Which Teacher Recommendations should I pick?

Applying to College
1

Hi, so I’ve got four teacher that I had planned to ask for recommendations from, but I just found out that the college I want to apply to only accepts two, and doesn’t allow any extras. Which ones should I choose? I want to go into nursing.

  1. My Orchestra Teacher who has had and known me for all three years of high school, along with teaching me music tech, music theory, and AP Music theory. I have a passion for the violin, so that is an important part of me.
  2. My Math teacher who taught me for two years in a row, who I had Pre-Calculus and AP Calc AB for.
  3. My AP Physics teacher who I stayed after with for 2 or 3 days every week to get help from, but also whose AP Physics class I got a C+ in.
  4. My Honors Modern World History teacher in 10'th grade, who also is the advisor for the club that I created, the competitive Super Smash Brothers Melee Club (which has many people in it fortunately haha).

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

2

So rec letters can be strategic. If you have say a mediocre verbal score on the SAT, you can use an English teacher to talk about how you work hard and enjoy challenges and how your creative writing may be better than your analytic writing, but how hard you are working to improve your analytic writing, and the time you spend outside class advocating for yourself and seeking help (colleges like students who can advocate for themselves).

In general choose someone who can explain what makes you an awesome student and awesome person. Avoid falling prey to the trap of picking a teacher who teaches in a subject you want to major in just because you think you have to

Pick someone who thinks the world of you and or someone who knows you well and can write in enough detail so as to paint something unique, personal and meaningful in what they convey. Sometimes ADCOMS complain that the letters are too generic, and they are looking to really get to know you. Good Luck!

3

Note that the LoR requirements are different from school to school. Some school would require junior/senior class teachers like Standord. For that, #4 may be not good. For other schools, you want to pick teachers that can cover different aspects of you (obvious the good side). So, I would pick 1, 2, and 4. You may invite them all to your CA, and then you assign different teachers to different schools according to the school’s requirement.