<p>Hey everyone. I have a question about recommendation letters.</p>
<p>I wanted to get both my AP Bio and AP Physics teachers to write one (they've both known me for couple years), but since I'm most likely going to major in math, I wanted to get this college professor that taught me numerous classes to write me one too. I know some colleges also require a humanities teacher, so thats one more plus the required guidance counselor one. Is that too much?</p>
<p>Also, when colleges say teachers of different subject areas, do Bio and Physics count as different subject areas or just as "science"</p>
<p>Thanks!!!</p>
<p>Each teacher should have something unique to say about you: not just “He’s good at bio.” “He’s good at physics.” but “I was impressed with his ability to recall and apply facts about biology, and his curiosity about developments in the biological sciences.” and “He is one of the better problem-solvers that I have encountered, and I think that this will carry over into math.” To submit recommendation letters that repeat the “why you should admit him” will not induce admissions people to look favorably upon your application.</p>
<p>I think that 3 recommendations from people who have taught you + a counselor letter is /more/ than enough. You might get recs from all of them, though! And just choose not to send more than 3 of them to any school. Chicago required of me a history/English teacher letter and a math/science teacher letter. This was finger-gnawingly frustrating, because I am A Latin Kid. Latin is what I do. Latin is what I have many national awards in. My Latin teacher has known me for many more years than any of my history/English or math/science teachers. So I gave up and sent her letter as an extra recommendation, and got in. I then did /not/ send my physics teacher’s letter to Harvard or Columbia, because I’m not going to be majoring in physics, and Harvard and Columbia don’t require that your rec letters come from specific subject areas. (I mean, they recommend it, but I still got into both.) So for college A, you could get bio, physics, and math. For college B, you could get bio, math, and history. For college C, if they’re grumpy about extra information [hello Columbia], you could just send bio and history, or physics and bio. It requires more thought than deciding to mail all the same letters to everyone, but I found it worthwhile.</p>
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<p>Do they really? I couldn’t find anything to this effect on their website.</p>
<p>My rule of thumb is only 1 supplemental LOR beyond what is required by a school.</p>
<p>Uh, they may have changed it. This is what it says now: We require two recommendations from teachers who have taught you in an academic subject.
But either on CommonApp or elsewhere, it told me that it had to have that. One of my friends did not apply because she just wanted to get recs from her Spanish and CS teachers, no real humanities, so I’m pretty sure I’m not just imagining things.</p>
<p>Be sure to get one rec from a math/science teacher and another one from a humanities teacher. From there you can add one from an employer, a person who knows you through ECs or another teacher that can say something for your abilities. Too many recs arent favorable tho.</p>