about YOU?? </p>
<p>100% of the time, you choose who knows you best.</p>