<p>I hope I'm not having a crisis situation here. </p>
<p>I plan on applying to several common app colleges this summer, and the teachers that I planned on getting my recommendations from were my school newspaper advisor and my art teacher. Both of these people have known me since ninth grade and I know will have great things to say about me. </p>
<p>But according to the app, it says you can only have English, science, and history people giving you recs. Am I wrong here? I hope I am, because my other teachers that I have had in past years do not know me as well as these people. The art teacher's rec I can actually do without and get my AP English teacher to do it, but as for my journalism advisor I REALLY need her input on my app since I am going into Communication.</p>
<p>All the Common App stipulates is that they be teachers who taught you an academic subject. Your Art teacher certainly counts as one of those. It’s usually better to have one from Math or Science as well as other subjects but it’s not a big deal. It’s okay for any teacher who taught you a class to write it.</p>
<p>HOWEVER, for the school newspaper advisor, unless he/she’s ever taught you a class, that can’t be one of the two recs. What you should do is use the Art and AP English teachers’ recs for those two, and then send in the Journalism advisor as a supplemental recommendation (there are instructions somewhere on the App on how to do that). A third rec is fine. And it doesn’t have to be an academic teacher. I’ll probably have my piano teacher do one.</p>
<p>You can get recommendations from any of your teachers. It doesn’t have to be from your english, math, or history teacher necessarily. I would go with those teachers who know you best and would have great things to say about you. It’s safest, especially if the subject the teacher teaches is something you plan to keep doing in college.</p>
<p>Some highly recommend having at least 1 science/math (i.e. Olin Engineering). There may be some that recommend having 1 of each, and typically bucking a school’s recommendation for your application isn’t the best idea (though there are exceptions). But if you’re going into the sciences or math or engineering, and you have no math/science recommendation, it looks a little strange.</p>
<p>At this one seminar i went to the man from Duke said that they high recommend students get Rec letters from a math, science or English teacher. Pretty much core subjects.</p>