Teacher Rec. Letters...

Kitchuu
Sun, 21 Sep 2008 03:11:08 +0000

I hope this is the right place to post this.

I’m having a hard time figuring out who I should get my rec. letters from, and whether or not sending more letters than required to any college would hurt me.

I have a computer science AP/C++ teacher who really likes me, and I’ve gotten an A in his C++ class (am in the CS AP class right now), but after asking him for a rec for a summer program last year, I’ve found that he has a hard time sticking to deadlines. I mean, he turned in the rec two days after it was due. I was accepted into the program, but I was fretting over it for a long time. I gave him the electronic forms about two months before it was due too…

I’m also considering asking my AP Calculus BC teacher, except with a B in that class, I was actually just below the class average. He was the second teacher that wrote my rec for the summer program, and his rec was in about two weeks after I gave it to him. The only thing preventing me from asking him again is my poor academic record in that class (and only that class), and that I’ve heard he’s painfully honest with his recommendations, which means they aren’t always completely positive.

The one teacher I’m getting letters from for sure is my English Lit. teacher, and I know those will be good…but completely unrelated to my major, which is Computer Science for every school I’m applying to.

Would it hurt if I asked all three teachers to send a rec? Especially for schools that only required one? And if I only asked two teachers, which of the two math teachers would be better? The one more organized and might like me, or the one who likes me more, but probably wouldn’t do the recs until last minute?

Also, I’m wondering if I should get an instructor at my summer program to send a rec, as that was also in computer science. There’s two things I’m concerned about here. One, my instructor was a college grad student at the campus I was at, and two, I’m not sure if supplements not specifically required would put off the admissions officers. It also might be repetitive if I end up getting my computer science teacher to write a rec.

So thoughts? Suggestions? Anything would be good, I really appreciate it!