S27 is looking to apply for Biology. He thinks he will get a better LOR from his 10th grade honors bio teacher rather than his 11th grade honors chem teacher, although he did well in both classes. He is taking AP Bio this year, but some EA applications will be due before mid semester grades even come out. His BEST LOR would actually come from his Spanish honors teacher, who had him 2 consecutive years, but since he is looking to major in Science he wants to go with the bio teacher. Thoughts?
I told him to talk with his guidance counselor but she’s so young and new anytime there is a question she has to go ask…plus they’ve reduced guidance staff and the back to school course adjustment tasks she has will mean it will be very hard to connect with her once school starts.
FWIW, S27 is a strong student with a very good class rank but not one of the school’s academic superstars, a good kid highly involved in band activities, but very quiet and introverted…he doesn’t connect easily with teachers. Also fwiw, looking at moderately selective schools that are targets, not reaches. (Edit to add- yes, he also has some very likelies, too)
Does the school specify who they want? Many will state an 11th grade teacher. Follow the rules. If they don’t state, 10th is likely fine - and I’m assuming it’s a less competitive school.
If I was applying for bio but had my best connection with a Spanish teacher, I wouldn’t hesitate to use the Spanish teacher. I don’t see that as a concern. They are looking to learn about the student - their attributes, their effort, their personality - whatever. They get a grade to see how they did in the class.
Two different things.
Is one the most you need - no schools require two? If two, then you’d want the language and science - but for one, language is fine but ensure you follow the rules of all the schools. Some will state what they want - others just a quantity.
The LOR doesn’t need to be the same subject he wants to major in. They can see his academic preparedness from his transcript - the LOR is designed to fill in what they can’t see from that (work ethic, how he engages with classmates and the teacher during class, other stuff if the teacher asks for a brag sheet, etc). An 11th grade teacher who he connected with, was engaged in class etc is generally the recommendation to use, as kids at this stage can change a fair bit year to year. If he had his Spanish teacher last year, I would go for that over a 10th grade teacher.
My two cents is unless specifically told otherwise by the college, I would almost always start with my best possible recommendation (from a core teacher), rather than trying to game the specific course or even grade level. Sounds like that would be the Spanish teacher.
Many colleges want two, and then I would probably go with the Bio teacher as the second. You might want to ask what “better” means to him, but in the end I would want to feel confident I was submitting my best possible recommendations. So if he can articulate a reasonable explanation of why he thinks his Bio rec would be better, then I would respect that decision.
Biology does make significant use of chemistry, so a recommendation from a teacher of either would be in a major-relevant subject, if that is a concern.
Agree that with two recommendations, some colleges prefer one science/math and one non-science/math, so Spanish and either chemistry or biology teachers would be a good combination.
But if a college prefers 11th over 10th grade teachers, that favors the chemistry teacher.
He will be doing AP Physics this year as well as AP Bio. (9th grade was Earth Science at his HS).
It doesn’t look like any of the schools specify that it needs to be an 11th grade teacher vs 10th. Most of the schools only want one academic reference plus the counselor reference. I think one or two allow a second optional academic reference but most don’t even allow an optional reference.