<p>I will be applying to about nine schools this fall including HYP, UChicago, WashU, Northwestern, etc.
My dilemma is that most only allow two teacher letters of recommendation plus one supplemental letter. It's the supplemental letter I'm worried about. I have done research for a year (two summers and the school year) at a lab and I plan to go into science (though not the same scientific discipline) so I could ask my mentor there, or I also know the director of one of the lab departments. So I have two options for a supplemental recommender there.</p>
<p>OR, I have my private music teacher who I have known since I was 11 years old. Although I do not plan to go into music, she definitely knows me better and has advised me academically as well as musically.</p>
<p>Who do you think I should ask? I don't know if the science one would be better with my major and highlight the importance of the research I was doing, or if it would be better to go with someone who has known me for longer in a non-major context.</p>
<p>Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!</p>
<p>Why don’t you mix and match. You can have some send to some schools and others to other schools. My sons have done that in the past. </p>
<p>I would use the person that will best complement the two academic recommendations - in other words, which individual knows a different side of you or perhaps, which is likely to tell the school something about you that might not be covered with the other recommendations?</p>
<p>Thank you for your advice cptofthehouse! From the colleges listed above, do you have any feedback on which letter should go to which college?</p>
<p>Not really, other than perhaps the music teacher for UCh which has shown some inclination towards looking for things outside solid academic excellence. Just flip a coin for HPY, IMO, as a group, and then do the same for NW and WU. so that you have splits of recommenders in those groupings. It would be interesting if the results show some pattern.</p>
<p>My son did this, and though in his case it showed no patterns at all, his Latin teacher gave the most wonderful recommendation. She sent him a copy of it after the fact, and it was sterling. DOn’t know what the others wrote but that was a fantastic rec written ever so well. I doubt anyone else could have done better. You never know how well a recommender writes who just has a way of writing that is special. So varying the results would be the best way to go. You could be surprised who has the gift to write and who does not. I was surprised at the letter that this particular teacher came up with as was my son.</p>
<p>Okay, thank you so much for your advice!</p>