<p>Both my science teachers from previous years have retired - that leaves me with my math teacher from last year, which is my AP Calculus teacher. </p>
<p>I went to see him about recommendations today and he said he'd be willing to write one, but he warned me that he will write both the "good and the bad," which he said he does in all recommendations that he writes.</p>
<p>I don't know how I'm supposed to take that - I struggled in his class a lot, but I went to him a LOT for help, asked questions, and my grades ultimately went up...so I don't know. My options, if I don't ask him for a rec, is my AP English teacher who would give me a VERY generic recommendation so I'm not too big on asking him..I feel like my AP Calc teacher would give me an "out of box" recommendation. My other recommendation that's not academic is my debate coach - if I could get both my recommendations from elsewhere, I would use the head of the math department at our local university, but my guidance counselor advised me to use a teacher who had me for a period of time.....</p>
<p>If you were a great student in a science class last year and you are interested in pursuing science in college, try to contact your last year (retired) science teacher. --There’s a good chance s/he be happy to write a recommendation for you.</p>
<p>@milkweed, the thing is that i had AP chem first semester, he DESPISED me because i dropped his class. second semester chem teacher despised me even more because i already knew everything in her class and when people didn’t understand her teaching they would ask me…yeah. i’m pretty much at a dead end</p>
<p>Ok. Choose the h.s. teachers who liked you the most in classes you did well in. If the teachers don’t know you well, give them anecdotes or info that they might want to include or might jog their memory.</p>
<p>I would not have the calculus teacher write a rec after what he said.
Assuming the university math teacher will write a good rec, use him/her as a 3rd rec.</p>
<p>@milkweed: the problem is that i could get a recommendation from my history teacher last year, but i would have no recommendations in the field i’m trying to go into, science.</p>
<p>and, this is only really an issue for penn because penn requires two recommendations from teachers that taught you/</p>
<p>ask the two retired profs!
theres no reason they wouldnt want to write a good rec if they like you, right? be nice about it and give them all they need so they just have to write.</p>
If you want any chance at all at Penn, this is not the teacher for you (all other things being equal). Recs matter at top schools like Penn, and a lot of the other kids will be bringing recs to the table that say things like “one of the 5 best students I’ve had in 20+ years of teaching” and other similarly laudatory things. Yours, which promises good and bad, is going to come off poorly in comparison. </p>
<p>One other thing to consider, though, is whether your school is a “feeder” for Penn. If it regularly sends kids to the Ivies then they have no doubt seen recs from this teacher before so the “good and the bad” as he puts it is going to be expected. But for the typical rec, schools expect positive recs. Negatives really catch their attention.</p>
<p>but what would you suggest for recommendations then? i need two teacher recommendations and if my math teacher is out, that leaves me with my history teacher from last year (who ADORED me, but i’m not interested in history) and my english teacher (who i had for two years and also loves me). i don’t really know who else i could ask; if it was only one teacher recommendation it would make my life easy, but it’s not. :/</p>
<p>& also as well, my counselor rec will be AMAZING. my english rec will be pretty good, i’m also having my debate coach submit a fourth. it’s just that third rec i don’t know what to do about…</p>
<p>i’ve thought of possibly asking my spanish teachers who i had for all four years (they’re married - i had the wife for 9+10, husband for 11+12), and i used to do really well earlier on in his class and i started slipping later on, but i got serious about it, so i don’t know if i should bother asking them. plus it’s spanish…</p>
<p>so i guess it comes down to pretty good history rec vs. either something really good or really bad from my calc teacher (he could talk about how i struggled and pulled myself up…or say i’m a huge fat failure) vs. something i BS. i’m applying to cognitive science too…</p>
<p>i feel like my math teacher would’ve flat out said no if he had a bad recommendation that he was going to write for me? plus he recommended me for SIMR last year with no problems. this is so confusing.</p>
<p>I would suggest posting your question on the Penn board. Someone more familiar with the adcoms there may be able to advise you on how they’d view recs if they weren’t from teachers in the math/science area when you’re intended major is in that area. On the other hand, you get a lot of people here willing to offer opinions when they don’t actually have any real knowledge </p>
<p>Penn does say on one of their admission pages “It is also helpful to us, and beneficial to you, to obtain a recommendation from a teacher in the area in which you think you might like to continue your studies.”
This is not usually the case. Asking for a rec is asking the person to offer their honest opinions to the admissions office, good or bad; in fact a teacher who wants to slam a kid may relish the chance if the student is so unwise as to ask them. I know someone who worked in alumni group that awards a big scholarship each year, and some of the letters they got were just terrible about the kid. </p>
<p>Asking whether the teacher can write a favorable rec is a different question, one that should always be asked. In "The Gatekeepers (a great book from a few years back in which a NY Times reporter sat in with the admissions committee at Wesleyan for a year) is a real-world example of a bad rec. Obviously when the student asked for a rec she assumed it would be positive, but here is what she got:
Tiffany did not get in. I wonder if your teacher has already gone the extra mile and warned you about a rec for a class in which you admit you struggled.</p>
</p>