Teacher recommendations

<p>Hi all,</p>

<p>I'm getting my early decision application ready and I'm having the most trouble when it comes to teacher recommendations. I've got kind of a unique situation there, so here goes:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>I know my counselor will write me one</p></li>
<li><p>my foreign language teacher and the teacher I had for English and Creative Writing for a few years are both willing to write me recommendations. I'm okay/not fantastic in math and science but I'm really passionate about writing and languages, so I thought this would be better than only one of those and then one from a math or science.</p></li>
<li><p>a family friend who works as a college counselor (but not at my school) and is also an alumna of William & Mary is willing to write me a recommendation. </p></li>
</ul>

<p>The thing is, I've seen on this website that W&M seems not to prefer four letters of rec. How many is best? And in my particular situation, would it be better to use the family friend's letter with one teacher rec or just skip the family friend altogether and use the two teachers' letters?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>scroll down and look through the other threads. Someone from the admissions office has commented on them regarding numbers of recommendations.</p>

<p>In my personal opinion, recommendations from a family friend are not useful since they will obviously just say how awesome you are. I don’t think being a W&M alum will make the recommendation weighted more. But perhaps W&M Admissions will tell me I am wrong, on either or both accounts.</p>

<p>I would send the counselor rec and 1 or 2 (if it was me, I would probably send 2) from the English department.</p>

<p>Glad to hear you’re applying ED!</p>

<p>At maximum, you should send two letters of recommendation in addition to the one coming from your counselor. One should definitely be a teacher of an academic subject. Which subject doesn’t really matter and whether or not you’re interested in majoring in that particular subject doesn’t really matter.</p>

<p>As for the second letter, it’s up to you but if the family friend only knows you in a family friend context (not as a student or someone involved in an organization) the teacher might be able to write a slightly more substantive letter but we just recommend that whomever you ask knows you well and can speak knowledgeably as to how you will impact the college community.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

<p>Thank you all so much! That’s really helpful.</p>