Recommendation Letter Help!

Applying to College Common and Coalition Application
1

<p>Hi everyone :)
I've been a lurker of college confidential and it definitely has given my some great insight into a lot of things academic related.</p>

<p>I have a bit of a dilemma regarding high school letter of recommendations. Between three teachers, who would you choose to ask? (I've already asked 2 others...one is going to cut people so technically I only have one person writing one for me at this point; therefore I can only ask one of the below teachers)</p>

<p>Teacher A:
-Is my junior year AP U.S. History teacher. Stable A grade, but I don't talk much in class..or raise my hand much, anyway (but there are rarely opportunities to do so anyhow). But, he is the Model UN advisor, and I am the Vice President of that club. However, he doesn't do much, or anything even, for that club...he was pretty focused on his golf team this year (he coaches both girls and boys) so he hasn't had much time for MUN, but I have talked to him a few times about the club in the beginning of the year when I thought he could possibly become more involved (didn't happen). He did attend a conference with us last year though. And he also knows I'm honest. (I had a student's homework land in your notebook somehow when people were passing papers up the rows and I didn't see it and therefore didn't turn it in. However, when I noticed it was in my notebook the next day I talked to him about it and he thanked me for being honest, instead of not turning it in and therefore damaging the girl's grade, or making up some story about how I had it). HOWEVER, his personality is very....sarcastic and he likes to scare a lot of students. Because of his personality, I'm worried his letter may come off as too generic, or not caring. (he is also quite irresponsible--he lost the grades to one of our tests because he left them on the roof of his car and then drove off! LOL)</p>

<p>Teacher B:
-Was my SOPHOMORE year AP World History teacher. I did well in that class last year. She knows me better than the teacher above does. This year, she helped me plan one of the upstate Model United Nations conferences, even though she isn't the advisor. She thinks I'm pretty responsible, but there was some office politics between me and the presidents of Model UN, and they complained to her and made up some petty lies about me. She told me about them, and how she doesn't believe them. At the conference, she defended me against them and let me pick a room from the hotel first because I planned most of it (SCORE :D). However, I did lose my cell phone this year at that conference, and she took pretty great pains to go and track it down and find it (and DID let me know about it...she definitely wasn't happy lol). Sadly, the same thing happened at last year's conference, which her and teacher a, also know about. So, with that comes off a pretty bad impression of me. When we got back, we were supposed to fill out a form to get some money back from the trip. (it ended up being cheaper than we thought) However, I never did so because I was sick that week and never ended up doing it later on, and she caught me on this. We've been friendly since the conference, exchanging hellos as we see each other on campus, but I haven't had any serious interaction with her since about February. However, she is an AMAZING person...very nice, really caring person and she is so forgiving. The main problem is...I don't know how it will look to admissions (Ivy league especially!) if I get a letter from a sophomore year teacher. I would definitely choose her if she taught me this year. sigh.</p>

<p>Teacher C:
She liked me as a FRESHMAN student in her English 9 honors course. She might be my teacher senior year for AP English Literature, and if I end up successfully coaxing your counselor she might be guaranteed to be my senior year teacher. (it still might not happen, though.) She has told me numerous times freshman year that she likes my writing style, but we haven't really had an extensive encounter since Freshman year. (I could become very active if I get her next year, though)</p>

<p>Let me know what you think would be best from an admissions (ivy..heh) standpoint! Thanks so much :)</p>

2

<p>choose between teacher A or B… unless you get teacher C for English next year, if so choose her. definitely teacher A would be better than teacher B… unless you think that teacher B will write a much better recommendation… If so go with teacher B… but if it wont make a big difference, then go with A… :)</p>

3

<p>thanks :slight_smile:
anyone else?</p>

4

<p>I would ask both since you implied that teacher A might not be reliable. That way you know you have a back-up.</p>

5

<p>yeah, I was thinking of that…but then I would be asking 4 teachers and that’s a bit too much. So you’re saying teacher B would be the backup to teacher A?</p>

<p>So basically, the consensus is that a teacher that knows you a little from your junior year is a better person to get a letter from than a teacher that knows you much better from your sophomore year?</p>

6

<p>I got my reccomendation from a teacher who loved me in my sophomore year and I got into an Ivy.</p>

7

<p>Yeah, as long as the teacher knows you well it doesn’t matter what year they’re from. I’m a rising senior and I’ve asked my freshman/sophomore English teacher for recs for next year and she said yes… she knows my writing, participation, work, personality etc. much better than my teacher this year (I did another program for first semester) so getting an upperclassman teacher rec in my case would actually put me at a disadvantage. You only need to worry if it’s REQUIRED that you submit jr/sr year recs, so out of the 4 teachers make sure at least 2 are upperclassman years. And check what the colleges you’re applying to want. A lot of colleges don’t actually care what year it is as long as it makes your application stronger. I say go with B.</p>