Teacher Letters

I am currently in the application process, but looking ahead, I will need to have letters of recommendation from certain teachers. I saw that one should be my high school math teacher, and in my two and a half years of high school, I have had 4 different math teachers who don't know me very well. Would it be possible for me to ask for a letter from my middle school math teacher who knew me much better?

The recommendation must be from a junior or senior year math teacher. I had the same problem with English teachers for me this year. they still usually end up doing it well even if they don’t know you that well. Just choose the one that you believe will talk the best about you.

It is not at all uncommon to ask your Middle School teacher to fill-in your High School teacher for a recommendation such as this.
Sort of a recommendation for a recommendation, if you will.

Also, your English teacher knows your work in class, how you do on essays, your classroom behavior, etc etc. They are not looking for your English teacher to know your entire life story. They expect him or her to comment on your work and their interactions with you.

DS followed suggestions of others on this forum and gave each teacher the following:

1. Personalized cover letter explaining what he was doing, why he was seeking to become an officer through an SA, and explicitly asking for advocacy.

2. One page resume that summarized academics, athletics, leadership and ECs

3. A 2 page narrative that expands on what he did in his ECs (mostly to fill the teacher in on the whole person) and

4. Copies of recent SA class profiles.

He also explicitly told each teacher that if they couldn’t give him an “enthusiastic endorsement” he would like to further discuss with them.

All of the teachers he approached were very appreciative of this package.

kinnem said:

Also, your English teacher knows your work in class, how you do on essays, your classroom behavior, etc etc. They are not looking for your English teacher to know your entire life story. They expect him or her to comment on your work and their interactions with you.

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EXACTLY this ^^ for DS when he was applying. He didn’t take an English course his junior year as he was advanced 2 yrs. He inquired if he could use his English teacher from sophomore year, answer was no. To wait for senior year English (and that’s the only reason he DID take English senior year haha). So DS had everything done over the summer, except for that piece. And he had to wait until he felt his senior year teacher could adequately evaluate him.

When DS inquired of admissions to use his sophomore English teacher, he was told exactly what @kinnem stated: work habits, behavior, ability to work with others, essays from junior or senior year teacher.