When I said a CS major should have a CS teacher as a recommender, I was referring to the fact that students should be able to have a non-core teacher write a recommendation and not have to write it themselves.
It sounds like this school does not have a lot of recommendation requests and a few teachers carry a lot of the burden and have developed a system to spread the recommendations around or not do them at all.
Kudo’s to the OP’s kid for going back to their teacher and tackling the situation head on with grace and thoughtfulness. Hopefully their approach will make an impact on the teacher for a thoughtful and positive recommendation.
I would encourage them to seek out a non teacher recommender as well as it sounds like securing a core teacher recommendation may not happen. If they do apply to a school that requires core recommenders, I think it would be appropriate to notify the admissions office of that school of the situation or note it on the “additional information” section of the application.
Colleges usually state what type of recommendations they seek, if they consider them. It is very common for a college to request one or two recs, usually from a teacher in a core academic subject. Students need to check the website to see if a college accepts any additional recs.
Perhaps the teachers are already overburdened, despite most students going to colleges that do not use LoRs (California public universities and community colleges). But also note that LoR burden is concentrated on some teachers – those who teach junior level college-prep courses, particularly honors or AP level (or equivalent in other systems), that tend to concentrate students who are likely to apply to colleges that require LoRs. Teaching honors precalculus, AP English language (11th grade honors English), or foreign language level 3 or higher is likely to result in more LoR requests from the class than teaching algebra 1, 9th grade English, or foreign language level 1.
There is no doubt teachers are overburdened. (The admissions application requirements for so many colleeges and universities has become enormously time consuming and is overburdening our students, but that’s a whole mother thread.)
The moral here is that juniors should have 3-5 recommenders in mind in case they can”t secure their top 2, Some of the OP’s and my son’s teachers only write a certain amount each year. And the early bird gets the worm. Ask spring of your junior year ahead of the craziness of AP tests and finals.
Seems like the OP’s student tried 6, but got 2 “no” (math, Spanish), 1 not very willing (English), 1 on leave (history), 1 flaky (physics), 1 initially dodgy ethical situation that is the thread topic (CS). Getting the latter to do the LoR is a less ethically dodgy manner leaves the OP’s student with 1 instead of the 2 some schools want. Fortunately, the state universities in California do not require any.
What a thoughtul, principled kid. I wonder what would happen if he called a college admissions office and asked if he could substitute an out of school LOR. He could explain that teachers are rationing and also that one teacher wanted him to write the LOR and he instead convinced the teacher to write it. That generally another option for a LOR is needed for many kids!
I definitely would not do that. If I were an AO I would hear a complaint that the teachers are rationing as this kid left it to the last minute and other kids were on top of things and were able to get letters. Not fair and not saying that’s true but that’s how it would read to me.
I get it. But enough other kids knew to ask for letters already that the teacher has reached their max. I’m just saying that I wouldn’t bring attention to it in case admissions thinks oh well that kid waited too long. I think this kid is not getting treated well by his school/teachers but it is not unusual at all to ask for rec letters in the spring of junior year. My kid certainly did. Waiting until fall is pretty risky and many teachers don’t check email over the summer. Personally I just wouldn’t bring it up as it could backfire pretty easily.
At my kids’ school, students are advised by their counselors to request letters by the end of their junior year so teachers can budget time. Teachers expect those requests now, not in September.
Given LoR rationing without a somewhat formalized process beyond first-come-first-served, the likely result is that the informal deadline to ask for LoRs will keep getting earlier and earlier.
That is true, but the fact remains, there will be a signficant portion of students who cannot get a LOR, and colleges require them. It is possible more will write their own, but that is not a good outcome in my view. Are colleges aware of this problem?
I am assuming that he only asked 2 - they re-utilize the same recs for every application. Also, in this case I’d guess many of the school didn’t even require recommendations. That being said, the whole exercise was ridiculous. This brilliant student (graduating HS at 16) was a shoe-in for a top school (is going to Cornell and I’d be surprised if he didn’t get other Ivy acceptances), meaning most of the schools he applied to were never in consideration.
The same LoR(s) are generally sent to all schools via the application platform(s). Many schools don’t require LoRs. In cases where the student has two or more LoRs, they can choose which one(s) to send to a given school.
If any element of a college application should be made optional, shouldn’t it be the LoRs? If a teacher doesn’t have anything to say, or feel strongly, about a student, or know the student well enough, why should s/he be asked to write a LoR?
Can your son ask a teacher from a sophomore year class that he did well in?
At D24’s school they are told to ask a junior or sophomore teacher, as they need to request the letters in spring of junior year.
He actually contacted his guidance counselor yesterday with a question about how LORs work in our school Naviance/Common App system and she congratulated him on starting so early! She also said they will only start accepting recommendation packets in the Fall semester starts, and that teachers can’t submit anything until the fall because Naviance will reset.
He (and other students) asked the APUSH teacher in February when they found out about her upcoming maternity leave, and she announced she will deal with requests when she returns in August. The Physics teacher said in April that he will put up a sign up sheet at the end of the semester for LORs and give instructions on what the students need to submit. (The teacher is notorious for not submitting things on time, so he is not a good choice anyway).
There are just a lot of mixed messages. He is asking his 10th grade APWH teacher and Chemistry teacher today as backups. I think he has done the best he can.
