<p>It seems like they no longer require a math/science and an english/social studies. When/Why did this change. </p>
<p>Now it just says
“Give these forms to teachers who know you well and can write about your strengths as a student. We require two recommendations from teachers who have taught you in an academic subject. All high school counselors and teachers have the option of submitting letters of recommendation and school forms online via the Common Application. High school counselors and teachers should follow the instructions on the Common Application for submitting these forms. Teachers and counselors may print out and submit these forms on paper even if you submit your application online.”</p>
<p>Yep…confirmed. It doesn’t really affect me since my two teachers who wrote me recs happen to be science and English teachers, but they shouldn’t have changed the requirements so abruptly on the brink of an application deadline.</p>
<p>Wow…I never even noticed. Assumed it was the same as two years ago. Did it change since the forms were released?!? S2 may well have used a different teacher had we known…</p>
<p>When I was at UChicago in June the Admissions person said 1 Math/Sci, 1 Eng/Hist. At the local info session that I was at last week, the Admissions person said the exact same thing.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Grace? Grace!? I hope you are running this down.</p></li>
<li><p>On the one hand, you would think if they were making a significant change in their requirements they would highlight it on the web page. On the other, if they DIDN’T make the change, several people’s heads should roll for having the website be misleading. And on the third hand, if they didn’t think this mattered a lot to applicants they are fairly deluded.</p></li>
<li><p>No one has been gnashing teeth about Jim Nondorf weakening Chicago’s academic standards for a couple of weeks now. Time to rev it back up!</p></li>
<li><p>(But this change is the right thing to do.)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Yes! I purposely got my sucky 11th grade english teacher to write me a rec just for Chicago, but now I can go back to using my math teacher and science teacher. I feel bad for my english teacher though whose rec I won’t even use now, lol</p>
<p>Grace to the rescue! Yep, this is a Nondorf change- the new policy is: “We require two recommendations from teachers who have taught you in an academic subject.”
So, you can send two different math teachers, two humanities teachers, etc. if you like.
If you’re wondering if a teacher truly is in an academic subject (“Business” teachers might be more like “economics” teachers in some places and more like “typing” teachers in others), definitely talk to your regional counselor to get help deciding.</p>
<p>You’re welcome, but not required to, have one additional recommendation from anyone who knows you well if you’d like- this could be another teacher, school principal, employer, religious leader, research advisor, friend’s sister’s cousin who went to UIC (kidding )…</p>
<p>How come on the common app website, if you click on supplement instructions it still says that you need one humanities and one math/science rec?</p>
<p>Teacher Evaluations. Chicago requires two teacher evaluations, one from an English or social studies teacher and one from a science or mathematics teacher. [The text is bold on the original, seeming to emphasize the importance of this requirement.]</p>
<p>I am so upset that this is not really required, since we went through such angst knowing that my son’s best LORS are from his non-math/science teachers. This is a horribly unfortunate mistake that could negatively affect his chances.</p>
<p>This is terribly unfortunate. I can’t wait to hear UChicago’s explanation for it. </p>
<p>I really feel for all of you especially since UChicago seems to heavily weigh the non-objective application pieces in an attempt to differentiate scads of highly-qualified, talented applicants.</p>
<p>Heads should roll over this, adding unnecessary stress to these poor kids (and their parents). I’m sure UChicago would/will say it’s no big deal, not to worry, it won’t affect their decisions. Easy for them to say!</p>
<p>If it were me, I’d go ahead and submit any/all rec letters, and explain you are doing so because of their unclear, conflicting directions. If it would make you feel better, you could first ask your regional counselor if they would mind getting additional letters.</p>
<p>So, here’s the scoop on why some of our online information has been changed, but the Common App has not. The admissions office has made the new, corrected information available on our website (specifically, here: <a href=“https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/admissions/firstyear/[/url]”>https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/admissions/firstyear/</a> – look under “Teacher Evaluations”) and made an effort to get the word out in other venues, but as this year’s Common Application was made available before the policy change took effect, we have not been able to change the wording on the supplement just yet.
I apologize for any confusion or hardship this may have caused.</p>
<p>Grace, can you tell Nondorf this really sucks? We put together a master spreadsheet in late August with what S needed from each school, and the one from Column A & one from Column B was still online. </p>
<p>S2 would have DEARLY loved to have just two social science/humanities recs. Unfortunately the science teacher(s) who would have written enthusiastic recs were either soph year or are now gone, so he had his calc teacher write one. Great guy, S did well in the class, and the teacher was happy to do it, but S2 is not the next Erdos, so it probably won’t be an out-of-the-ballpark kind of letter. S has already submitted requests to the teachers with envelopes, so now he’s committed.</p>
<p>Suffice it to say my kid is not the only one who would have had a different LOR strategy had this been announced earlier and made clear to students.</p>
<p>^^^ WORD, DAWG.
I am in a similar situation, and, likewise, the recent change doesn’t affect my LOR strategy. But had this change been made 5 weeks ago, my strategy would have been much different. Oh well.</p>
<p>Thank your for the apology, Grace, but . . . </p>
<p>According to USNWR, LORs are on par with essays in the importance Chicago places on them in the admissions process. Consequently, I view this error as significantly penalizing some students in their quest to gain admission.</p>
<p>Ive never heard of a similarly serious mistake by a college that had the effect of potentially harming a subset of applicants in a way this has. However, my S is resilient and has accepted this as just one of those unfair things that happens in life. Our high school asks that LOR requests be submitted to teachers at least three weeks before they are due, so the damage has been done and theres nothing to be done from this end.</p>
<p>I wish there were some way this could be fixed, but I cant think of any.</p>
)…</p>