<p>My D has the same teacher for both AP English and Creative Writing and hopefully will be able to use this teacher for a college recommendation. She has had a different teacher for both Journalism and Advanced Journalism. The Journalism teacher has named her editor of the school literary magazine so he also would be a possible teacher rec. He is also the advisor of the newspaper and my D is also involved there as well.</p>
<p>Are these subjects to similar to get recs from both teachers? Would journalism qualify as an academic course? Most likely she could get recs in other subjects if needed but these teachers will have taught my D multiple courses and the journalism teacher is an advisor for 2 EC's as well. Since D wants to study-English/writing/journ-communications the subjects tie in.</p>
<p>She is only a jr but she is at a school with 800 other jrs and following advise here she will try to line up her teacher recs at the end of this yr for next yrs apps. These teachers will clearly know her best due to having taught her in multiple classes.</p>
<p>I think most schools want an English teacher, plus a teacher from a different subject.
Call up an ad. office and ask.
You are right to line up the recs during Junior year.</p>
<p>How about this? Request recs from the English teacher and another, preferably math/science, teacher. But also, request a rec from the J teacher as "supplementary" (be sure it's clearly labeled that) recommendation. Most colleges will accept relevant supplementary recs. Using the J teacher as an academic reference is probably not a good idea; there's plenty of bias against journalism as a legitimate discipline.</p>
<p>What if there is no English teacher? My daughter's junior English teacher was not very good and she has a new one for Senior English. She was planning on asking her Spanish teacher as she has had her for four years.</p>
<p>(2) If you can, figure out which of the two teachers would give the more effective recommendation. All things equal, I lean towards the journalism teacher because of multi-year involvement, observing her ECs, and having "chosen" her. I don't think bias against journalism as an academic subject would negate an effective, enthusiastic teacher recommendation, and I would rather have that than a lukewarm rec from an "academic" teacher.</p>
<p>A social studies teacher would be as good as an English teacher for the purpose of recommendations. The point is that colleges want someone who can speak to the student's ablity to write. S1 asked his 10th grade social studies teacher and a science teacher to write recs. The social studies teacher had a Ph.D. and had commented very favorably on some of his papers.</p>
<p>I think the most important things are 1) that the teachers who write the recommendations should have taught the student in an academic subject (because many colleges specify this) and 2) that the teachers actually know the student.</p>
<p>It would be nice if the recommendations could come from teachers who taught two contrasting subjects, but sometimes other considerations are more important. At my daughter's high school, students do not necessarily have the same teacher for both semesters of a course. I think it is usually better to get a recommendation from a teacher who has taught the student for a full year, rather than one who has taught the student for only one semester, even if it means getting recommendations from teachers in two similar subjects.</p>
<p>"When is it appropriate to send in an unsolicited teacher rec? Typically it's when one teacher knows you inside out but doesn't teach you a major subject or hasn't had you in class since 9th or 10th grade. For instance, if you're the school yearbook editor, then the yearbook advisor probably can speak to your intelligence and sense of responsibility (and probably your sense of humor, too) more than any other teacher you've encountered. "</p>
<p>This quote is from CC's Dean archives, suggesting when it might be appropriate to submit a supplementary rec (in addition to two <em>academic</em> recs). "Journalism" is not generally regarded as academic.</p>
<p>I agree with celloguy's views that the Journalism is a supplementary rec but this is going to be to the advantage of the OP's daughter. Recs that indicate a student has taken advanced training in the arts..music, art, theater, writing and then that student also became a contributor to the school paper or other related ECs are Recs that help an application. Lots of kids can do the math or the chem or the essays. </p>
<p>But she may be presented as someone who will fill a niche in college publications. Colleges graduate talent every year and need new willing writers who mean business and contribute to lively debate.</p>
<p>Hmm, do you think the problem of teacher similarity is equally unadvised within other academic areas, even if both subjects are irrefutably "academic"?</p>
<p>For instance:
- statistics and calculus teachers
- biology and chemistry teachers
- French and Spanish teachers
- US history and world history teachers</p>
This shouldn't be a problem. Most of the schools we researched (some in tiers 1, 2, and 3) didn't specify an English teacher recommendation. They just want the recs from two academic teachers in different areas. Humanities can include English, history, languages, social studies, etc. The other major areas are math and sciences.</p>
<p>Since MIT specifically said one recommendation had to be from science or math and the other humanities or social science, we figure we'll do that for all the schools. Still going around a bit though as to whether to use history teacher from last year or Latin teacher from 3/4 years. Leaning toward the latter. The GC did say that if the teachers sent the letters to her she'd be willing to put in whichever letter seemed to show son in better light.</p>
<p>Our son used Physics and French teachers. The GC usually likes to have an English teacher write, but DS really liked the French teacher and excelled in his class.</p>