<p>I'm planning on majoring in international relations and also taking some language and English classes, so I figured that it would be fine to ask my English teacher and my German teacher to write recommendation letters (those are my two best subjects and the teachers know me well). All of the applications I had looked at last spring didn't seem to require the teachers to be in any certain subject areas as long as you weren't applying to the engineering school, planning on majoring in a math or science field, or some other such thing. I was just looking over the U Chicago application yesterday, however, and I realized that it needed a recommendation from a math or science teacher. My science teacher last year was nice and funny, but that was the one class that I slacked off in (though I still ended up with an A- overall) and his teaching style didn't suit me very well. Aside from a couple small issues with my math teacher (said I could read in class if I got at least a 90% on the most recent test, then later said he didn't say it; also didn't like me doing my homework in class) I don't think he'd write too bad of a recommendation, but he never writes recommendations for students, except for perhaps the top couple of students. I probably could have asked the science teacher I had for half of freshman year and all of sophomore year, but he's retired now. There's always next year's math teacher, but I don't think he'd be able to get to know me well enough in the time available. What should I do? Thank you so much.</p>
<p>Send in your English teacher, German teacher, and math teacher. Somebody who talks about your personality, even if he mentions that you read in class, will make you a stronger applicant than somebody who will speak about you in generic terms. And, in its own way, I think an admissions officer might be tickled that you read in class-- obviously you were doing well and the material bored you, and instead of doodling or sleeping, you decided to devote the time to other academic endeavors.</p>