Which teacher should I ask for recommendations letter?

Applying to College
1

I am a high school student from Hong Kong and I’m preparing for IB.
I want to major in Business and maybe minor in Music.

My counselor at school told me to look for at least two teachers who can write recommendations letter for me. My music teacher will definitely write one 'cause she taught me since Year 10 and she knows me quite well; I believe she will write some good things about me.

However, I have some problem with choosing the second teacher. I want to choose either my Economics teacher or Chinese teacher to write one for me.

Econ teacher

  • Universities may want to see the letter from my Econ teacher because Business is related to Econ
  • She only taught me for 3 months 'cause my previous teacher left during Christmas, so she only knows me slightly.
  • She is very experienced and many students want her to write the recommendations letter; therefore, I’m afraid that she may not have time to cope with so many letters.

Chinese teacher

  • I performed very well in class and I’m always the top student in her eyes.
  • My school will do the translation for me so I don’t have to worry about that.
  • The only concern for me is whether US universities care about any recommendations letter from Chinese teacher or not.

Do you guys have any suggestions? I struggled for a long time :frowning:
Thanks a lot!!

2

In general colleges want academic teachers. Often the HS counselors know who writes good recommendations in the school You might use the music teacher as maybe a supplemental recommender, but I would not use him/her as a primary teacher recommendation since music is generally not considered an academic subject. Typically colleges look for one humanities teacher (ex. English, SS, Econ) and one STEM (science, Math) teacher.

3

IMO - Go with the teacher that knows you best - the Chinese teacher - they will be the best equipped to write about you as a student and a person.