<p>So… I’ve got a hypothetical rec situation; which teacher would you ask?</p>
<li><p>Teacher who teaches arguably the hardest class in the school. You have a very hard-to-get A in her class. You spend a decent amount of time talking to her after school, so she knows you pretty well.</p></li>
<li><p>Teacher who teaches a slightly easier class, but still pretty hard. You have one of the few As in her class, but it didn’t require as much effort on your part, which she’s aware of. But you’ve had her both as a freshman and later in your high school career, so she can comment on maturation, improvement in grades, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>Teacher who teaches a pretty hard class in a subject you’re weak in. You don’t have a particularly strong grade in her class; not awful, but not great. However, she has said that you’re a talented student despite your grades. </p></li>
<li><p>Teacher who offered to write a recommendation, but doesn’t teach a core subject (math, science, english, history, FL). Clearly respects you, and is one of the most respected teachers in the school. Strong grades in her class, but didn’t have to work hard for them.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>All teachers comment favorably upon your in-class performance, and you’ve spent at least a moderate amount of time with each outside of class, so they all know you relatively well. So… which would you pick?</p>
<h1>s 2 and/or 4. They sound like they know you best. Teacher 1 from your description does not have any distinct advantages because colleges will know from looking at your transcript that you did well in that class. And I would go with no on teacher 3 because you are doing poorly in the class.</h1>
<p>Ie: whoever is the best skilled at writing recs + who respects me the most.</p>
<p>My recommenders were a mix of 1 and 4. He respects me and wanted to write my recs, but I worked hard in his difficult class and he knew me very well.</p>
<p>Just pick a teacher who likes you. The difficulty of the course is reflected well from your transcript. It’s better to have a teacher who knows you well (even if he’she teaches an “easier” subject) than a teacher who teaches a hard subject but doesn’t know your name.</p>
<p>Also, I would lean towards teachers you know can write well. This would mean your english teacher preferably. But the more you’ve had the teacher the better. So I’d place #2 first, then possibly 3 because she has a favorable impression on you. But don’t lose track of the fact that the teacher has to be able to communicate well on paper as well. This doesn’t mean not to choose your math teacher, but I’d say lean towards writing profs.</p>
<p>i say 1 and 3/4. whoever knows you the BEST is the best choice. a teacher can only say so much about your work ethic… so teachers who only know you based upon your grades are going to have a very predictable recommendation, explaining how smart you are and how hard you work - something the adcoms will most likely already know from your application.</p>
<p>Hey, thank you to everyone for the responses. I really appreciate the rationale behind the choice. I was especially surprised how much weight having a teacher multiple times carries; I’ll be sure to remember that when I do ask for my recs.</p>