<p>@toofless My daughter did not have any pushback from her teachers regarding the recommendations, luckily. I think if she had she would’ve just selected a variety of teachers. One program was the state governor’s honors program to study a subject at a university over the summer, and another one was at the University of Wyoming: <a href=“http://www.uwyo.edu/epscor/fellowships-and-student-programs/srap/index.html”>http://www.uwyo.edu/epscor/fellowships-and-student-programs/srap/index.html</a>. The other programs she applied to are very selective niche opportunities only offered to a few students nationwide based on their past interests and achievements, so I won’t mention those (would be pointless as you would know about them if they were available to you). </p>
<p>The summer after her freshman year she was offered the chance to conduct research at a local prestigious university with a professor there, just from having emailed the professor and proposed a research project, but the glitch was that she would have to come up with her own lab supplies (needed chemicals and such), and that turned out to be way more expensive than expected, so she was unable to pursue that opportunity. For that, the professor never asked for a reference – the resume with the email sufficed. Maybe you can initiate something like that as well (only without the needed expense) if recommendations continue to be an issue.</p>