<p>Hi, I am a senior in HS and I am applying RD to RPI, Binghamton, Clarkson, Lafayette, and Villanova. I want to major in electrical engineering.</p>
<p>Last year I asked my honors precalc teacher for a recommendation because he was retiring. I did very well in the class and I am sure he wrote a great recommendation for me. In October, I asked my band teacher for a recommendation. I did this because I have been in her band for four years, and I am in her advisory this year, so she knows me very well. I figured that her recommendation would outline my character and my math teacher's recommendation would outline my strength in math. However, I just read on the common app teacher evaluation that the recommendation are supposed to be from academic areas such as math, science, english, social studies, or foreign language. If this is the case, should I ask another teacher for a recommendation or is it too late? If so, should I still submit my band teacher's recommendation.</p>
<p>RPI wants only one rec (preferably from a math or science teacher) so you are OK there. Lafayette requires one teacher and one guidance counselor’s rec letter so there you need a second one from a counselor. Binghamton requires only one rec from either a teacher or counselor so you are OK there except you need to check because it has a form for the rec and you may need to submit one on its form (not sure on that). Clarkson requires only one rec so you are fine there. Villanova requires whatever the common app has and thus two are needed but says nothing about a preference for both a math and science; nevertheless you might consider another one there to meet the common app recomendation for letters.</p>
<p>Check with individual colleges, but for common app colleges I believe they all have to be from academic subject areas. Some colleges don’t accept even foreign language teacher recs.</p>
<p>At this point I am using my math and band teacher’s recommendations. Hopefully this won’t hurt my chances to get into Clarkson (requires two). All the other institutions require one.</p>