Can you get a main LOR from a nonacademic teacher?

Applying to College
1

I’m currently a junior planning out which teachers to get LOR’s from. I currently have one junior year teacher that I know for sure will write me a strong rec, but I don’t think any of my other academic teachers from Junior and Sophmore year will. I haven’t developed a close relationship with any of them and their quarter comments on my progress are so so.

However, I know my Art (Digital Design) teacher whom I’ve had for 1 year will write me a strong rec - I’ve very close with him and have worked on numerous projects together. However, all the Ivys indicate that they recommend getting the 2 main recs from academic teachers. Will it hurt me if I ask my non academic art teacher to write my second main rec?

2

Academic LORs should be from teachers in a core subject (English, Math, Social Studies, Science, Foreign Language). If you ask the Art teacher for a recommendation it would be regarded as a supplemental recommendation and should speak about attributes that a classroom teacher would not typically address.