On the application website it says, “We require letters from two teachers that taught you in core academic subjects (English, foreign language, history [social science], mathematics, or science) in your final two years of secondary school,” and that final two years requirement is kind of a problem because the two teachers I’m getting my recommendations from are from my sophomore year. I might have one again this coming school year, but I honestly can’t say for certain. Which means that at least one of my teachers will be from sophomore year. The obvious solution would be to pick a different teacher, but that isn’t an option available to me for other reasons. Is this a huge problem, or should I apply the way I planned to and hope for the best?
It is generally a good rule to follow instructions. That said, if you have no other option, you can submit these two recommendations but be prepared to have admissions contact you to ask for a more recent one. One way around this would be, of course, to have one of those two teachers teach one of .your courses this year. Just be aware that Barnard does place a great deal of emphasis on recommendations.
It says “We REQUIRE.” It doesn’t say “we hope” or “we suggest.”
Do as they require. If it’s not an option, then I would suggest you find another school to which to apply.
It does say “require” and that has always been the case – or at least it was at least a dozen years ago when my daughter was applying.
Nonetheless, that is a rule that my daughter broke with respect to one of her LOR’s-- and ended up with an exceptionally strong letter from the particular teacher … and my daughter was admitted.
So it is a risk that the student takes in an application … but the only thing the student is risking is rejection – and the student who foregoes a strong LOR in favor of weak ones to meet the requirement is also risking rejection.
Some rules make a lot of sense when applied generally, but don’t always work well in individual cases. Not all students follow the traditional, 4-year linear path through high school. My daughter’s LOR problem stemmed from her decision to spend a semester abroad in 11th grade. The OP says that picking another teacher isn’t an option “for other reasons” --and we don’t know what those are. They may be very good reasons, they may not be… we don’t know.
It makes sense to think about the reasons behind the rule and what it means in terms of what the school is looking for in LOR’s. Can the LOR from the sophomore teachers meet those expectations? I would assume they want someone who has had recent and ongoing contact with the student and has also observed how the student handled more challenging coursework
I wouldn’t advise a student to withhold an application because of a problem with a particular requirement. Anyone who applies can get rejected, no matter how perfectly they adhere to application requirements; but no one who doesn’t apply can get accepted.
I’d just add that I don’t remember any college other than Barnard having that specific requirement. Given that students typically apply to multiple colleges, and in most cases are submitting the same LOR’s from the same teachers to all their colleges – it’s rather tricky when one college imposes a requirement that is different from the rest.
For example, a current Google search reveals:
Columbia: “teachers who taught you in academic discipline”
Wellesley: “two from teachers of academic subjects”
Chicago: “two recommendations from teachers who have taught you in an academic subject”
Harvard: “Ask two teachers in different academic subjects who know you well to complete the Teacher Evaluation forms.”
I can see Barnard expecting a student who applies ED to meet their special, different requirement for LOR’s… but I don’t think it’s realistic to expect RD students who are likely applying to a dozen or more other schools via the common application to seek out additional LOR’s to meet one college’s anomalous requirement. I’d assume that Barnard gets plenty of applications from students who aren’t even aware of this extra, atypical specification. If Barnard wants to use that requirement as a way of weeding out otherwise qualified students… well, that’s Barnard’s problem.
Hello, I went to an information session and the AO said that they want the LOR to come from an 11th grade teacher because your 11th grade self bears more resemblance to your current self than from the personality of you from the 9th or 10th grade.
I thought I’d update this post since… I can… and I appreciate it when other ppl do the same 
I ended up using my 10th grade AP Bio teacher (gr8 dude, weird teacher), my 10th grade english & ap lit teacher (the same, wonderful woman), and my Japanese teacher who I’ve had all four years I’ve done a lot with. I’m still keeping my Bio teacher because even though I have two teachers that fulfill the requirements, my Japanese teacher doesn’t always have the clearest communication in English and I figured this would be a nice balance, plus it gives a stem point of view (even though I’m not applying stem, but I know he’ll say nice things). Fingers crossed. I’ve been on this stressful website since before ninth grade, back when I still wanted to go pre-med (yikes), and I’m finally at the turning point!
You were deferred, right? What does Barnard now say about submitting additional material after being deferred? You can look at this as an opportunity to fill in any gaps from your original application. Do you have any senior year teachers who could write an additional LOR for you? Maybe someone who really wouldn’t have known you well enough to write a good letter early in the year when your ED app was due, but now after a full semester would be able to offer something positive that builds on what the other teachers could say. (Assuming Barnard would accept additional LOR’s at this point … I really have no clue as to what the current practice is).
@calmom actually I’ve applied RD because of some complicated extenuating circumstances, though I have finished and submitted my app. I’m still helping my Japanese teacher work through her lor though, because of some language issues, but my other lors are completed.
Sorry, my bad. I saw you had posted in one of the ED threads so I thought you had applied ED. For RD… just do your best!