<p>As far as recommendations go, I have two real options. (Most schools I'm applying to recommend exactly one recommendation.)</p>
<p>---1st is my Spanish teacher, who I will have had 11th and 12th grade.
When she does recommendations she has the student tell her everything they want her to include so I'd say that's a good choice. She is crazy good at everything she does, but she's kind of mean.</p>
<p>---2nd is my English teacher, who I will have had only during my 12th grade year.
However, I have known her since 10th because she is my club advisor. This upcoming year I will be the president of the club, at her suggestion. She wants me to help her with some things before school starts, and generally likes me enough.</p>
<p>My question is: Is it too unorthodox/a bad idea to have a 12th grade teacher write my recommendation?</p>
<p>Also, is it better to have a recommendation for a favorite subject (Spanish) or a best subject (English)? I plan to major in either International Business or Journalism, so both are relevant.</p>
<p>Thanks for your help!</p>
<p>This English teacher sounds like a great choice. She clearly likes you, and 12th grade teachers are fine. Especially because you’ve known her for a while</p>
<p>Thanks, I think I will do that! I just needed reassurance that it isn’t unheard of to ask a senior year teacher :)</p>
<p>Since your senior year teacher knows about you in more ways than the senior-year class, you’re OK. If you’re asking for a recommendation from a senior-year teacher whom you first met on the first day of senior year, that could be a problem.</p>
<p>Senior year teachers that knew you before your senior year are fair game. Those who you have for the first time are not - they won’t write a good recommendation and the colleges won’t like that they’ve known you for only a short time.</p>
<p>I’d definitely go with the English teacher, as she’s known you outside of the classroom, and - even more importantly - in a context that will allow her to say some great things about you.</p>
<p>noooooooo</p>
<p>these people are wrong. While YOU SHOULD get a recommendation from your senior teacher as an additional rec. (i don’t know of any school that would be mad that you sent 2 as opposed to one), YOU MUST have a teacher that HAS TAUGHT YOU fill out a rec. They care tremendously about getting at least one perspective on how you are in class, involved with your peers during lessons, with assignments, on tests, etc. Even though your english teacher may know you better, she doesn’t know you yet as an actual student. She knows you as a leader and as a person, but she still hasn’t had you in class yet which detracts from what the adcoms are trying to discover</p>
<p>But won’t she have known me as a student by the time I need the recommendation? My first application will be due October 15th - almost a month and 3 weeks after school starts. That’s roughly 30 hours of class time - is that enough?</p>
<p>The aforementioned club of mine is a literary arts magazine/writing club that meets once a week after school, and just so happens to be highly related to English, the class I’d have with her. She also will have two summer assignments of mine, in addition to fall classwork to base her opinion off of.</p>
<p>A UNC admissions guy spent about 5 minutes in an admissions talk saying that when UNC says “letter” of recommendation - they mean “letter.” “ONE LETTER,” he says. I don’t know why, I just know enough to not cross him.</p>