<p>My son is thinking of applying to the HADES prep schools as a sophomore (he is currently finishing up 8th grade ie. a rising 9th grader). As application deadlines are usually mid-Jan and teacher/guiance counselor recommendations are usually sought in late Nov/Dec, please advice if it is better to seek recommendations from his 8th grade teachers/counselor (who have gotten to know him over the past year) or from his 9th grade teachers/counselors who would have only known him for a little over 3 months by the time they write their recommendations. I do note that most application forms seem to require recommendations from "Current" Maths or English teachers.</p>
<p>Lastly, how important are these teacher recommendations to the Admissions Office versus SSAT scores, grades, etc? What if a child does pretty well in a subject like English or Maths, gets decent grades but doesn't get along with his current maths/english teacher?</p>
<p>You don’t actually have any choice about that, you have to send in from the current teachers. I however was in the same situation, and my math teacher had actually been on paternity leave so when the deadline came he’d only known me for about 3 weeks. I asked if I could send in a supplamentary recommendation from last year’s math teacher, that also happended to be my home-room teacher and knew me really well and I suppose that helped me out. All the schools I applied to took pretty well to it and all allowed me to send in that extra rec’. </p>
<p>Regarding the importance it probably varies from school to school but these BS’s are aware that sometimes teachers don’t want to let a good kid go, as that can lower the schools average score for the SAT, but it’s rare for that to happen and even if it did it’s unlikely that more than one teacher would do so, and they’d probably find it strange to have one horrible rec’ among 2-3 good ones for the same student. </p>
<p>Good luck with your son and do look at some of the non-HADES as well. It happens all the time that kids with good grades, good rec’s, good EC, good everything’s don’t get in and it’s better to have a back-up plan. Personally I’m actually rather happy to be going to a bit lesser known school.</p>
<p>Thank you choralpartita, appreciate your sharing your own experience and getting that extra rec is a great suggestion. We are definitely looking into some non-HADES options too e.g. the expanded GLENCHEMMS list. Glad to hear that you’re happy where you are. I must say, looking at some of the threads under Prep School Chance, I am somewhat overwhelmed by how intense the competition is for some of these schools and that’s just to get in! Does make me wonder if that’s the sort of pressure cooker environment that my son would thrive in.</p>
<p>If your child and you are unhappy with your local options, then you should consider some schools other than HADES and GLADCHEMS. They are all very competitive, so it is possible to be a strong candidate but not get into any of them. It is also very had for a parent to evaluate a child in the world of most competitive schools. Whichever schools your child applies to, be certain that s/he would be delighted to attend.</p>