<p>I'm going to be a senior this year and I was thinking of asking my physics teacher from last year to write my rec letter but now that I got my schedule for this year...he's also teaching my english and history classes (yeah, he knows a lot)
he's the dean at my school and the head of the math and science dept. </p>
<p>but basically now he'll write my rec letter after teaching me
Adv. Physics my junior year
and english AND economics my senior year
and my senior "paper" and defense/debate (a term paper on science research)</p>
<p>So...
should I ask him to just focus on physics or to just write about whatever he wants to? </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Write about whatever he wants. Colleges don’t really want a teacher’s opinion of how well you mastered a subject. There’s a much better way to get that info, comparing you to the rest of the country via SAT subject tests. </p>
<p>What they are looking for are the intangibles that a standardized test doesn’t show. Did you sit sullenly in class and demand to be told what is the bare minimum you need to learn for the test, or did you show a love of learning? Were you helpful to or snarky to the slower students? Were you one of those argumentative kids that took delight in trying to correct the teacher at every turn, or the kind of kid every teacher wants in their class? </p>
<p>A powerful letter of rec brings the student alive to the adcoms, making them think this is the kind of kid they want taking classes at their school.</p>