<p>So I am an engineering applicant and I have two letters of recommendation, one from my calc teacher and another one from my English teacher. I was never good in English and didn't participate much. I don't think that my teacher wrote a bad latter, just probably not the best. I am applying to some very competitive colleges and thought that I would probably need a teacher who likes me a lot. I was thinking about my Stats teacher and Math Team coordinator (which I am captain of).</p>
<p>First of all, the coleges I'm applying to are Northwestern (which I think only requires one letter, so I'll use my calc teacher's one), Cornell and Columbia.</p>
<p>My dilemma goes liek this:</p>
<p>English teacher - Like I said, not bad, but not the best as some of this colleges would "require" from an applicant. I am also a non-native speaker, so I thought she might write about that. However, I also didn't participate as much. I think that teachers have to also fill out a separate form for colleges in which they rate the student in terms of other students (attitude, participation, intelligence, etc.) in which I wouldn't look as favorable (e.i. wouldn't be in the top).</p>
<p>Stats teacher - I do much better in his class than in English. as the captain of the math team, I have also been doing a lot for the club which he appreciates. I am also working in a small town project about reusable energy with him. My one concern would be that I would be having two math letter of recommendations, which might seem repetitive, especially considering that Cornell and Columbia are liberal arts schools and emphasize academic diversity.</p>
<p>Do you think that it's better to have recommendation letters from different fields for top tier schools?</p>
<p>Since you are applying engineering, having your stats teacher is probably more helpful than an English teacher. With the information you posted, you shouldn’t hesitate to get the stats rec letter. Having academic diversity can be displayed in many areas such as your course loads, your standardized exams, and your application essay. I really think that you should get that second math rec letter with no reservations.</p>
<p>In my opinion, I think it does not hurt to get another letter of recommendation. For me, I want to major in biochemistry, so I requested a letter from my AP Biology/Anatomy and Physiology teacher, Physics teacher, and World History teacher. “Dont put all your eggs in one basket.” Following this expression actually helped me because one of my letters was not as strong as I had expected. Wish you the best of luck~ </p>
<p>There is very real chance that a school will read the two on top of the stack and no others. They have very limited time to consider each application. They don’t want extraneous material.</p>
<p>Most schools will want one letter from a science/math type teacher and one from a humanities/social sciences/language arts type teacher. Check the fine print for your target schools.</p>
<p>If they are OK with 2 from Math, then put your strongest case forward. You may also consider foreign language, government, APUSH, or other teacher for the second category, if it is needed. Can you “un-upload” the rec from your english teacher, if you need to? It’s your future, don’t be shy about approaching him/her and asking her to withdraw it if need be, because you “feel that Mr. Jones could provide me with a stronger recommendation, so I would like to submit his instead.”</p>
<p>@ItsJustSchool I don’t think that she has sent the letter yet to my RD schools. I don’t know whether they would be ok with 2 Math letters. All I know is that for engineering at least one has to be from math/science.
I was thinking about submitting the three, having 2 very good ones from math, and another one to supplement the humanities section. If they only check 2, then I guess any combination would be okay.
Do you know where I could see if they “prefer” one letter from each subject? </p>
<p>It would be in the application instructions. If your schools do not explicitly state a preference, you can assume they do not have one. Having all recommendation letters being excellent is vastly superior to having three recommendations. The schools will assume you have chosen the recommenders, and “it doesn’t get any better than this.” Two "A"s are vastly better than two "A"s and a “B”, especially when only two inputs are required.</p>