<p>I am still a Junior and I know its a little early for me to be thinking about recs, but I still want to make sure I have the right teachers in mind for next year. </p>
<p>If I am applying for a science/engineering major, would it work to my advantage to have recs from math and science teachers? Currently, I am set on getting a rec from my APUSH teacher. Would it be to my disadvantage if my other teacher was not a math or science teacher or instead, say, an English one? Also, do schools such as Stanford, U Penn, or Rice allow recommendation letters from Professors/mentors on research projects? I know this question has probably been answered already, but I would appreciate direction.</p>
<p>It depends on the schools. Check their websites or other resources to find out what they say about recommendations. If they don’t have any information about a recommendation-major relationship, then you should probably just assume it won’t help you unless you’re an obviously outstanding student in that subject.</p>
<p>I’m a junior, and according to my counsellor rec time is now. <em>shrug</em>
Most of the college websites I’ve looked up say they want one humanities and one science teacher to write a recommendation, just so they know you’re not just a total science geek, or a pure history nerd :P</p>
<p>For prospective math, science, and especially engineering majors, it CAN work to your disadvantage if you don’t provide one reference from a teacher in a related field. Some engineering programs will specifically require this. For instance, if you are applying to SEAS at Columbia U, then you MUST submit a reference from a math teacher (although this imperative is not stated as prominently on the Columbia Web site as it should be). </p>
<p>An unsolicited reference from a research mentor (etc.) is also fine. However, at the uber-competitive colleges, many applicants will submit such extra recs, so you shouldn’t expect this to set you apart from the crowd unless the reference letter itself makes you sound truly exceptional.</p>