catbird

This is an interesting discussion. S (sophomore, piano) has the inverse situation: he's more likely to go to LAC than to conservatory, however his closest relationship by far is with the high school choral teacher. She has given him huge responsibilities and opportunities as an accompanist, and has also drawn him into vocal performance. They talk about music constantly and have a genuine friendship. No other teacher knows him as well as she does, and she thinks the world of him... pity to wonder if her recommendation wouldn't help much at either LAC or conservatory.

binx

Marylandmom3 - I'm confused by the tone of your post. I have apparently unwittingly offended you. However, at least I know that you meant it that way, or you would not have said it.

It was not my intent to challenge you. The "are you sure" part came because sometimes a school will ask for two recs, and many folks end up using private teacher and school teacher because that is all they have. I was asking to see if that might have been the case in your situation, and did not mean to imply I was questioning your character. I am not familiar with the schools your D applied to. It's interesting that all your D's schools required this, and neither of my kids ever ran into it. Great that this board can provide multiple experiences for others.

The "or I would have never said it" comment implies that you think a great deal more deeply about your posts than I do. I admit to squeezing in CC posts among other things throughout the day, and sometimes my quick notes come out not exactly the way I intended them. So I welcome the opportunity to clarify or correct.

For example, what I said:
I think you define "respected" as the opposite of dissing. Whereas I meant it as something the department would take as especially meaningful. I do not believe that any music department would disparage high school music teachers for no reason. I was speaking to my own kids' situation, where the HS teachers either did not know my kid well (my D only attended the HS one year and was basically ignored - see previous posts) or did not write well. The HS band director is a great guy. His letters are generally two or three sentences long, with a generic - "yes, I taught him, he's great." And I suspect he would write the same letter for every kid who requested one. If two kids applied to the same school, the school would likely get identical letters, and would therefore not respect them.

I'm happy that your D's teachers are everything you could want. Count your blessings!

Tango14 - Juilliard requires (or did 4 years ago) a letter from a HS English (or perhaps "humanities" - in the interest of accuracy) teacher. S did not submit anything else. They had a resume and the audition to tell them about talent. I'm guessing they got tired of reading "this kid is great" letters that could mean anything or nothing.

I have also heard - this was a while ago, and I can't remember what college it was - that noted when they got glowing reviews from teachers that did NOT match the actuality - and they remembered those teachers and discounted future letters from them.

tango14

binx,

Thx for clarifying about Julliard. I knew it was a letter needed from a hs teacher, and our experiences with 2 English teachers over 3 years was no better than in music. Plus the last one who would perhaps have been okay was on maternity leave at the wrong time.