To what extent are applicants from the same schools compared to each other, especially in regards to recommendations?
I’m entering my senior year and I have narrowed it down to two choices for my second recommendation: math or chem. My math teacher is known to write more positive recs than my chem teacher, but there’s this other girl in my grade that has done a lot more with the math teacher outside of school than I have (organized a math festival that the teacher wanted, etc.) and she will definitely get a more positive rec from the teacher than I will. She will also be applying to a lot of the same colleges as me, and our school typically only sends 1-2 students per year to those top schools. However, I am very active in math activities in school (president of math honor society, etc.), but just not specifically with this teacher.
So the tl;dr: is it better for me to get a good recommendation from a teacher that will be writing a better recommendation for someone else in my grade that will be applying to many of the top schools that I will be applying to, or to get a worse, but still good recommendation from another teacher?
Any input is appreciated. Thanks.