<p>From what I've heard, the following should come into play when selecting your two teachers to write recommendations: how well you did in their class, if you contributed to the class, and if the teacher has gotten to know you outside of schoolwork. Up until now, it's been an easy decision which two teachers to ask. I perform best in History and Spanish and have developed relationships with both outside of class. They've both agreed to write me recommendations and I know they'll both be great. Now I'm hearing that colleges prefer to see recommendations in certain subject areas, i.e. english, history, math. Seeing as how I won't be taking Spanish during my senior year, I was wondering if it might be better to ask my english teacher for a rec. My strongest areas of interest are history and english. My english teacher knows me very well and I could just as easily ask him. Are there certain subjects colleges like to see for recs? Would it be a bad thing to send 3 instead of 2?</p>
<p>What the recommendation says is more important than who wrote it.</p>
<p>Go with the teacher who you think knows you best and will paint the best picture of you as a student for colleges. If there's no real discrepancy here, go with english.</p>
<p>I asked for recommendations from my Psychology and Latin teachers, despite people telling me that I should ask science, history, and English teachers... but I got into Rice, Bowdoin, Haverford, Pomona anyways. </p>
<p>I think it's a myth that colleges prefer science, history, and English teachers.</p>
<p>Some colleges require recs from various departments. The University of Chicago, for instance, requires one from math/science and one from English/social studies IIRC.</p>
<p>At most colleges, it really doesn't matter. The only thing that matters much is when you had the teacher. You don't want to send in more than one rec from a teacher who did not have you junior or senior year.</p>
<p>But would it be a bad thing to send 3 recs?</p>
<p>If you didn't have a great mark in one class, but have gotten to know the teacher fairly well (and vice versa), would you recommend asking that teacher to write the recommendation versus a teacher you don't know so well, but did excellent in the class?</p>
<p>I asked English, chemistry, French, and history teachers to write various rec's, some for one college, some for another, not really strategically but so that I didn't ask one teacher to write 8 rec's. I think the only thing to consider other than the obvious, do they know you and will they write a positive rec, would be could they add to the focus of the rest of your app. My application was very English heavy, so I thought it was important to have an English teacher write a rec. I don't know if that was true, but I thought she might be able to talk about some of the attributes that roll over into my EC's. However, you could make the case that if your app is all English, you should ask a science teacher to show another side. I don't think it's unconditionally better to have a science teacher than a music teacher or English than foreign language; I think it's better to have rec's that add focus or a new aspect to your application.</p>
<p>In response to the last question, I would say that it depends on what the not-so-great mark is. If it's an A- or B+ versus an A+, then go with the teacher who knows you better despite the A-. If it's a C, then maybe consider going with the other one. I think the most important part is whether the teacher will write a good rec despite the not-so-great grade. If so, then don't worry about it. You're almost always going to be better off, in my opinion, going with a teacher who knows and likes you better no matter the grade. If he/she thinks you didn't try very hard, and that's why you got your lower grade, then pick another teacher. If he/she knows you tried, then don't sweat it.</p>
<p>if you have a super strength in an academic area, it's always better to have an academic teacher in that area support it with their recommendation, but don't go with reputation over quality. some teachers don't write very good recs, and i find math teachers have the hardest time with them.</p>
<p>I would agree that math teachers would have the hardest time with recs. Bu if my strengths/recommendations lie in the humanities, how might I balance out my resume with math/science? How important is it to show that side of my academic ability beyond my grades?
History=A, English=A-, Spanish=A, Math=A-, Chemistry=A-</p>
<p>Would Latin count as English/Social Studies?</p>
<p>
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How important is it to show that side of my academic ability beyond my grades?
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<p>my personal opinion is that that is a choice you make (whether or not to go for the all-around appeal, or the specific strength thing, etc.) and this choice will be different for each applicant. Of course, if you have a teacher raving about you, I would use that teacher irregardless of what strategy you are going for.</p>