I’m a high school junior, and for college I asked my engineering teacher and my math teacher for recommendations. I felt like both would write very strong recommendations because my engineering teacher also was my coach for a national math competition (which my team got honorable mention in), and he was able to see my “leadership” and whatnot. My math teacher is also in charge of the math team, which I have participated in since freshman year and I am currently captain of, so again “leadership” and “character.”
HOWEVER
I’ve been looking at many schools and most of them ask for one teacher from the math/science group and one from the humanities. (this includes even MIT, surprisingly) Unfortunately, not only are my history and English teachers unfamiliar with me, but neither of them would be happy to write a recommendation at this late in the game. Honestly, no one regrets more than me my lack of foresight, but now I need help and advice.
My main question is: is this “one math/science one humanities” teacher rec thing a strict requirement? would colleges overlook my unbalanced recommendations in consideration of better aspects in my application, or would they automatically reject me? I am convinced that either my math or engineering teacher could write a more insightful recommendation than my English or history teacher anyway, but I’m nervous because I’m not sure of the extent to which this might affect my chances.
All opinions are welcome.
You would have to read the website for the specific colleges and see what it says. Some say “require” and others say “recommend”. If it doesn’t say online, you’d have to email the admissions representatives for the colleges and specifically ask, explaining your situation.
Are there any other teachers (say in electives like foreign language or arts or computer/technology etc.) that could write you a letter? If you don’t believe your English or history teacher could write a quality insightful letter, I don’t recommend asking them to.
@TheDidactic I am asking my art teacher for my supplemental recommendation, but I’m not sure how strong it would be as an “actual” recommendation since it’s really not a core class…
It should be fine, especially since it counts as a humanities.
You could always just ask the colleges to which you are applying. Some of them take three recommendations if you feel that they are all unique and separate in how they recommend you, and that way your “weak” humanities recommendation might be balanced with the others you already planned on including. I don’t believe they’d flat out reject you just for not having a humanities letter. In my experience the requirements are a little looser than they look.
Depending on the institution, an art teacher’s recommendations are sometimes no less valuable than a core teacher’s. My default teacher to ask for letters was my orchestra director, and for every thing I applied to with his recommendation, I was successful with. From what you described about your situation, it’s obviously different, but I’m sure that as long as you feel confident that the teacher is capable of writing a quality letter about you, then it shouldn’t be an issue