need cc counsel for EC and Teacher rec. question

Applying to College
1

<p>I am a junior right now and am going to apply to the Ivies, Stanford, and some other private universities in my senior year. So right now I am facing two dilemmas:</p>

<ol>
<li> Science EC’s</li>
<li> 2nd Teacher rec.</li>
</ol>

<p>For problem 1, right now I am doing Science Bowl, Science Olympiad, and Robotics team. This is considerably hard to maintain since I have 4 a.p.'s to take care of, and my SAT in Jan. Also my teacher is trying to convince me to do science fair as well. What should I do? Should I get rid of one of my current science EC’s, to do science fair? What is most important?</p>

<p>For problem 2, I have a good setup with my calc teacher for a recommendation, but I have no options currently for a history, foreign lang., English rec. All my english teachers were crap, but I heard that the Senior year AP LIT teacher is really nice and writes amazing recs. The problem is that I won’t have him until senior year, and if I apply EA to a school, either I won’t be able to get a rec. from him, or the rec. might be a bit rushed. However, I plan to get acquainted with him this year to let him get to know me more. Should I try to get a rec from him?</p>

<p>Monumental thanks to anyone who takes the time to answer any of these questions.</p>

2

<p>Choosing a teacher to write a recommendation letter is tough. There were two key factors that helped me decide which teacher I wanted to write my letters.
1.) The teacher has to be willing to sit down and work with you, answering any questions that you have. You have to be comfortable with the teacher on a personal level.
2.) A great recommendation letter does not necessarily mean it is perfect, and well-written. Instead, the teacher should be able to construct a portrait of who you are for the admissions officer. The admissions officers will get to know who you are from your essay and extra-curricular activities, but on your level, or how your friends would view you. A teacher will be able to give the admissions officer a perspective of who you are the way adults see you.</p>

3

<p>bump.10char</p>