Penn State, generally, does not require teacher recommendations. Only a very few specific programs do.
Please don’t think I’m trying to be a naysayer, but you need to aim for colleges that are not top tier. Your GPA and test scores are probably going to rule out top colleges, barring some hook. You should not “still” be aiming for top schools, because in all likelihood, you are going to be throwing away money on apps. Sure, go for a high reach, if your family can afford it, but the majority of your list should comprise schools that fit your budget and where you have a good chance of being accepted. Aim for colleges where your GPA and test scores put you above the 50th percentile of accepted students, and ideally, above the 75th.
Your budget means that you most likely should stick to public universities, or aim for colleges where you might get some merit aid. Ideally, you should take the SAT again and try to get your score above 1400 for a better chance of being offered money. Your GPA is good, but it will not get your application a second look at any top tier colleges. Your SAT score will be low for top colleges.
As far as asking for recs, yes, you need to ask in person. You’re going to college in just over a year. You will have to speak with professors and manage yourself in an adult fashion. Shy people aren’t given a pass on advocating for themselves. My daughter is very shy and learned in her first year of college that not talking with professors is a mistake. It means you won’t be on their radar for any recommendations or opportunities that arise. You will need to seek out your professors as soon as you realize you are not clear on the material. So start being proactive now. Simply asking the teacher for a rec will go a long way in helping a teacher get to know you.
A few comments:
–You would be severely limiting yourself if you only apply to colleges that don’t require recommendations. There are very few (Penn State is one I think).
–You are not the only quiet student who has gone through your HS. Teachers can still write you an overall positive LOR that can focus on your academic achievements, preparedness for class, kind treatment of other students etc. even if they choose to note that you are quiet in class. Think about what teachers you particularly like, what classes you excelled at and ask them if they will write you a positive LOR… If they say yes, thank them and ask if there is anything you can provide (ex. resume, list of activities) to help them write the letter.
–Please be realistic in the schools you apply to in terms of academics and affordability. Agree with @Lindagaf that while you have done very well in HS, your stats don’t put you in the very top tier college range. Your price constraints makes your in-state public a good option unless you find schools where you would qualify for need based (you need to run net price calculators) or merit aid.
–FWIW my S was very quiet in HS and got what must have been two perfectly nice LORs as he got into his top choice colleges.
Thanks everyone! I think I know which teachers can give me the best recommendations, I’ll just have to find the time and confidence next year to ask them.
But if my best options are public schools and I’m not good enough for top tier colleges, I don’t even need recommendations anyway right?
You will still need recommendations. And you need to create a balanced list of colleges. Why limit yourself to only schools that don’t need recs? Believe me, when you are older and more confident you will be very upset with yourself that you let this get in the way of a good school for you. Think about what you are looking for in a school – big university? Small liberal arts? Set up a meeting with your school’s counselor and ask for help. Reach out to teachers early on for recommendations – if you had them as a Junior send them emails asap, it takes time to write a good letter. Good luck!
@elsaanna, you sound like a lovely person who has a lot to give to the world. The fact that you’re worried a bit about inconveniencing your teachers shows you have qualities of kindness and consideration for others. But don’t let those qualities become so misplaced that you fail to give the best of your potential to the world (and to yourself) because you’re too hesitant to ask for help. Good teachers love unlocking the potential in deserving students! I think you know this, and perhaps it’s why you are pulled to the fields of education and psychology (am I right?) If you do become an educator or some kind of therapist, a BIG part of your job will be encouraging people to stretch themselves to do things that will feel uncomfortable or downright scary, in order to break through limitations . If you like working with children, think of yourself in that context…if you were to help a child or teen with your own issue of shyness, what would do? I’d bet you’d not encourage that person to avoid asking for a recommendation or to only apply to schools that didn’t take them, would you? You would probably encourage their potential, not their fears. Treat yourself with as much kindness as you would anyone else! So take the brave step of talking to couple of your most approachable and supportive teachers and/or the ones in whose classes you’ve done your best work.
That said, it’s perfectly fine to be quiet or even shy…there are good things about each…as long as you learn to manage the downsides, honor the positives, and function well in the world with your self-respect intact. I HIGHLY recommend the books Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain, and The Highly Sensitive Person by Elain Aron.
@inthegarden Thank you so much for your response! I know it’s really stupid that I’m stressing out so much about the letters of recommendation but you’re exactly right that I don’t want to inconvenience my teachers. I know that they have a lot to do and a lot of letters to write, so it just seems like a lot of work to put on their plate when I didn’t do much to make their jobs any easier (like answering questions or participating in discussions).
I’m definitely drawn to the fields of education and psychology for the reasons that you described. I want to help people. I can see how my avoidance of the recommendations is hypocritical I guess and not a good idea, so I’ll just have to get over my fear and ask for them anyway.
And thanks for the book recommendations, I’ll look for them!
I really urge you not to put yourself in the position of needing to “find the time and confidence to ask” your teachers for recs in the fall. Follow @privatebanker 's instructions and send the emails now. If you procrastinate, it will just weigh on you, and it will get harder and harder as you realize that the procrastination has put you in a position of being one of the annoying students with the last-minute recommendation requests. (Can you tell that I speak from experience?) Don’t be that student - commit to the requests by email now, so that you only have to follow up when you get back to school.
This is where some coaching could really help you - having someone to hold you accountable for goals like this, and even more importantly to use goals like this as a learning laboratory to deconstruct the thought processes that hold you back from tasks like these.
One best-of-both-worlds option for you might be the Cook Honors College at IUP. This would give you the advantages of a selective, small-college environment within a large public U that provides a wide variety of majors, at a public U price. Looking at their description of a “typical” student in their program, your GPA is a little below that mark but your SAT is above. Note that a teacher recommendation is part of the application. https://www.iup.edu/admissions/honors/typical-student/ The questions on both the student application and the teacher rec show that they’re looking for thoughtful, imaginative students, which I’m betting describes you well!
Clark is also a match for your stats - your GPA and SAT are both slightly above median - but boosting your test scores would be a help in securing enough merit to make it affordable. Did you do any test prep before getting that 1370? That’s not a bad score, at all, but if you got that without prep, then spending some time with the Khan Academy app this summer and retaking in the fall could open up options for you - either more competitive public U’s, or more merit at the private colleges that are already a match but might not give you enough merit money to hit your price-point without the score-boost.
Check out the book and website “Colleges that Change Lives” https://ctcl.org/category/college-profiles/ - there are quite a few schools there that could be good fits and have enough merit potential to be affordable.
Another option within your budget would be smaller public liberal arts colleges in other states. Look at UNC Asheville, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Truman State in MO, and U of Minnesota Morris. These all offer both education majors (or at least minors) and social sciences.
I also think that it would be really really good to get your feet wet in terms of working with kids, before you go to college… both to build your confidence, and so that you’re not choosing a major path just based on hypotheticals. (You don’t really want student teaching to be your first real-world experience!) Maybe a program like City Year, where you could work with kids in school settings, would balance out your classroom experiences in high school with real-world experience that could bring what you want to do in college into focus, and help you to bring out the not-shy-with-kids person that you know you can be. At least consider getting some work experience with kids - whether in a beginning cheer program or just in a daycare or afterschool program.
You need the recommendations even for schools that don’t require them. You need to get them and have them ready. For schools that do not require them, you still send them in to give your application a boost. You have worked hard, so don’t let this hinder you from applying to schools you like. When you to college, you will need recommendations for jobs, internships ,scholarships etc. You will need recommendations throughout your career so start practicing now and ask your teachers for one. You ssid that your teachers are aware of your shyness, so it’s ok they will understand. A lot of people are shy but you cannot use your shyness to avoid things that you must do and getting a recommendation is something you must do. So please do it. Come back and tell us how it went.
Thanks for the college suggestions! I didn’t do any prep before getting the 1370.
I’m hesitant to send an email to my teachers now because at my school, you’re supposed to ask after school starts and in person.
Then organize your notes, and speak with them when school starts. 
I am sure there are other schools like this but a couple which I know do not require (even discourage) letters of recommendations:
(1) University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
(2) Colorado School of Mines
Unlike other posters here I disagree that it will not make a difference that you are shy. The LOR’s you get should talk about who you are and that will be difficult if the writer doesn’t know you that well. Brag sheets are worthless unless they convey something more than you can find on other parts of the application. My DD conveyed to all her LOR writers (and yes they asked for brag sheets, as she went to a public HS) that this was not a brag LOR, these LOR’s needed to talk about who she was, what her character was like, how she interacted with others. Her academic prowess was already displayed by scores and grades, no need to repeat that she had a 5 on a particular AP test, these things are already known. You are right to find schools that don’t rely on LORs if you don’t know your teachers that well, many of the schools already suggested are fantastic schools that would be happy to have you.
I’m not sure anyone is saying that it makes no difference. But I also don’t think we can assume, just because OP is reserved in class, that she (she? I guess I’m assuming gender based on cheer, which perhaps I shouldn’t…?) is a complete cipher to her teachers. They have read her writing, which may in fact be insightful and impressive; and they could well have observed traits like diligence, reliability, sense of humor, and kindness to others, even if these traits manifest quietly. People are often less invisible than they think they are.
Yes, apply to some no-recommendation schools, but to rule out a whole swath of higher ed just because asking for recs is uncomfortable… that sets a terrible life precedent and makes little sense. Sure, don’t apply to schools that are high reaches and depend upon exceptional recs and EC’s. (Many of those would be unaffordable anyway unless your $45K budget is also your EFC.) But schools where OP is in the upper 50% of applicants stat-wise are worth a try, even if the recs turn out to be a bit more vague than is ideal. Why rule out a school like Clark, where OP is above the median stat-wise, and where just one academic teacher rec (plus the guidance counselor rec - and let’s face it, those folks hardly know anybody) is required? Applying non-binding Early Action will get you a decision before the holidays. You’d need at least 10K of merit to afford Clark, but 65% of students do receive merit aid. And 25% of Clark students participate in their accelerated BA/Masters program, with the one-year Masters program added on for free - an M.A.T. (teaching) is one of the options.
If you think you’d like a women’s college, Simmons could be worth a look - you’d have a decent chance at enough merit to make it affordable, and Boston is an amazing place to be a student.
http://www.simmons.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs/psychology-ba
http://www.simmons.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs/sociology
http://www.simmons.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs/elementary-education-ba-or-bs-mat
Also apply to some no-recommendation-needed schools.
U of Minnesota Morris is a great example of a small (1800 undergrads), personalized school with programs that look like potentially a good fit… yet it has rolling admissions, and recommendations are optional. You could apply when the application opens and probably have an acceptance within weeks, which could be a great stress reliever. (Your stats are right about at their 75th percentile, which means you’re likely to get in, but not so overqualified that you’d feel like an outlier.) And the estimated OOS COA is only $26,392, so it’s a financial safety too. And if you were to feel that you had outgrown the small-LAC environment after a couple of years, transferring to the UMinn Twin Cities flagship campus just requires a straightforward internal application.
https://academics.morris.umn.edu/elementary-education
https://academics.morris.umn.edu/sociology
https://academics.morris.umn.edu/psychology
http://morriscougars.com/sports/2017/6/5/co-ed-cheerleading.aspx
UNC Asheville (3800 undergrads) has only the check-boxes counselor recommendation. Admissions are rolling here too, and a near slam-dunk with your stats. (But you’d still be in the middle of the upper quartile, not off the charts.) Gorgeous location and town. And their program is designed to help undecided students figure out their paths. https://admissions.unca.edu/majors-and-minors OOS COA: $33,248
https://psychology.unca.edu/
https://socanth.unca.edu/welcome-sociology-anthropology
https://education.unca.edu/
https://uncabulldogs.com/news/2018/2/1/unc-asheville-cheer-dance-team.aspx
In your home state, you’d have a decent shot at Pitt’s main campus (your SAT is above median… their median weighted GPA is 4.0 but maybe yours isn’t far off - you didn’t give a weighted number… and the non-STEM majors are less competitive than engineering and premed majors) and maybe you’d like this program https://www.education.pitt.edu/AcademicDepartments/PsychologyinEducation.aspx But it’s a big school with 19K undergrads. Some shy people would like a big, urban school where they can be independent and find their own crowd; others would find it overwhelming. Re: recommendations: “Any and all letters of recommendation are read. We do not require recommendations, but they provide strong support for scholarship candidates and borderline situations.” http://www.part.pitt.edu/faqs.html Pitt is still less than half the size of Penn State, and vibe-wise seems more introvert-friendly than PSU, though folks with direct experience are invited to correct me if my impression is off. There’s an assortment of first-year Living Learning Communities within which to connect with like-minded peers. Upping your SAT to a 1450 (not completely implausible with some prep) would qualify you for Honors, which has its own LLC.
Of course there are lots of possibilities, but… those are some to think about.
What I’m saying is that it’s absolutely possible to be college material, to be the kind of kid that a school wants, and still be shy. Outspokenness in and of itself isn’t what makes a kid college material, it simply makes it easier to find those other qualitiies.
And that many teachers, myself included, are perfectly capable of finding those qualities in other ways, and of writing a letter that conveys that.
Let me tell you about Sheila. Sheila was QUIET. As in, never ever raised her hand. I wouldn’t have known that she had a voice, except for the fact that she came to Precalculus extra help just about every day, usually in her soccer uniform. That’s where I saw her sense of humor, her determination, all the things that I could have used in a letter of recommendation.
Twenty two years after she died on TWA Flight 800, I’m still thankful that Sheila was so bad at math, because that’s where I was able to see past the shyness to the person she was. I’m sure she would have been positive that she was too shy to ask me for a letter, thinking that I couldn’t write one that spoke to her strengths, but she would have been wrong. I remember her so fondly, mostly for the Sheila that I saw in extra help as opposed to the one I saw in class.
A brag sheet-- for any kid-- simply makes it easier for me to fill in the dots. It reminds me of the stuff that’s not n my grade book, of the things that I knew the year I taught you. It reminds me of the things that make you different from other kids with the exact same statistics as you. And it helps me to remember the things I’ve heard you mention, the things that I might have forgotten. I deal with over 200 kids per day, in addition to the ones I see in the cafeteria or in my study hall or in extra curricular. That brag sheet helps me remember the things about you that aren’t in the forefront of my mind when I hear your name.
It’s the college app equivalent of a wedding or baby registry.
^ Thumbs up @inthegarden. OP, I also highly recomment the book, _Quiet
You don’t have to go from being shy to being outspoken. You have to be able, however, to be a shy person who is able to advocate for herself.
Pitt also includes the following statement regarding LORs
Letters of Recommendation
While we appreciate your teachers, counselors, and other mentors taking the time to write recommendation letters on your behalf, we find letters are beneficial in very limited circumstances (for example: providing context for variance in your overall academic performance). We recommend that you submit responses to the Short Answer Questions and use that space to explain or clarify what most recommenders would cover in a letter.
Thanks everyone!
I’ll make sure not to avoid getting letters of recommendation and going to a good college just because of my shyness, and I’ll apply to some colleges that don’t require any too.
@aquapt I don’t think I’d like a womens college, but thanks for your other suggestions!