<p>Here are all the choices for my letters of reccomendation </p>
<p>Counselor: mandatory
---------------(pick 2)
English Teacher: she likes me, but I was late to class a lot so I don't think that's a good thing. Grade: A</p>
<p>AP Government: I participated in class..I will probably be the only recommendation he writes because I was his only junior. Grade: B</p>
<p>AP Physics: She requested that she write my recommendation. Hardest class at my high school. Only 2 juniors took the class so she will have more time to write my rec. Grade: C </p>
<hr>
<p>Also, I am researching with 3 professors this summer. Two are alumni of Vanderbilt and Carnegie Mellon, two schools which I want to go to. Can I ask them, next year during the application process, to call the admissions office and give them like a private rec. that only goes to the school? Is that possible? Has anyone on CC ever done this? If so, How did it go? </p>
<p>Also, how many recommendations is too much? Because I could potentially get a rec from my work boss and that would be pretty good too. </p>
<p>You need 2 letters of rec. The common app only allows you to submit two anyway. An extra letter probably won’t sway the admissions office, so don’t waste the professors time. Adding extra things to your application usually hurts more than helps because you would just be adding to their workload. I wouldn’t recommend the Physics teacher seeing how poorly you did in her class. I would go the AP gov’t teacher. He’d put a lot of thought into your rec</p>
<p>The general rule of thumb is to get more than the 2 recommendations only if you think they will add something significant about you not mentioned in the rest of the application. I think the research professors could be very valuable because they will know you from a different context that your schoolteachers. Yes you can, you just have to ask them to be added as a recommender on commonapp or fill out the pdf printed form and attatch it with the letter. If you send it by mail though, it generally has to be sealed.</p>
<p>It’s hard to say, because I don’t know about your relationships with these teachers that well. I asked both a teacher who I was late to class often in but did relatively well in and one that I got moderately good grades in but had to work hard for as I was a junior. It might be interesting to get your physics teacher’s perspective. How did you do compared to the rest of the students in your class? If she requested it, there must be some reason and she can write about the rigor in her rec. Also, any teacher that you know outside of the context of class (ex: involved in a EC you do) might also be a good choice.</p>
<p>@SugarBubbleTea I don’t know where you get the idea of CommonApp setting the limit of recommendation letter. This is incorrect. Each school set their limit on CommonApp. You may invite as many teachers as you want but assign them to each school up to the limit defined by the school. Most do request 2 LOR in addition to Counselor recommendation. Some schools request or allow more. My D has submitted up to 4 LOR to a school. The main point is the different LORs should cover different aspects of the candidates and not to be totally redundant. Additional recommendation letter helps if it provides additional information of the candidate. In general, one would ask teachers from different core subject areas. It is also good to pick a teacher that has additional interaction with the student outside of the classroom.
In additional to teacher’s recommendation, some schools would also allow additional recommendations from coach, employer, etc. For instance, if you work with a professor in a research project, you may invite him to write a LOR under this category.</p>
<p>One thing that hasn’t been brought up yet is that every student asking for recs should ask the teacher(s) whether they can write a positive letter for you. This is always appropriate, phrased politely of course. For example, “Am I a student you would write a strong letter of reccomendation for, or do you suggest I ask someone else?” Don’t argue or question why if the answer is ask someone else, simply to thank the teacher for their honest answer. There is no shame or dishonor in deliberately selecting those who hold a favorable opinion to write a rec.</p>
<p>I would be really nervous about that physics teacher. I remember a post a while back from a parent who’s kid had a teacher that really pushed to write a letter of rec for a scholarship. As it turned out the parent ended up seeing the letter and it really slammed the kid. A**hole teacher had it in for the kid. </p>
<p>While it can be uncomfortable for a student to ask a direct question about their rec to a teacher, it HAS to be done. I know someone who was on the alumni scholarship committee for a well-known U and they regularly received letters of “rec” for the full-tuition scholarship that raked the kid over the coals. In “The Gatekeepers”,in which a NY Times reporter followed the admissions committee at Wesleyan for a year, is a real-world example of a bad rec. Obviously when the student asked for a rec she assumed it would be positive, but here is what she got:
This could have been avoided if the teacher had been asked if they would write a strong rec. The student did not get in. </p>
<p>use gov and physics. And yes you can have them send supplemental recs to specific school. My orchestra director did one for one of my schools that she had a connection to.</p>
<p>Thanks everybody!! This was really helpful. And just for the record, a C in our school is a 77%-84%; aka: not standard. Our school has a harsh grading scale and my physics teacher really makes our tests hard. That’s why she has high regards for juniors taking AP Physics. </p>
<p>Also, can I have more info on how I should approach a private recommendation one person can give to a specific school? Like, steps or procedures. Also, thanks @mikemac, I will use your advice. For any others who have advice, I would gladly accept it. </p>
<p>" Many receive advice, few profit from it" -moral saying 1st century BC </p>