<p>My track and field and xc coach, who I have known for all years of my high school career, has never been my teacher up until this year. He teaches AP World and I've had him for about a month. Since he is my teacher, colleges will accept his recommendation but is it alright for him to mostly talk about me outside of the classroom. He knows me very well as an athlete and a person in general but not so much as a student. Do you think its alright to have him write me a recommendation? I'm not being recruited for athletics but am a captain on the team and work very hard. My other recommendation is from a math teacher who will only discuss me as a student. </p>
<p>It would be perfectly fine if your recommender can cover you from different perspective.</p>
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Essentially what you’re saying here is that you know the rec is supposed to come from someone who knows you academically, but even though this person technically qualifies as a teacher (since you’ve been in his class a few weeks) he hasn’t taught you long enough to talk about your academic performance.</p>
<p>In other words, this person doesn’t really know you academically. If they wanted a second letter from anyone you felt had something to add, teacher or not, they would have said so. They didn’t, so it seems to me that academics and your performance in an academic setting is their main focus. </p>
<p>Colleges are about academics. This coach’s letter is supposed to help the adcoms see you better, see how your qualities of your hard work and leadership from track has made you a great admit, that you’re going to be a success at their college. If I was an adcom (I’m not, BTW) I’d read between the lines and decide that of all the teachers you’ve had the past 2 years in school that you could not find a 2nd one to describe you this way. All those great qualities you hope this coach will rave about were never on display in any class you took. But you want the adcoms to bet on them showing up once you enroll in college classes. </p>