<p>I'm an incoming senior and I've been pondering who to ask for letters of recommendation. Our counselors recommend getting one letter from a math/science teacher and one from a history/english teacher. However, I feel that my English and History teachers both know me better and can testify to my strengths as a student better than my math/science teachers. Is having one from both subject areas more important than having two better letters from similar subject areas?</p>
<p>It depends on what you’re going to college for, how approachable the teachers are, what subjects they teach, and how well they know you. My HS counselor wrote recommendations for the entire senior class by having students fill out questionnaires, but it was unnecessary because unless he’s my teacher, that recommendation meant nothing. Also, he doesn’t even know me except on paper, so you can guess how that recommendation would look like. He also said to get letters of rec. from teachers whose classes you had the highest grades in, which because unless they taught you a subject that pertains to your major, why bother? </p>
<p>For me, I had my math and science teachers’ recommendations sent to an engineering school. They both taught me for two years, and they knew me pretty well to include various school activities that I am in, as one of them was my HS chapter’s math honor society organizer. Even though my highest grade was in American History with a 100 unweighted average, I didn’t ask that teacher because it was irrelevant to my colleges. If you want your prospective school to know that you are capable in math/science and liberal arts fields, perhaps include it in your essay or resume. </p>
<p>And you can always get more than two letters and have different letters sent to different colleges, right? For me, it wasn’t limited to only two teachers, I had a total of five recommendations on file.</p>